Will Public Funds affect Naturalisation Application?

[jes2jes]

Hi All:
I need an urgent answer to a few questions.

A friend got his ILR a couple of months ago. Wife is a dependant on this visa. Would any of them qualify for public funds i.e. Child Benefit or Child/Working Tax Credit?

Secondly, a read through the Naturalisation Documentation asks the question, have you received Public Funds in the past or something to that effect?

My question is does public funds have any impact on Naturalisation applicants when the qualifying period is due, bearing in mind recourse to public funds does not affect ILR holders?

Thanks in advance.

[John]

a read through the Naturalisation Documentation asks the question, have you received Public Funds in the past or something to that effect?

Interesting! That statement from you confused me so I have downloaded a fresh form AN(NEW) from the IND website. In case your copy of the form is not immediately to hand you can do the same by clicking here.

So please do inform us, what is the question number you are referring to?

The fact is that if he and/or his wife has ILR then there is absolutely no problem them claiming Child Benefit and also Tax Credits. Any such legitimate claim will have no effect whatsoever upon a subsequent application for Naturalisation.

Not only that, you say that ILR was obtained "a couple of months ago". Therefore your friend needs to be aware that ordinarily claims can be backdated no more than 3 months. So if the claims are made in the near future they will not end up losing any money .... however if they leave the claims until longer than 3 months after getting ILR then they will probably end up losing real money.