Application for naturalisation - Help needed with dates.

[theEnlightened1]

Hello all,

I'm applying for naturalisation and I have been in the UK for slightly over 5 years. I entered the UK on a visit visa and then successfully claimed political asylum (Indefinite leave to remain).

My question is: Do I count five years from the date I entered the UK, or from the date I applied for asylum? The dates are only 2 weeks apart so not a major problem but still curious.

Thank you for your time.

[sywahu]

I would apply via NCS. They will clarify these kind of details for you.

[ppron747]

I would apply through NCS too, but the answer to the question is that you start counting from the date of first arrival

[John]

My question is: Do I count five years from the date I entered the UK, or from the date I applied for asylum?

There are two different tests involved here, and I think the answers to those two tests are different.

Firstly the "was the applicant physically in the UK exactly five years before IND receive the naturalisation application" test? The answer to that is that it starts to be passed as from five years after the date of arrival.

Secondly there is a need for the applicant to be "legal" at all times when in the UK during the five-year qualifying period. That legality sometimes happens retrospectively, such as when there is a successful application for asylum.

But theEnlightened1, I can't see how your successful asylum application makes you legal in the UK for before the time you applied for that asylum. I think you continue to be illegal for that two-week period.

Accordingly I think you should delay your application for naturalisation until at least five years after you applied for asylum.

NCS? Yes, highly recommended. Details on this IND webpage.

[ppron747]

Not disagreeing, but I don't understand. How can someone who enters the country on a visit visa be here illegally, while he's just visiting? Surely he's here with permission... Are you saying that the subsequent asylum application somehow affected what had gone before?

[John]

Sorry Paul, you are totally correct! I must put my brain in gear before hitting the keys! Many asylum seekers arrive, allegedly, in the back of a lorry, and that would of course have delayed the naturalisation application, but if the person here was legal when they arrived on their visitor visa, then of course they can apply as from five years from the arrival date.