Absence and foreign employer, but wife in the UK..?

[nottinghiller]

Dear all, I am trying to sort this out but cannot find a solution, hope somebody can help me.
I am an EU national, married with another EU person and both resident in the UK for over 5 years, with ILR. I am changing my job and I will be employed by a company in my home EU country, spending most of the time in the next months abroad, while my wife will remain in the UK. I will be eligible to apply for British passport in approx. 5 months from now.
At that time, I will meet all the criteria apart from the 90-day absence in the last year: I should end up with approx. 150-160 days out of the UK in the last year before applying for citizenship. In addition, the application form requires to provide details of my employmentand my employer will be a foreign company. All other requirements should be ok.
Now, HO Nationality Policy say that for absence "between 100 and 180 days, where the residence requirement across the qualifying period is met – discretion is only appropriate where the applicant demonstrates strong links through the presence of family, employment and their home in the UK".
So my question is: is my wife, who will remain in the UK, a sufficiently "strong link"? How likely is my application to be accepted, considering the absence in the last year and the foreign employer on one hand, but my wife living in the UK on the other?

[alterhase58]

Instead of relying on UKVI discretion why not delay your application for a few months until you reach the 90 days limit. As you know absences are counted back from the AN application date. You already have PR which can convert to "settled status" under the new rules after 29/3/2019, should you delay until after that date.

[nottinghiller]

Instead of relying on UKVI discretion why not delay your application for a few months until you reach the 90 days limit. As you know absences are counted back from the AN application date. You already have PR which can convert to "settled status" under the new rules after 29/3/2019, should you delay until after that date.

Sorry I am not very good with acronyms, could you expand a bit please?
In March 2019, assuming I will continue spending most of my time abroad, I will have much more days of absence than I'll have in September. How can I reach the 90-day limit then?

[alterhase58]

Apologies - I misunderstood, this will be an ongoing absence. Then you need to ask for discretion - I leave it to other members here to comment in more detail on this aspect.

UKVI - UK Visa & Immigration, Home Office directorate which deals with citizenship applications.

[CR001]

If you are living and working abroad, how will you meet the 'future intentions' requirement? There have been refusals on this basis due to working long term abroad.

[nottinghiller]

If you are living and working abroad, how will you meet the 'future intentions' requirement? There have been refusals on this basis due to working long term abroad.

Well I thought I could leverage on the fact that my wife is still resident in the UK, can't it be a good reason to meet the future intentions requirements?

[nottinghiller]

Up! Does anybody know if having my wife in the UK can help me pass the future intensions test?