Timing of Citizenship Application

[martasoria]

Hi

I am hoping you can help me with my question regarding absences and timing for filing my citizenship application.

I first entered the UK in August 2003 and did a four year undergraduate degree at university. One of those four years (2005/6) I spent abroad. I finished my studies in 2007. Then I did my masters degree also in the UK and finished in July 2008. Then I left the UK for 3 years, returning in July 2011 (some minor trips here and there during this period). Since July 2011 to July 2016 I have been in the UK with very few absences. I also fulfil all other requirements of the PR application.

I therefore now just about qualify for permanent residency as I have the required 5 years of continuous residence in the UK. In fact, I will be submitting an application for PR shortly.

Once that goes through, do I still need to wait for one more year before I can apply for British citizenship? Or can I apply straight away and try to argue that PR should be deemed to have commenced one year earlier because my absence between July 2010 and July 2011 should be disregarded/counted as part of any allowance.

I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions as to how I can speed up this process.

Many thanks

Marta

[noajthan]

If you were absent from 2008 - 2011 then even if you had acquired PR earlier you would have lost that status due to the prolonged absence (over 2 years).

Your PR clock will have started up again (from zero) when you returned to UK in 2011.