Irish person settled in UK - Need to apply for ILR?

[ChIrl]

Unfortunately, it is the question of Home Office accepting the application without Residency Certificate as Home Office helpline also advised me to apply for Residency despite providing all the info as per this thread. I am not sending a request under FOI to get the clarity as I am concerned of loosing the fee when I apply for naturalisation.

It would have been helpful if anyone had succeeded.

Regards

With all the information I provided on the thread, it is a shame you were not in a position to educate your lawyers.

[Richard W]

What is your final assessment then ? Can Irish living in the UK apply without Residency Certificate ? I am concerned about losing the fee of 1000+ or they return the application without taking the money ?

The easy answer is that Irishmen may qualify for naturalisation by having a 'qualifying CTA entitlement' throughout the qualifying period. The 'qualifying CTA entitlement' is defined by Section 50A(5) of the BNA 1981, and the requirements are that the person:

(a)is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland,
(b)last arrived in the United Kingdom on a local journey (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971) from the Republic of Ireland, and
(c)on that arrival, was a citizen of the Republic of Ireland and was entitled to enter without leave by virtue of section 1(3) of the Immigration Act 1971 (entry from the common travel area).

For the period where it is merely necessary to demonstrate that one was not "in breach of the immigration laws", one can mix in periods of residence allowed by the EEA Regulations, e.g. when working in the UK after a trip to Spain when one did not return via Ireland.

Filling in the naturalisation application is not so easy. One must use the space for 'extra information' to explain that one is relying on a qualifying CTA entitlement both as evidence of not being in breach of the immigration laws and as evidence of there being no time limit on one's stay in the UK.

I suppose there could be a policy to refuse applications depending solely on a qualifying CTA entitlement for these matters, but I've not heard of it.

The best safeguard of your application fee is the NCS, but I don't know what to do if they insist that an application without ILR or PR will be refused.

[ChIrl]

NCS ?

What is your final assessment then ? Can Irish living in the UK apply without Residency Certificate ? I am concerned about losing the fee of 1000+ or they return the application without taking the money ?

The easy answer is that Irishmen may qualify for naturalisation by having a 'qualifying CTA entitlement' throughout the qualifying period. The 'qualifying CTA entitlement' is defined by Section 50A(5) of the BNA 1981, and the requirements are that the person:

(a)is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland,
(b)last arrived in the United Kingdom on a local journey (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971) from the Republic of Ireland, and
(c)on that arrival, was a citizen of the Republic of Ireland and was entitled to enter without leave by virtue of section 1(3) of the Immigration Act 1971 (entry from the common travel area).

For the period where it is merely necessary to demonstrate that one was not "in breach of the immigration laws", one can mix in periods of residence allowed by the EEA Regulations, e.g. when working in the UK after a trip to Spain when one did not return via Ireland.

Filling in the naturalisation application is not so easy. One must use the space for 'extra information' to explain that one is relying on a qualifying CTA entitlement both as evidence of not being in breach of the immigration laws and as evidence of there being no time limit on one's stay in the UK.

I suppose there could be a policy to refuse applications depending solely on a qualifying CTA entitlement for these matters, but I've not heard of it.

The best safeguard of your application fee is the NCS, but I don't know what to do if they insist that an application without ILR or PR will be refused.

[chaoclive]

Unfortunately, it is the question of Home Office accepting the application without Residency Certificate as Home Office helpline also advised me to apply for Residency despite providing all the info as per this thread. I am not sending a request under FOI to get the clarity as I am concerned of loosing the fee when I apply for naturalisation.

It would have been helpful if anyone had succeeded.

Regards

With all the information I provided on the thread, it is a shame you were not in a position to educate your lawyers.

Why not just sent an FOI request? That way you would have something to add with the naturalization application? Or, if you're so worried, just apply for PR through the EU rules. It's only £65 and will solve all your issues. Nothing re: Brexit is going to happen any time in the very near future!

