ILR, British citizenship and number of days outside the UK

[Epsilonn]

Hello, my name is Nick and I am an EU citizen, to start with. I have been living and working in the UK for 4 years and 2 months now.

I would like to apply for ILR after 5 full years and I have been reading the following document:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... .0-EXT.pdf

Anyway, I have only spent 2 weeks outside the UK in the 4th year.

1. I don't even understand if I fall under those categories there in that pdf file (Tier 1, 2 etc...)...

2. How many days / months in one year (any of those 5 years) can I spend outside the UK in order to be able to apply for ILR and then for citizenship?

3. How many days / months in total can I spend outside the UK in order to be able to apply for ILR and then for citizenship?

I am finding myself in the fifth year now, completing 5 years in May 2019. The problem is that now, in the fifth year, I need to spend between 4 and 5 months in my country, Romania.

How do I work around that? Is it ok to spend that time now and apply for ILR after another year or how do I do this?

Basically I need to get to the point where I can apply for ILR and later for British citizenship...

Please help me with some advice.

Thank you very much,
Nick

[secret.simon]

EEA citizens do not apply for ILR, they acquire PR automatically after five continuous years of exercising treaty rights. They apply for a DCPR to confirm that they have acquired PR.

[Epsilonn]

Hi Secret.simon and thank you for your reply. So what is five continuous years? How many days of absence am I allowed in any one year and how many for the entire period of 5 years???

For example, from what I know, in Romania, to get citizenship (for a foreigner), you need to spend 5 years, time in which you are allowed to spend 10 months in total outside of the country but not more than 6 months in any given year.

Kind regards,
Nick

[secret.simon]

in Romania, to get citizenship (for a foreigner)

The rules for acquiring PR under EU law and applying for British citizenship under UK law are different and unconnected. Which one are you looking for?

For PR, you must have five continuous years of exercising treaty rights in the UK. Absences of upto six months in a year AND one single one-year absence for an important reason (studies, pregnancy, etc) do not break continuity of residence. So, in effect, you must have been resident in the UK for at least 730 days (2 years) out of the five years of exercising treaty rights.

For British citizenship, the rules are tougher. You need to have been physically present in the UK five years before the date of application, with absences of no more than 450 days in the five years AND no more than 90 days in the year preceding the date of application. You also need to have held PR status for at least one year before applying for naturalisation AND have a DCPR proving your PR status. There are other requirements that I am not covering here to keep the thread focussed on the absence requirements.

[Epsilonn]

Hi Secret.simon, I read online that there will pre-settled status as well after Brexit. From what I read and how I see my current position, The UK is flexible in that regard.

Basically I want to head towards getting the British citizenship but I also want to do this as soon as possible and to actually take advantage of my time spent in The UK so far.

Let's say in the fifth year I spend 5 months outside The UK and let's say in the first 4 years I spent 2 weeks outside of The UK. Because of the 90 days rule for citizenship in the last year and the fact that I need PR anyway before citizenship, I would apply for PR anyway after the fifth year which would be in May 2019 (after Brexit!). Then I would wait for another year (with no more than 90 days out of the UK) and then apply for citizenship?

How does that sound to you?? Also I read something about PR and Brexit? What is your position on applying for PR post-Brexit? Is PR the same as ILR though?

Also, after getting ILR, how long am I allowed to spend outside the UK to be able to apply for citizenship? I read you said no more than 90 days in the fifth year... but still I need ILR (or PR?) before citizenship.

I am sorry I got a bit confused. Please help me understand these and let me know what question to make clearer?

Kind regards,
Nick