Application for naturalisation - employment status

[Buttonmc]

Good evening, I am a civil servant in Crown service overseas, and applied for naturalisation of my foreign national spouse by discretion. We applied in March but the internal process took almost 3 months and in the meantime the Home Office processing time has slowed to 6 months. My foreign national spouse has a right to work in the UK (limited leave to remain under FLR(M)) which expires in early September, so I am anxious to preserve our position.

Does an application for naturalisation “stop the clock” in the way that applying for ILR does? If an applicant holds limited leave to remain what effect does this application have on that leave? We applied for naturalisation as we were eligible and ILR requires to be applied for inside the country. We are not in the UK as I am on my posting. Can ILR be applied for outside of the UK for diplomat spouses? Can limited leave to remain be extended outside of the UK?

Essentially we need to find a way of securing our position in case the HO doesn’t consider this application before expiry of the limited leave to remain. All suggestions gratefully received!!