Applying for citizenship but not sure how to progress...help

[LMichele1232]

Hi everyone,

I have been delaying submitting my application for naturalisation for about 6 months now and today's results have really lit a fire under me to just get the thing going!

One of the reasons I haven't sent it yet is that there are a couple things I'm unsure of and I can't seem to find straightforward answers. I'm sure I'm just being too literal and worrying too much as I've had a really rough time with immigration issues up to now! So, I'm really hoping some of you might have more knowledge than I!

Here is an as-brief-as-possible history of my immigration story to date:

- December 2002: Came to UK from the USA on a 6-month student (BUNAC) visa

- April 2003 - Got married within that 6 months

- June(ish) 2003 - Upon expiry of student visa, I returned to the USA to obtain a marriage visa from the British Embassy to return to live in the UK. The Embassy offered us two options as my husband was Irish - 1) get an EEA Family Member's Permit for free with 4 years until I could apply for ILR, renewing each year or 2) get a 2-Year UK Spouse Visa for a cost after which I could apply for ILR after 2 years. We decided on the free EEA Family Member's Permit as it was free and I was in no rush to get ILR

- June 2004 - Went to renew the EEA Family Member's permit (as per the once a year rule) and was refused and told it would not be renewed and I would need to leave the country

- July 2004 - Appealed the decision of refusal (we were married and had been living together for over a year)...and waited 2 years for a response, during which time I was unable to work (job needed letter from Home Office stating I was legally allow to work while appealing and Home Office wouldn't provide it), the Home Office lost both mine and my husband's passports (in the end, mine turned up in Washington DC and his in Ireland) and I couldn't return home to see my family

- Feb 2006 - Appeal was refused after 2 years of waiting and found out the reason was that the Embassy should have never issued us with an EEA Family Member's permit from the start as it was the wrong one in our situation. Was told I needed to leave the country but they had lost my passport so I was stuck. Got issued an emergency passport from the Consulate to return back to the USA, without my husband.

-Feb 2006 - Aug 2006 - Spent 4 months in America where I applied for a new 2-Year UK Spouse Visa which was granted and returned to UK with no problems.

- May 2008 - Applied for and was granted Indefinite Leave to Remain under my married name.

- November 2011 - Fled from my husband - long story short...it had been a severely violent and abusive marriage for years but got to a point where I seriously started fearing for my life and had to leave

- February 2014 - Divorce granted and started changing my name with bank, credit cards, etc.

- Dec 2014 - Received my new US passport with my maiden name and rang the Home Office to check whether I needed to do anything with my visa (e.g. can I keep ILR or do I need to get BRP under maiden name?) I was advised at this time by someone there that unless it really bothered me, I did not need to apply for a BRP under my maiden name immediately and that if I travelled with my old passport with the ILR in it (both in my married name) and my new passport in my maiden name, along with my birth certificate, marriage certificate and divorce proof, all would be fine with the immigration people (until I needed to apply for a job where they would require a BRP under new laws, which I did not). I visited home last month and did just that - no problems at all at immigration

- Present day - I need to apply for citizenship (on the basis of living in the UK for 5+ years irregardless of my divorce) and have a US passport in my maiden name and an old US passport and ILR document in my married name.

So....based on the above, here are my questions:

1) Do I really need to apply for a BRP just to get ID that has my maiden name on it SOLELY for the purpose of submitting the naturalisation application or can I supply everything I did at the airport (old passport with ILR, new passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate and divorce certificate) to prove I am the same person? I am a bit nervous about the wording in the guidance saying that 'we will not normally issue a certificate of naturalisation in the name that is different from a person's official documents' (i.e. my actual ILR document).

2) I took the Life in the UK test for ILR - I don't have to re-take this again for citizenship, right?
2b) And again...the pass certificate is in my married name...will this be an issue?

3) With regard to the application question 2.1 - Date of first arrival in the UK (with a view to staying in the UK on a long-term basis). Based on my above history and all of the problems I had with the visas I got and the HO losing my passport, etc. should I put the day I technically came here to live before all the crap happened (so, June 2003 when I got the EEA Family Member's Permit) or when I re-entered on the different (but correct) UK Spouse visa (June 2006)? I would have thought it was safer to use the '06 date as it was all smooth sailing once I had the correct visa and was still 10 years ago, but would it be 'lying' as such to not put 2003 even though it was the fault of the government that I was here for 3 years before I had to re-start again in 2006?

I really was hoping to keep this post as short as possible but as you can see if you managed to get through all the info above, my situation hasn't exactly been straightforward...which could be why I'm worrying about this so much now.

I would be very grateful for any advice or experiences you have had related to my own or any answers to the above questions. I would say that apart from the above, everything else in the application is completely straightforward for me and I am expecting no other roadblocks.

Thank you so much in advance for any help and for reading through my waffling (if you've managed to make it this far!)

