FLR Working abroad

[wodinsrage]

My wife successfully received her FLR(m) extension in February, and has recently received an opportunity to work abroad in an EU country. I am aware that there (as far as I Know) is no 180 day rule that applies to her application for ILR, but we were wondering how hard it would be for her to get her citizenship after that, if she is spending more than 90 days a year working in an EU country.

Also, we were wondering how moving to a EU country would affect her ability to draw a pension in the UK?

[vinny]

Be careful of doubts about her continuing intention to live together permanently in the UK.

[secret.simon]

we were wondering how hard it would be for her to get her citizenship after that

Keep in mind that naturalisation is not a part of the immigration process, which ends at ILR, but is a separate process with its own laws, rules and requirements.

Because the absences are disregarded for the purposes of immigration applications does not mean that they will be disregarded for the purposes of naturalisation.

The general rule-of-thumb is that discretion is only exercised if the applicant is failing to meet one requirement that the Home Office has discretion to disregard. If there are multiple requirements that the applicant is failing, generally that leads to a refusal.

There are three requirements for naturalisation that long-term absences from the UK can impact; absences in the five-year period preceding the date of the naturalisation application, absences in the one-year period preceding the application and physical presence in the UK at the start of the five year period. The last is a mandatory requirement that the Home Office has no discretion to disregard.

Assuming that your wife can plan ahead to be in the UK to meet the second and third requirements above, discretion could be exercised to disregard the first requirement if your wife meets some conditions. There is a fuller list in the Naturalisation as a British citizen caseworker guidance.

• the excess absences were an unavoidable consequence of the nature of the applicant’s career, such as a merchant seaman or employment with a
multinational company based in the UK with frequent travel abroad
• exceptionally compelling reasons of an occupational or compassionate nature to justify naturalisation now, such as a firm job offer where British citizenship is a statutory or mandatory requirement

we were wondering how moving to a EU country would affect her ability to draw a pension in the UK?

Do you mean the State Pension or a private pension?

Your UK State Pension if you’ve lived or worked abroad

Your UK State Pension will be based on your UK National Insurance record. You need 10 years of UK National Insurance contributions to be eligible for the new State Pension.

You may be able to use time spent abroad to make up the 10 qualifying years. This is most likely if you’ve lived or worked in:

the EEA
Switzerland
Gibraltar
certain countries that have a social security agreement with the UK

Example

You have 7 qualifying years from the UK on your National Insurance record when you reach State Pension age.

You worked in an EEA country for 16 years and paid contributions to that country’s state pension.

You will meet the minimum qualifying years to get the new State Pension because of the time you worked overseas. Your new State Pension amount will only be based on the 7 years of National Insurance contributions you made in the UK.

Your wife may have to look into making voluntary National Insurance contributions in the UK to get a higher State Pension amount.

Then again, this is not a tax or pension forum and you may be better off asking this question at such a forum.