Professional referee for British Citizenship Application

[ckcitizenship]

Hello,

I'm applying for British citizenship after having ILR for 1 year. As part of the referee requirements, I wanted to clarify if software engineer at a multi-national company would count as a "professional"?

As per the UK gov website, I'm assuming a software engineer would come under "engineer with professional qualifications" but I wanted to double check my understanding.

Besides, I've seen some people claim online that registration with "British Computer Society (BCS)" is required for them, but I have not seen any official documentation or reference to the same except in a May 2023 version of this document (that I found linked in the application). Although, even that includes engineer with professional qualifications as another item.

Can someone please confirm if a software engineer who is a colleague at a workplace/company can indeed be used as one of the referee under professional category.

Cheers!

[secret.simon]

Can someone please confirm if a software engineer who is a colleague at a workplace/company can indeed be used as one of the referee under professional category.

Only if they are a member of a professional regulatory and regulated body. Otherwise, no.

In the UK, "profession" generally refers to jobs that are often regulated by the current people who profess that job and formed into a body recognised by law.

So, think doctors (regulated by the GMC), solicitors (regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority), barristers (regulated by the Inns of Court), etc.

"Professional qualifications" are qualifications awarded by professional regulatory bodies (such as Chartered Accountants awarded and regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, etc).

It does not include academic qualifications (so, not everybody who has been granted a engineering degree can be a referee) and it does not include job titles which are conferred by companies (I have had four different job titles, some of which included the term "engineer", while doing exactly the same job for the past decade).

So your referee will need to be a member of a regulated and regulatory professional body to qualify as having "professional qualifications".

Wikipedia article on Professional qualifications in the United Kingdom

Section 19 (Interpretation) of the Professional Qualifications Act 2022

[ckcitizenship]

Many thanks for your prompt response and the details - very helpful!

I forgot to link this one which has couple of options as below

• director, manager or personnel officer of a VAT-registered company

• manager or personnel officer of a limited company

Does this mean if they have relevant 'director' or 'manager' title in an MNC software company, they would be eligible?


Thanks again!

[secret.simon]

I think that should be fine, as long as it is a UK registered company.

See some of my earlier posts on who can be a referee.

Essentially, if the referee lies, can the government penalise them, either through their professional body, their company or by withholding a passport renewal?

[ckcitizenship]

Thank you. Couple of questions related to the referral form and application

It says:

On  the  back  of  the  applicant’s photograph,  please  write their  
full  name  and  date  of  birth. 
The photograph should   then  be  glued  into  the space  aside. 

I'm assuming we need to just scan and upload the document, so I wonder how signing at the back of the photo be visible or is needed?

Colour copies of all pages of the passport or travel document for <<name 
and country>>. This includes blank pages. The copies must be in page order, 
and clear enough so all  text can be read easily.

Will this be done at the biometrics application, or should I arrange for a full scan of passport myself and upload the same? I've two passports (the earlier one has the UK visa stamping) so I presume I need to do this for both the passports?

Many thanks!

[alterhase58]

Thank you. Couple of questions related to the referral form and application

It says:

On  the  back  of  the  applicant’s photograph,  please  write their  
full  name  and  date  of  birth. 
The photograph should   then  be  glued  into  the space  aside. 

I'm assuming we need to just scan and upload the document, so I wonder how signing at the back of the photo be visible or is needed?
Ignore the "back of Photo" instruction - that goes back to the paper days ....

Colour copies of all pages of the passport or travel document for <<name 
and country>>. This includes blank pages. The copies must be in page order, 
and clear enough so all  text can be read easily.

Will this be done at the biometrics application, or should I arrange for a full scan of passport myself and upload the same? I've two passports (the earlier one has the UK visa stamping) so I presume I need to do this for both the passports?
The full passport scan best to do it yourself, otherwise you will be charged for it. For ID purposes the biometrics page is scanned only by the TLS agent.
Many thanks!

[ckcitizenship]

Hello,

I'm applying for UK Citizenship via the 5 year + 1 year ILR route and as part of the document checklist I see that I need to include passport to prove that I've lived in the UK for the past 5 years. It explicitly states bank statements or household bills are not suitable proof for the same.

Yet I see that some people online recommending submission of utility bills. While it is pretty clear from the document checklist, I just wanted to be absolutely sure that I'm not missing anything. Hence wanted to check with this forum.

So couple of questions:

• Is passport scan with stamps for the 5 years alone sufficient for residency requirement

• Do I need to write a cover letter as part of the citizenship application? If so, what should I be including in that?

If it matters, I did submit utility/bank statement bills as part of my ILR application for the full 5 year period (an year ago)

Many thanks!

[alterhase58]

Please keep all posts relating to your application in one thread - this one merged with earlier posts. It's not necessary to start a new thread for each new topic.

Hello,

I'm applying for UK Citizenship via the 5 year + 1 year ILR route and as part of the document checklist I see that I need to include passport to prove that I've lived in the UK for the past 5 years. It explicitly states bank statements or household bills are not suitable proof for the same.

Yet I see that some people online recommending submission of utility bills. While it is pretty clear from the document checklist, I just wanted to be absolutely sure that I'm not missing anything. Hence wanted to check with this forum.

So couple of questions:

• Is passport scan with stamps for the 5 years alone sufficient for residency requirement

YES

• Do I need to write a cover letter as part of the citizenship application? If so, what should I be including in that?

Cover letter is not a requirement. If there's something you feel you need to explain then it's ok to add a note about it. If you meet all requirements then there's no need to explain or justify.

If it matters, I did submit utility/bank statement bills as part of my ILR application for the full 5 year period (an year ago)
That's for the ILR application only - naturalisation is not an immigration application. And as you pointed out bills or statements are not accepted.
Many thanks!