British Citizenship Leave of Absence

[Mk2911]

Hi everyone,


Just wanted to give a quick update on our ILR application

It has been approved. Thank you for all your help and support. Now I wish to apply for citizenship. Again, will the leave of absence during the last five years affect the citizenship application. We haven't spent more than 2 weeks outside the country in last 12 months but we have spent over a year in 2022. Left UK on 22 May 2022 and returned on 07/06/2024 - 382 days

We also went away on 22/12/2021 and returned on 04/03/2021 - 73 days

Should we apply for citizenship?, we have spent over 450 days out of the country in last 5 years. Just Recieved ILR now. No time out of the country in last 12 months.

Thank you.

[CR001]

If your spouse is British, your qualifying period for British citizenship is 3 years with no more than 270 days absence in the whole 3 years and no more than 90 days absence in the 12 months immediately preceding the date of application.

You exceed the absence limit.

[contorted_svy]

It may be possible to apply asking for discretion but you need to elaborate on how long you lived in the UK with all absences in the last 4 years.

From the guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... accessible

Where the applicant has absences of between 480 and 900 days for applications under section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981, or 300 and 540 days for applications under section 6(2) and otherwise meets the requirements you must only consider exercising discretion where the applicant has established their home, employment, family and finances in the UK, and one or more of the following applies:

at least 2 years residence (for applications under section 6(1)), or 1 year (for applications under section 6(2)), without substantial absences immediately prior to the beginning of the qualifying period - if the period of absence is greater than 730 days (for section 6(1)) or 450 days (for section 6(2)) the period of residence must be at least 3 or 2 years respectively

[Mk2911]

Thank you for your reply everyone. Yes my spouse is a British National, we have 2 kids both British, born here. We spent in total around 465 days out of UK but my husband was still having mortgage here and paying for it for the time we were away.

In the guide above it says in 6 (1) total number of absences normally disregarded is 480!?

Normal permitted absences in qualifying period - 450 days - 6(1) application 5 year qualifying period

And then the below box it says *** Total number of absences normally disregarded - 480 days


Now, does the 480 days rule applies in my case? Any idea how it works.

[Mk2911]

It may be possible to apply asking for discretion but you need to elaborate on how long you lived in the UK with all absences in the last 4 years.

From the guidance https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... accessible

Where the applicant has absences of between 480 and 900 days for applications under section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981, or 300 and 540 days for applications under section 6(2) and otherwise meets the requirements you must only consider exercising discretion where the applicant has established their home, employment, family and finances in the UK, and one or more of the following applies:

at least 2 years residence (for applications under section 6(1)), or 1 year (for applications under section 6(2)), without substantial absences immediately prior to the beginning of the qualifying period - if the period of absence is greater than 730 days (for section 6(1)) or 450 days (for section 6(2)) the period of residence must be at least 3 or 2 years respectively
———————————————————-
I was away for around 476 days in total in my 5 years spouse visa period. Do I need to apply for discretion? Very stressed and anxious. I haven’t left the country at all in last 1 year. My husband has a mortgage, I have a job here. Though I am off on maternity leave as I have just had my 2nd child. My eldest is in nursery here. Our life is here. This is our home. My husband’s family lives here too.

[contorted_svy]

Thank you for your reply everyone. Yes my spouse is a British National, we have 2 kids both British, born here. We spent in total around 465 days out of UK but my husband was still having mortgage here and paying for it for the time we were away.

In the guide above it says in 6 (1) total number of absences normally disregarded is 480!?

Normal permitted absences in qualifying period - 450 days - 6(1) application 5 year qualifying period

And then the below box it says *** Total number of absences normally disregarded - 480 days


Now, does the 480 days rule applies in my case? Any idea how it works.

If you want to apply straight away as spouse of a British national your qualifying period is 3 years, not 5 and the absence limit is 270 days. Your route is 6(2) not 6(1). Or you can wait for a year from the grant of your ILR and apply under section 6(1). Your husband paying the mortgage here is irrelevant to your entitlement to become British.

I was away for around 476 days in total in my 5 years spouse visa period. Do I need to apply for discretion? Very stressed and anxious. I haven’t left the country at all in last 1 year. My husband has a mortgage, I have a job here. Though I am off on maternity leave as I have just had my 2nd child. My eldest is in nursery here. Our life is here. This is our home. My husband’s family lives here too.

If you want to apply now, yes you need to ask for discretion as I explained above, your absence requirement in the last 3 years is no more than 270 days. Can you make a list of absences with dates? The total is not enough to give advice. If you don't want to ask for discretion you can just live here for another year since your ILR grant and apply then.

[Mk2911]

Thank you for your reply everyone. Yes my spouse is a British National, we have 2 kids both British, born here. We spent in total around 465 days out of UK but my husband was still having mortgage here and paying for it for the time we were away.

In the guide above it says in 6 (1) total number of absences normally disregarded is 480!?

Normal permitted absences in qualifying period - 450 days - 6(1) application 5 year qualifying period

And then the below box it says *** Total number of absences normally disregarded - 480 days


Now, does the 480 days rule applies in my case? Any idea how it works.

If you want to apply straight away as spouse of a British national your qualifying period is 3 years, not 5 and the absence limit is 270 days. Your route is 6(2) not 6(1). Or you can wait for a year from the grant of your ILR and apply under section 6(1). Your husband paying the mortgage here is irrelevant to your entitlement to become British.

