UK citizenship application – 3-year route and absence days

[secuser]

Hi,

I became a British citizen in 2025 and my wife is now applying for British citizenship as my spouse.

She has been in the UK since 2019, but in the last 3 years she has spent around 444 days outside the UK, mainly due to one long trip. In the last 12 months, she was outside the UK for around 54 days.

Can she still apply under the 3-year spouse route and request discretion for the excess absence?

Would appreciate any advice or similar experiences.

Thank you in advance

[secret.simon]

Does she meet the physical presence requirement (i.e. was she physically in the UK at the start of the three year period before the date of application)?

And does she need discretion for any other requirement of the naturalisation application?

Where an applicant has spent more than ...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 has absences of ... 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 ... 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 ...450 days (for section 6(2) the period of residence must be at least ...2 years respectively...