British Citizenship – Good Character Requirement FAQs

[rrmaruti]

rrmaruti,

You should have been given an option to do a driver awareness in lieu of the points?? Aaah 64miles, maybe dangerous driving......

You will have to apply for FLR in Apr-14 and then after June-14 for your ILR worst case.
cheers
vr

Yes this is my first driving offense

[Alex_London2]

Dear Amber and other moderators, dear bloggers,

I will be applying for naturalisation next week based on 5-year HSMP/Tier One and 1-year ILR. I have a concern over Good Character requirement that I hope you may kindly advise.

I hold a mid-management level position in the financial service industry and am a PAYE tax payer. I have paid in total hundreds of thousands pounds in income tax during my six years in the UK. However, I received two HMRC tax penalties over the last 12 months. One penalty was for inaccurate tax return where I underpaid about £3,000 due to lack of reasonable care (HMRC issued the penalty for “Careless” (not “Deliberate”) behaviour – if needed, please refer to http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/compliance/cc-fs7.pdf for how HMRC classifies different behaviours that lead to inaccurate tax returns). The other penalty was for late filing of tax returns / late payment (I was initially not aware that I had to file tax return).

Neither of the two penalties were results of a court filing or offense or conviction. In addition, I have paid off all the penalties and underpaid taxes immediately after HMRC brought them to my attention.

My questions are as below:
1. The Good Character section of the Naturalisation Guide prior to October 2013 stated that “you should wait until you have no more one FPN in the last 12 months before applying”. However, in the new Guide issued in October 2013, the language changed to “Fixed penalty notices will not normally be taken in to account unless: you have failed to pay and there were criminal proceedings as a result; or you have received numerous fixed penalty notices.” Could you please advise whether I need to worry about my Naturalisation application being refused based on the two HMRC tax penalties?

2. Could you please advise whether I should bring the two penalties to the attention of Home Office by highlighting them in my application form?

3. Would you recommend that I seek formal advise from perhaps an immigration lawyer?

Many thanks for your helps in advance. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Alex

[Amber]

I wouldn't worry about HMRC penalties. So far as you've paid the taxes and penalty or have made an arrangement to do so.

[MattSule]

Alex,
There is nothing to worry about.

FPN relates to driving and since all your tax affair is NOW in order you can apply with confidence

[northernlights316]

Hello Guys

I am new to this forum so apologies in advance for any repetition.

I am eligible to apply for Naturalisation at the end of January 2014; however, I am not certain about the good character requirement. In March 2013, after a long flight I went to a filling station to fill my car and also lick up a takeaway. Basically, I filled my car and went over to a cash machine which showed me a withdrawal charge, which kind of put me off and I came back and sat in my car and spoke with girl friend and drove off. So I completely forgot to pay for the petrol. Five days later a police officer rang my door bell, I went down stairs and he came into my flat and said I haven't paid the garage. I was in absolute shock and quickly apologised to the officer and agreed to pay the filling station immediately. He asked me to sign a 'COMMUNITY RESOLUTION ORDER' which was an agreement to pay up for the fuel. I did ask the officer if this was going to affect my history and he assured me that it will be alright but the Good character requirement states that Out of court disposals may lead to a refusal. Please can anyone clarify the matter? If I could apply at the end of this month?

Do i have to declare this on my application if I do go ahead with the application?

Thanks in advance and sorry about the long story.

[Amber]

See also, Community resolution

Examples of out of court disposals that are recorded on an individual's criminal record include cautions (simple or conditional), warnings, reprimands and community sentences. Out of court disposals allow the police to deal with low-level and often first-time offenders without a prosecution at court.

[MattSule]

The community resolution order will be recorded in your history.
In my view, this should be declared because it's a non-custodian offence.

Also, you have to wait three years from the date of the order.

[Amber]

I would disagree that the individual wait 3 years as:

Therefore, the decision maker will not consider these unless the person has:
a. violated or broken the civil order and there were criminal proceedings as a result; or
b. received an order (or orders) which would suggest a pattern of behaviour that calls into
question their character.

and

The number of non-custodial sentences or other out of court disposals on the
applicant’s record. There is no set number of non-custodial sentences or disposals that
would lead to an application being refused. However, the higher the number the more
likely it is the application will be refused.

and

The nature of the offences or the behaviour that led to other disposals. Decision
makers should look at the nature of the offences involved, or the behaviour that led to an
out of court disposal. For example behaviour involving anti-social behaviour, drug use, or
violence may well indicate that a person‟s character is such that their application should
be refused (particularly if there is a pattern of such behaviour). In contrast isolated minor
incidents such as traffic violations will not normally in themselves indicate that a person is
of bad character. However, each application must be considered individually

Therefore, I suggest you state in extra information that you received a CRO and give the mitigating reasons why it should not be viewed as a reason to refuse your application. E.g. the nature of the incident, the way in which it was dealt with and the fact it is your only dealing with the police and every other aspect of your character is satisfactory.

[Alex_London2]

Many thanks to Amber and MattSule for your advices. Much appreciated.

