Applying for British Citizenship and Canadian work permit

[80min40]

A family member (Indian citizen) is applying to become a British citizen after having ILR following 5 years of spouse visa. However, she is also about to apply a Canadian work permit to travel with her spouse in June 2023. Is this feasible?

I am anticipating the citizenship application to be submitted in the next 2 weeks, and the work permit application to be submitted in March 2023 as per the employer. In this case, the Indian passport will be used for the Canadian work permit. By the time she travels in June, she will hopefully have completed the naturalisation process, obtained the certificate, surrendered the Indian passport and obtained the British passport. In this case, the work permit will be on the old cancelled Indian passport.

If she were to defer the application for citizenship and apply after returning from Canada in 1 year, will she have to start the clock again (3 years of living in the UK) before being eligible for citizenship?

I would be grateful for any advice.

[CR001]

By the time she travels in June, she will hopefully have completed the naturalisation process, obtained the certificate, surrendered the Indian passport and obtained the British passport. In this case, the work permit will be on the old cancelled Indian passport.

Possibly unlikely that all the processes will be completed by June. British passports are currently taking around 8 to 10 weeks and obviously she can only apply for this once she has attended her ceremony, which can also be a bit delayed. The standard processing time for citizenship applications is 6 months. Some get it sooner, some wait even longer.

If she were to defer the application for citizenship and apply after returning from Canada in 1 year, will she have to start the clock again (3 years of living in the UK) before being eligible for citizenship?

She would simply need to wait till she meets the requirements of no more than 270 days in the 3 years preceding date of application for British citizen and no more than 90 day absence in the final 12 months preceding date of application. So yes, it could be a while before she will be able to apply.

[secret.simon]

And she will want to return to the UK to reside (i.e. not on a visit) before two years as she will risk losing her ILR as well if she is absent for more than two years.

Does she need to travel with her spouse? Can she not travel later?

[80min40]

Thanks both, CR001 and secret.simon.

I am thinking it would be possible to get the Canadian work permit first, and then apply for the citizenship before leaving the UK, leaving enough time to go to the UKVCAS appointment. I see it is possible to travel on the BRP/Indian passport after applying for naturalisation.

Is there a time limit on applying for the citizenship ceremony after obtaining the decision? I.e. in the extreme, can they wait for 1 year after the decision before getting a naturalisation certificate?

[80min40]

I have already got an answer to the question about the ceremony. I see it is 90 days/3 months to complete the citizenship ceremony. So if they are abroad, they would have to come back to do the ceremony, get the naturalisation certificate, apply for a British passport, and then travel back to Canada again. Is this correct?

The Canadian website says it is ok to travel with the work permit in an old passport as long as they carry the old and new passports. It doesn't specify if they lose the citizenship of the old passport, whether that would be permissible.

Thank you.

[Ticktack]

I have already got an answer to the question about the ceremony. I see it is 90 days/3 months to complete the citizenship ceremony. So if they are abroad, they would have to come back to do the ceremony, get the naturalisation certificate, apply for a British passport, and then travel back to Canada again. Is this correct? Yes

The Canadian website says it is ok to travel with the work permit in an old passport as long as they carry the old and new passports. It doesn't specify if they lose the citizenship of the old passport, whether that would be permissible. I guess most countries don't cover all the scenarios. That is a snafu that needs massive untangling. The residency would probably be issued to her based on her nationality, which would now have been lost. At that juncture, she might need to apply for a reissue based on her current nationality as Indian citizenship would have been lost.

Thank you.