Naturalisation requirements for Polish citizens

[masqurin]

Hello,

I have been doing a little research for the past couple weeks regarding my eligibility to apply for a British citizenship. I have moved to the UK at the age of 13 along with my parents (Both of which are Polish) back in June 2008. I have reached the magic number of 5 years this year and therefore became interested in applying. According to the Standard requirements for naturalisation, I meet all of them:

There are seven requirements you need to meet before you apply:

You must be aged 18 or over.
You must be of sound mind.
You must intend to continue living in the UK, or to continue in Crown service, the service of an international organisation of which the UK is a member, or the service of a company or association established in the UK.
You must be able to communicate in English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic to an acceptable degree.
You must have sufficient knowledge of life in the UK.
You must be of good character.
You must meet the residential requirements (see below).

Residential requirements

To demonstrate the residential requirements for naturalisation, you must have:

been resident in the UK for at least five years (this is known as the residential qualifying period); and
been present in the UK five years before the date of your application; and
not spent more than 450 days outside the UK during the five-year period; and
not spent more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months of the five-year period; and
not been in breach of the Immigration Rules at any stage during the five-year period.


However, I am a little confused when it comes down to the permanent residency. According to the AN Booklet, all Polish citizens have the right to abode since 2004 which was when we joined the EU and the booklet specifically says that it is not necessary to apply for "indefinite leave to remain". A sentence later it then says that unless you are married to a British citizen, you should normally hold the permanent residency for 12 months before application and you therefore MAY have to wait additional 12 months (6 years in total). I hope you can all see where my confusion is coming from, the whole use of should's and may's is not clear enough for me. Do i need to apply for permanent residency before the naturalisation process as a Polish citizen or not? I have tried emailing the Border Agency but they have just sent me a link to their website (how convenient). Here's a direct quote from the AN Booklet:

6. Eurpoean economic area nationals and swiss nationals

This section covers you if the country to which you belong is a part of the Europoean Economic Area or Switzerland.

New immigration regulations come into force on 30 April 2006. If you are a national of a country which is a member state of the EEA or Switzerland, or the family member of such a person, you will automatically have permanent residence status after exercising EEA free movement rights in the UK for any continuous period of 5 years ending on or after 30 April 2006, and therfore will not have to apply for indefinite leave to remain.l But remember that, unless married to or the civil partner of A british citizen, you should normally have held permanent resident status for 12 months before applying for naturalisation. This means that you may need to wait until you have been in the United Kingdom for 6 years before you can apply.

Thanks in advance,
Michal

[Jambo]

See Q1, Q5 & Q6 in Citizenship FAQs - Common Questions - Read before posting.

The main question is what did your parents do in the UK? It's their activities in the UK that will earn your the PR status. Did one of them work for 5 continuous years? If employed, did they register with WRS?

[masqurin]

My mother has moved to Canada after the 1st year spent in the UK and my father has been working here for 6 years now (he started working here a year before we all moved in together) I know for a fact that he registered with the Home Office and got his NI number. I am not sure if he registered with WRS, if it was mandatory back then then I assume that his employer would do that for him. From the link you attached (If you are a national of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia or Slovenia, you do not need to obtain our permission before you can work in the UK.)

P.S So from what I've read, I have been granted a PR status automatically back in June but I can apply for a confirmation of that using EEA3 form which is supposed to speed up the process of naturalisation for which I can apply next year.

[Jambo]

I know for a fact that he registered with the Home Office and got his NI number. I am not sure if he registered with WRS, if it was mandatory back then then I assume that his employer would do that for him.

If he registered with the HO, then this is the WRS I refered to. It has nothing to do with NI and it was the responsiblity of the employee (and not the emploter) to do it. Many people didn't bother with that as not all employers asked for it. Check with your father. This is likely to be the main item that can get your application refused.

P.S So from what I've read, I have been granted a PR status automatically back in June but I can apply for a confirmation of that using EEA3 form which is supposed to speed up the process of naturalisation for which I can apply next year.

If your father has WRS and worked for the same company for 5/6 years, then the risk of failing the application is small. In that case, you can skip the EEA3 application. Having EEA3 will probably speed up your naturalisation application but not by much and EEA3 requires you to send passport, ID etc for about 2 months so you may want to avoid that.

[masqurin]

We just looked through the documents and he does indeed have a letter from the home office. Now, the EEA4 is for non-eu members and EEA3 is for the eu members, so I'm assuming that if we would decide to go for one, it would have to be the eea3. If we apply for the eea3, will we get the residency cards along with a letter confirming this? Will I have to wait for the period of 12 months from the date that I receive the eea3 or it will be exactly 6 years from the date that I moved to the UK. I'm here since june and the eea3 as you said would most likely take around 2 months so its about 6 months difference.

[Jambo]

Read again the questions in the FAQ. Q5 addresses that.

You will recieve a sticker in a blue paper wallet which will confirm your PR. it would be valid from date of issue and will not state when you acquired PR so you either wait 1 year from date of issue or apply before providing evidence when PR was actually obtained.

[masqurin]

Thanks, last final question. What would be the easiest way to prove that the PR has been acquired prior to the date of issue?

[Lukas77]

Hi Michal,
I am no expert in this field but have a few thoughts after reading your post which may give you something to think about.
I am also Polish and in the middle of the naturalization process.

1. I know for a fact that being Polish we are required to have lived in the UK for 6 years before we can apply to become British.
2. As you are now 18 i am not entirely sure if you need your father to have gained PR in order to confirm yours. One way of exercising the treaty is supposed to be being a student and so if you have been in full time education for the past 5 years then I would imagine you will have earned PR on your own.
3. As noted - you don't need PR confirmed before you apply for naturalization, so long as you can proove residency for 5 years + 1more year. However if you're not in a hurty it may be an option to consider to apply for PR first. Main reason being -PR application is free. If you fail for whatever reason you loose little. But if you're successful then when it comes to naturalization you have the tricky and iffy bit already sorted and you can pay the fees with much more confidence.

Hope this is helpful and not misleading. If any of the experts on this forum disagree with point 2 above, please correct me.
Good luck

[mycloud8]

[quote="Lukas77"]

as of April this year a PR card will cost you 55 quid unfortunately

[Lukas77]

as of April this year a PR card will cost you 55 quid unfortunately

thanks for the clarification mycloud.
I heard they were going to introduce those but didn't know when.

Still, easier to part with £55 than £874.