Alex

[northernlights316]

Thanks guys, I have some research and found the following on the ACPO website and found the following:

Disclosure:

Community Resolutions are not recorded on the PNC, however the information could be retained on local systems. The information will not be made available as a result of a standard CRB check, but may be disclosed if an application for an enhanced CRB check is made on the discretion of the chief constable.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks

[MattSule]

The safest assumption is that HO has access to everything thus it's better to declare it.

[abc_uk]

Hi all, just a quick and probably simple question...

I've been fined by the London Underground Prosecution's Office in Jan 2012 (will be more than 2yrs away from the date of my application), for using a wrong ticket on the tube. The case never went to court (so it's not a conviction of any kind, i guess) - I simply wrote a letter to the Prosecution's office explaining the circumstances and they wrote me back asking to pay £60 fine and that's it, no further action once I paid it.

Now declaring this is not a problem, unless I don't need to?.... but can't really find an appropriate sub-section of good character requirement where to put it. any advise? thank you

[MattSule]

I wouldn't declare this but if you have to pls use the additional info page

[Amber]

I would say you don't need to declare a PCN.

[abc_uk]

Thank you Amber and MattSule,

I never had a PCN/FPN before, so not sure if this fine was one of those. All it was a simple letter asking to pay £60 fine (no court reference/etc)... will put it just in case as an additional info. thanks again

[ade2012]

Hi,

I just want to know if I am eligible to apply for citizenship.

I had one traffic light conviction TS10 in 9/12/2010 and got 3 points and 127 £ fine from magistrate court.

So it is now 3 years from the conviction so can I apply for the citizenship.

Thanks.

Adeel

[Amber]

Yes, if you meet the other standard requirements. Ensure you declare the conviction.

[MJNair]

Thank you Amber and MattSule,

I never had a PCN/FPN before, so not sure if this fine was one of those. All it was a simple letter asking to pay £60 fine (no court reference/etc)... will put it just in case as an additional info. thanks again

Sharing my experience here: I have a similar case with a railway penalty fare. Called up the HO (the Croydon Number), the Customer service said penalty fares are normally disregarded by the HO, but she also said it may be better to inform them..

[TTOE]

I don't see any reason why you need to inform the HO about what they are not interested in, for as long as you are sure it's FPN you don't need to disclose it but ultimately the decision is yours.

[navalaviator]

I don't see any reason why you need to inform the HO about what they are not interested in.

Absolutely agree with it as don't disclose things which are neither required nor asked in the form and guidance and are supposed to be immaterial to the application but again if you have signed something or received an official warning or penalty letter etc. from any department then I think it should be disclosed and the only exception is only one FPN in the last 12 months which is not required to be disclosed.

[srrao]

Hi all, just a quick and probably simple question...

I've been fined by the London Underground Prosecution's Office in Jan 2012 (will be more than 2yrs away from the date of my application), for using a wrong ticket on the tube. The case never went to court (so it's not a conviction of any kind, i guess) - I simply wrote a letter to the Prosecution's office explaining the circumstances and they wrote me back asking to pay £60 fine and that's it, no further action once I paid it.

Now declaring this is not a problem, unless I don't need to?.... but can't really find an appropriate sub-section of good character requirement where to put it. any advise? thank you

Hi, Where did you finally put it ? I also have a similar situation hence asking.. and also I don't even remember the exact data it happened .. and I dont have the letter too.. any advice?

Thanks in advance

[abc_uk]

Hi, Where did you finally put it ?

haven't sent my application yet, but will put it as an additional info

[TTOE]

Hi all, just a quick and probably simple question...

I've been fined by the London Underground Prosecution's Office in Jan 2012 (will be more than 2yrs away from the date of my application), for using a wrong ticket on the tube. The case never went to court (so it's not a conviction of any kind, i guess) - I simply wrote a letter to the Prosecution's office explaining the circumstances and they wrote me back asking to pay £60 fine and that's it, no further action once I paid it.

Now declaring this is not a problem, unless I don't need to?.... but can't really find an appropriate sub-section of good character requirement where to put it. any advise? thank you

Hi, Where did you finally put it ? I also have a similar situation hence asking.. and also I don't even remember the exact data it happened .. and I dont have the letter too.. any advice?

Thanks in advance

Guys, this is no way a conviction and hence you don't have to declare this, except if it was issued by the court but in this instance that's not the case.....

[SameerBhagawatUk]

Hi Amber and other moderators

I have a simple question about a simple caution that I recieved in Apr 2007.

I spent 5 years on HSMP and 1 year on ILR and am due for naturalisation since Dec 2013. I have already applied for naturalisation. The only issue is that I have a caution for 'Falsifying a document relating to car insurance' in Apr 2007. I have mentioned this in my application form in the section that asks about cautions by stating the 'legal term that is used on my CRB check' and I have not included any additional info in the last section. This is the only issue relating to 'Good characterter requirements' that I have .

Do you guys think whether this will cause any problems with the naturalisation application?

[MattSule]

Sameer, you should be fine.