I was away for around 476 days in total in my 5 years spouse visa period. Do I need to apply for discretion? Very stressed and anxious. I haven’t left the country at all in last 1 year. My husband has a mortgage, I have a job here. Though I am off on maternity leave as I have just had my 2nd child. My eldest is in nursery here. Our life is here. This is our home. My husband’s family lives here too.

If you want to apply now, yes you need to ask for discretion as I explained above, your absence requirement in the last 3 years is no more than 270 days. Can you make a list of absences with dates? The total is not enough to give advice. If you don't want to ask for discretion you can just live here for another year since your ILR grant and apply then.

Thank you for your detailed reply. Here are my last 3 years absence from the UK.

22/05/2022 to 07/06/2023

And 05/12/2024 to 20/12/2024

[contorted_svy]

Can you please share absences with dates over the last 5 years too?

[Mk2911]

Can you please share absences with dates over the last 5 years too?

———————————————————
12/08/2020 - 22/08/2020 - 10 days

22/12/2020 to 03/03/2021 - 71 days

22/05/2022 to 07/06/2023 - 381 days

05/12/2024 to 20/12/2024 - 15 days

Total 477 days in last 5 years

[contorted_svy]

Is your husband a British citizen? When was your ILR granted?

[Mk2911]

Is your husband a British citizen? When was your ILR granted?

———————-


Yes my husband is a British Citizen and so are my two children. My ILR was granted 2 days ago.

Thank you

[contorted_svy]

Based on what you said above the following applies to you

Absences during the qualifying period
Where an applicant has spent more than the 450 days for section 6(1) applications, or 270 days for section 6(2) applications, outside of the UK during the qualifying period you must consider exercising discretion if they meet the other requirements.

Where the applicant exceeds the permitted absence by 30 days or less you must exercise discretion unless there are other grounds on which the application falls to be refused.

Where the applicant has absences of between 480 and 900 days for applications under section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981, or 300 and 540 days for applications under section 6(2) and otherwise meets the requirements you must only consider exercising discretion where the applicant has established their home, employment, family and finances in the UK, and one or more of the following applies:

at least 2 years residence (for applications under section 6(1)), or 1 year (for applications under section 6(2)), without substantial absences immediately prior to the beginning of the qualifying period - if the period of absence is greater than 730 days (for section 6(1)) or 450 days (for section 6(2)) the period of residence must be at least 3 or 2 years respectively

Write a cover letter where you show that your family is here (attach birth certificates from children and maybe a letter from their school that states they attend school here) bank statements to show your finances are in the UK and mortgage statement if your name is on the mortgage. Note that you have to meet all other requirements to get this discretion.

[Mk2911]

Ok so I can write a cover letter requesting discretion and show my finance, my job (currently on maternity as I have just had my 2nd child) , both children British nationals, husband British citizen, husband mortgage (my name is not on it as purchase before we married), husband and mine bank joint bank accounts, my eldest nursery letter, my knowledge of English and life in the UK test. Marriage certificate and all the rest documents we have available. No issue at all. But my biggest worrry is us paying 1000s of £’s and it gets rejected. Really anxious and stressed about this now. You think I’ll be fine if I apply and submit all the documents mentioned above and write a cover letter requesting discretion?

[contorted_svy]

No need to submit the mortgage as your name is not on it. Maybe submit a council tax bill to show you live at a UK address. These cases are usually successful, we had a few on the forum. However if you are worried you need to wait for a year from your ILR grant and wait until you are eligible under section 6(1).

Consider that acceptance rates for citizenship are very high and if one gets rejected is because they don't respect the statutory requirements or fail to appropriately request discretion. You know how to do that now so that should not be an issue but of course if you want to apply or not is up to you. If you are very worried you can also ask a solicitor for peace of mind.

[Mk2911]

No need to submit the mortgage as your name is not on it. Maybe submit a council tax bill to show you live at a UK address. These cases are usually successful, we had a few on the forum. However if you are worried you need to wait for a year from your ILR grant and wait until you are eligible under section 6(1).

Consider that acceptance rates for citizenship are very high and if one gets rejected is because they don't respect the statutory requirements or fail to appropriately request discretion. You know how to do that now so that should not be an issue but of course if you want to apply or not is up to you. If you are very worried you can also ask a solicitor for peace of mind.

———————

Thank you for your reply. I think I am going to apply for citizenship using these documents
- Marriage certificate
- birth certificates of my children
- my eldest daughter’s nursery confirmation
- child benefit confirmation
- my employment letter
- joint bank accounts
- discretion request letter
- NHS letters and other bills to confirm my address


Now, my question is my passport is expiring in 10 days. If I apply now. Is it ok or do I need to renew my passport first?

Second thing is, in discretion request letter do I need to explain why I was abroad for this long? Or should I just state about uk being my home, my family, children, husband, job, finances etc in uk?

[contorted_svy]

No need to explain your absence, only state that you are over the limit of absences but that according to the guidance your links to the UK and your residence in the time prior to the qualifying period mean that discretion is exercised by caseworkers as you respect all other requirements.

You can apply with your current passport but if you choose to renew it before the application is approved you will need to inform UKVI and send a copy of your new passport. You can attend the biometrics appointment with an expired passport.

[Mk2911]

Ok great and in the case of unsuccessful application. We would lose the fees?

[alterhase58]

Ok great and in the case of unsuccessful application. We would lose the fees?

If an application is refused the fee is lost (except for a refund of the ceremony fee portion of £130).