BTW: glad to see that John Kelly's FOI requests are useful (ahem...).

[chaoclive]

NCS ?

NCS=Nationality checking service

https://www.gov.uk/government/collectio ... ng-service

[messrronan]

Hello, new board member here and I've stumbled across this thread while ferociously googling whether or not I need a PR card. I am an Irish citizen and would like to apply for British citizenship having lived here for approx 15 years.

I have got my life in the UK test and tried to get info from the Home Office but the shouty lady just fobbed me off and told me to look at the website!


Have any of you had any luck with the issues discussed above?
Any advice or insight appreciated..

[Danlieb]

Hi Obie, I have a question based on what you've written below.

The question is whether you have lived here for 5 year.

For other EEA nationals, they need to establish lawful residence in accordance with the EEA regulation for 5 years, and this means exercising treaty rights. IRISH CITIZEN only need to show 5 years residence.

PR certificate will only be relevant to them for the purpose of their non EEA family member.

My spouse is Irish and I am a non-EEA national. We've been living and working here for close to 5.5 years. We've just submitted the EEA(PR) form with my spouse as the main applicant and me included as a Non-EEA family member.

Obie, does this mean that even though Irish nationals do not need to apply for PR certification, in the case of EEA(PR) applications for non-EEA family members, Irish national PR applications will still be processed (as with the case of other EEA nationals) and they will receive their PR certification and a PR card for the non-EEA member included in the application?

Are their other Irish nationals on this board who have applied for PR on behalf of their non-EEA spouse/family members? Did you get certification as well if you were the main applicant?

Are Irish nationals in the UK now seeking naturalization because there is a chance the CTA won't apply after Brexit?

[Danlieb]

According to this 07/04/2017 update,
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/status-of-e ... -nationals
"Irish nationals continue to have separate rights which allow them to be treated in the same way as British nationals in most circumstances."

Does this mean that when Brexit is concluded, non-EEA spouses of Irish nationals living in the UK will have to follow the same route as non-EEA spouses of UK citizens wishing to apply for PR?

[littleboyblue]

Hello all,

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd post my first-hand experience in case it's helpful to anybody else who finds it in a search.

I'm an Irish-born, longtime UK resident, in a civil partnership with a UK citizen. I decided to apply last year for citizenship - after the referendum, but not exclusively because of it. I'd been thinking of doing it for quite a while. In fact, I'd already done the Life in the UK test a couple of years previously (yes, it's obligatory, even for the Irish) but then let things slip.

Of course, I wish I hadn't, because in the meantime, the EEA PR requirement was introduced. It stopped me in my tracks when I discovered it on the naturalisation form. Surely it didn't apply to Irish citizens, with their automatic settlement? Or so I thought.

I called the Home Office helpline, and they were thrown into immediate confusion. Yes, no, maybe. Let me just check with my supervisor. Thanks for holding. Yes, you do need it. Are you sure? Well we *think* so. It's best to be on the safe side.

And so on. So I applied for PR - to be on the safe side (inspires confidence, doesn't it?).

It took two months, which was far less than the six they predicted (this was immediately post-Brexit, and they were expecting a deluge). PR in hand, I then applied for naturalisation, which took a further two months.

If I hadn't wanted citizenship, I wouldn't have bothered with PR. As has been pointed out exhaustively above, the Irish are not 'aliens' under the 1949 act, and not subject to any immigration restrictions. With the Irish border of the EU's 'red lines' in the Brexit negotiations, I imagine that's not going to change anytime soon.

Just one last thing. With the new, streamlined online PR process, you're unlikely to be deprived of your Irish passport for two months as I was. But in case you do need to send it in for any reason, you should apply first for a Passport Card (€35, and valid for 5 years or the validity of your full passport, whichever is the shorter period), which is valid for all EEA travel.

You can do it all online, and it arrives very quickly. I got one before I sent off my full passport for PR and then naturalisation, so I wasn't confined to base for the duration.