Naturalisation and Special Circumstances

[jes2jes]

Dear All:
I need some advise on the above issue. The HO website clearly states that the conditions for naturalisation are as follows:

Foreign nationals may apply for certificates of naturalisation. This also applies to Commonwealth citizens and Irish citizens.

Applicants must:
have lived legally in the United Kingdom for five years (the last year should have been free of any time limit);
be 18 or over
not be of unsound mind;
be of good character;
have sufficient knowledge of English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic (depending on their age and physical and mental condition); and
stay closely connected with the United Kingdom.

My question is on the line about residency status without any restrictions i.e. ILR but the website states that "Some discretion may be exercised over other residency requirements if there are special circumstances. If you do not meet the residency requirements but believe there are special circumstances in your case, you should explain them when you apply"
I am asking this because someone told me last night he knew someone on a student visa that meets the above requirements but has restrictions due to the visa category he currently holds but has been allowed to apply for naturalisation.
My question is, What constitutes a special circumstances in the HO requirements and what are they?

Thank you and awaiting your thoughts and input.
Jes[/i]

[ppron747]

The person is allowed by the Act to have been outside the UK for a total of up to 450 days during the five year period of residence (of which no more than 90 days can by in the year leading up to the date of application). There is discretion to overlook absences excedding the laid-down limits, in special circumstances.

There is also discretion (again, in special circumstances) to allow someone to have been without time restrictions for less than the specified 12 months.

But there is no discretion over the requirement that the applicant must have been in UK on a day precisely five years before their application.

There is also no discretion over the requirement that the applicant must be without time restrictions on their stay in UK on the day of application.

If your chum's chum is still on a student visa, I cannot see how a naturalisation application can possibly succeed. They can have been a student for as much or as little as they like of the first four years of the qualifying residence period, but they should normally have ILR for the whole of the final year, and must have it by the date of application.

It's a puzzle - if your chum has his/her facts straight

[jes2jes]

That is what buffled me at first so I spent the whole of last night into the early hours of this morning thrawling through the HO's naturalisation documentation but found nothing. That is the reason in my previous posting I asked what constituted "special circumstances".
Anyway, I have asked for a copy of the said letter and if I get it, I will share the contents with you. It is a puzzle indeed!

[John]

That is what buffled me at first so I spent the whole of last night into the early hours of this morning thrawling through the HO's naturalisation documentation but found nothing.

Maybe, just maybe, what you were looking for does not exist!

As Paul has already said, without ILR the person has no hope of becoming naturalised as British. Furthermore, if they are here on a student visa then (subject to the proviso below) their ILR clock has not even started ticking. That is the qualifying period to get ILR has not started, let alone finished.

The proviso? If a 10-year application is made for ILR then all legal time in the UK can be counted, even time on a student visa.

So the person you are talking about, how long on a student visa?

[jes2jes]

John,
This person I was told had spent five years on SV and sent his application recently to the HO for this purpose which I find it difficult to decipher. The said person said he was granted this under the special circumstances category. I have spent sometime checking what special circumstances mean but to no avail. If you know or anyone in this forum does, I would be happy to hear what it does mean.

[ppron747]

If you struggle through the treacle that is the IND website, you will find - in the Nationality Instructions - some of the circumstances in which discretion may be exercised over (eg) absences exceeding those permitted in the Act.
But no amount of struggling will find any reference to special circumstances regarding the need to be free of time limits on the day of applying for naturalisation. This is because there aren't any. The Act doesn't give the Home Secretary any discretion on this, regardless of how special or commonplace the circumstances.