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Hello,

me and my family (we are EU citizens) are filling up the form to apply for British citizenship. There is a requirement - "Proof of living in the UK" and I'm not clear what documents can we use in our case. We are in the country for 10 years and have ILR.

• I worked for a company from 2019 and the company become insolvent at the end of 2024. My payslips were provided online and the account doesn't work any more as the company doesn't exists. Can I just request a letter from the person who was a company director to confirm that while the company was active I was an employee and to use that with a letter from my current employer?

• My wife changed work 3 times in the last 5 years (again no access to previous employers to download payslips). She can contact previous employers to ask for a letter except for one of them. This one doesn't exists any more. The company was bought by another company. She will call the new company to see if they still can produce a letter. If they can will it be accepted and if not what else can be used?

In our HMRC accounts we can see our employers and taxes we have payed. Can we just print that and use it or can we put a SAR to HMRC for them to provide the same thing.

What other options do we have?

P.S. In another post where the partner never worked in UK someone said that SAR from UKVI should do the job but this sounds silly. The application as I understand is processed by UKVI, so what is the point to request something from them and give it back to them?

We also have a tenancy agreement from the time we come in UK up to 2024 (including a letter from the agency to confirm the start and end date). After that we have a mortgage. If we add bank statements showing payments for the rent and payment for the mortgage would this be accepted?

Tenancy, mortgage statements, etc are not accepted evidence. Home Office records are though, that is why I usually suggest to get a SAR. Thats the advice I would offer to both you and wife.

Don't you have P60s for the previous years? There are also a lot of other options to confirm residence (i.e. Council tax and utility bills, passport stamps, GP letters, bank statements showing spending in the UK, etc)

Ixeon659 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 26, 2025 9:53 pm

Don't you have P60s for the previous years? There are also a lot of other options to confirm residence (i.e. Council tax and utility bills, passport stamps, GP letters, bank statements showing spending in the UK, etc)

Utility bills not accepted. GP letters only accepted in fairly extreme circumstances. Bank statements also not accepted. OP's passport doesn't get stamped.

contorted_svy wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 27, 2025 8:56 am

Utility bills not accepted. GP letters only accepted in fairly extreme circumstances. Bank statements also not accepted. OP's passport doesn't get stamped.

How would you prove the residence if i.e. you never worked? Also I don't understand how P60s can prove the residence - you could work remotely from some sort of sunny island for the UK company and still get payslips and P60s

Ixeon659 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 27, 2025 10:14 am

contorted_svy wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 27, 2025 8:56 am

Utility bills not accepted. GP letters only accepted in fairly extreme circumstances. Bank statements also not accepted. OP's passport doesn't get stamped.

How would you prove the residence if i.e. you never worked? Also I don't understand how P60s can prove the residence - you could work remotely from some sort of sunny island for the UK company and still get payslips and P60s

As I said above, you can request a SAR (if you can't provide a stamped passport). Also you need to provide dates of your trips - P60s are a way to prove residence, but one still has to satisfy absence requirements.

contorted_svy wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 27, 2025 10:16 am

As I said above, you can request a SAR (if you can't provide a stamped passport). Also you need to provide dates of your trips - P60s are a way to prove residence, but one still has to satisfy absence requirements.

It's quite strange, because they never mention about SAR in their guidance as an acceptable proof.
I applied for SAR last year, just for fun, and I noticed that my travel history wasn't 100% correct - a lot of missing entries and exits, especially when I entered and exited the UK via another CTA country

They mention Home Office records, which I interpret as a SAR with them. I requested one too and it was incomplete as well - their records can often be. However, they say they accept them for this application, so applicants can take advantage of them.

We have made SAR request, so we will see what will happen. We also have made request for our council tax for the last 5 years as an addition to that. Hopefully this will be enough.