Lisa

[noajthan]

So....based on the above, here are my questions:

1) Do I really need to apply for a BRP just to get ID that has my maiden name on it SOLELY for the purpose of submitting the naturalisation application or can I supply everything I did at the airport (old passport with ILR, new passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate and divorce certificate) to prove I am the same person? I am a bit nervous about the wording in the guidance saying that 'we will not normally issue a certificate of naturalisation in the name that is different from a person's official documents' (i.e. my actual ILR document).

2) I took the Life in the UK test for ILR - I don't have to re-take this again for citizenship, right?
2b) And again...the pass certificate is in my married name...will this be an issue?

3) With regard to the application question 2.1 - Date of first arrival in the UK (with a view to staying in the UK on a long-term basis). Based on my above history and all of the problems I had with the visas I got and the HO losing my passport, etc. should I put the day I technically came here to live before all the crap happened (so, June 2003 when I got the EEA Family Member's Permit) or when I re-entered on the different (but correct) UK Spouse visa (June 2006)? I would have thought it was safer to use the '06 date as it was all smooth sailing once I had the correct visa and was still 10 years ago, but would it be 'lying' as such to not put 2003 even though it was the fault of the government that I was here for 3 years before I had to re-start again in 2006?

...

Lisa

Rule #1 don't listen to HO helpline phone advice.

Presumably hubby was a dual national and thus cannot treated as an EEA citizen. But the 'renew FP every year'-advisory is plain bizarre.

1) Leaving aside the question of updating BRP within (is it) 3 months of any change.

It may be that divorce papers are enough to make the change back to full use of maiden name.

Any issues that crop up are likely to be a non-cancelled passport in your married name if you want to naturalise in another name (your maiden) name.

If you have 2 different passports in different names the HO will see that as two identities. Even if you happen to be the same person.
There's a new policy brought in last year to crackdown on international criminals and terrorists;
not sure how many of them its caught but its been pretty good at rooting out respectable married ladies who are old school and changed their name on marriage.

You need to decide on your target name. and make sure all uncancelled foreign passports are in that name (or are changed to that name or are officially cancelled).

More here: http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... 84012.html

and here: http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... 20passport
- the scenarios in the post are (mostly) the other way round to yours but the point is it shows what happens when there are 2 names active.

2) LITUK lasts for ever. Should be ok - it happens all the time; caseworkers understand these things.

3) Shoot for first ever date (2003?). HO will know 'everything' about you anyway.

[LMichele1232]

noajthan - thank you so much for such an extensive reply (and even more so for hanging in there with my post!)

From your response I feel reassured about the 'Life in the UK' test and no having to re-take it. I will also use the first date I entered on the EEA Family Member's Permit (2003) as the first date I came here with a view to staying for the longer term.

Regarding the mismatched names, I only have one active US passport in my current maiden name, all of the old (lost and otherwise) US passports in my married name have been cancelled. The problem I have is that my ILR visa is in my old married name, cancelled passport (which I do have) so I would be submitting my current maiden name passport, with my old cancelled married name passport which contains the ILR proof (but in my maiden name). I would be applying for naturalisation and then a UK passport in my maiden name.

So, I'm still not sure whether I would need to get a BRP in my maiden name (to match my passport) or whether I can skip that step and just use the ILR along with all of the documentation proving my ID and name changes. It just seems illogical to get a BRP JUST so that the names match...I don't want to do it if it is not a necessary step.

I started changing my name back on all of my accounts, cards, etc. after the divorce was granted in February 2014. That was when I was given the (probably wrong?!) advice from the Home Office helpline about not needing to apply for a BRP (I called to ask whether/how I needed to notify them) so now it is well over 3 months ago as I accepted that advice as truth (naive, much?) I'm now worried I will be in trouble for not getting a BRP or NTL stamp at that time and this will come to light during the citizenship application process!

[noajthan]

noajthan - thank you so much for such an extensive reply (and even more so for hanging in there with my post!)

...

So, I'm still not sure whether I would need to get a BRP in my maiden name (to match my passport) or whether I can skip that step and just use the ILR along with all of the documentation proving my ID and name changes. It just seems illogical to get a BRP JUST so that the names match...I don't want to do it if it is not a necessary step.

I started changing my name back on all of my accounts, cards, etc. after the divorce was granted in February 2014. That was when I was given the (probably wrong?!) advice from the Home Office helpline about not needing to apply for a BRP (I called to ask whether/how I needed to notify them) so now it is well over 3 months ago as I accepted that advice as truth (naive, much?) I'm now worried I will be in trouble for not getting a BRP or NTL stamp at that time and this will come to light during the citizenship application process!

So it seems to boil down to how strictly HO enforce the rule on notifying changes for BRP.
I don't know.

You made life changes over 2 years ago so, if you go by the book, BRP should have been brought into line:
https://www.gov.uk/change-circumstances ... have-a-brp

I don't know if it will be overlooked as you apply to naturalise or if it will be picked up.