EEA Citizenship application with PR card under 1 year for long time resident (12 yr)

[jules81]

Hi,

I have lived & worked in the UK as a French national for almost 12 years (Nov 2006) and I recently received my residence card. However HO only gave me settled status from March 2018 (RC and letter) saying I should have provided 6 years of residence if I wanted an earlier date.

I was not aware of that rule at the time, so I wrote to the case worker and asked if I could provide one more year of residence to my application to which she replied that she could not change the date on the letter because the application was now closed. She also added that she did not advise me to reapply to PR with the view to get earlier settled date because I have already been granted settled status (this statement sounded like some sort of threat honestly..).

However in the same letter the case worker also wrote that if I wished I could still apply for BC now (i.e. not wait one year) as long as I provided the missing documents of the sixth year from my PR. She said that upon receiving my BC application HO would be able to refer to the notes the case worker made on my PR application and make a decision.

Has anybody ever been in a similar situation attempted a BC with PR well under 1yr and if so what happened? Is this a realistic option or am I just condemned to have to wait 12 more excruciatingly long months before I can safely apply for BC without the risk of being rejected?

Thank you for the help

jules81