British Citizenship

Has anyone ever applied for British citizenship?

The criteria says that you have to have lived in the country for five years before you qualify however it doesn't say if it has to be continous or not.

Peregrinus

Assuming you're applying on the basis of already having indefinite leave to remain or having settled status under the EU settlement scheme, the rules for the residency requirement are:

You must show that you were resident in the UK five years before you submitted your application for naturalisation. Residence as a diplomat, member of a diplomat's family or member of visiting armed forces does not count.

You should not have:

• spent more than 450 days outside the UK during the 5 years before your application
• spent more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months
• broken any UK immigration laws (for example living illegally in the UK)

Thank you for your reply. I noticed that the nationality act does not go into detail about the 450 day absense period. If a person is continuosly absent from the country for say 300 days of the five year period then how can they say they were residing in the country for five years?

Peregrinus

"Resident" in the UK doesn't mean you have to spend every night of the year there. You can travel a bit and still be accepted as maintaining your residence in the UK. The rule they adopt, which is set out on the UK Government's "British citizenship" website, is that you must not have spent:

• more than 90 days outside the UK in the 12 months immediately before your application, or
• more than 450 days outside the UK in the 5 years immediately before your application.

Plus, you have to have been in the UK five years before your application.

This is just an administrative practice; it's what the Home Office takes the legal requirement to be "resident in the UK" to mean in general. They could change their practice at any time, or if there are special or unusual circumstances in your case they might decide that the usual practice isn't appropriate for your case. If, for example, you had spent a full year in another country, had secured permanent residence under their laws, had applied to be naturalised there, something like that, then they might say that, even though a full year is less than 450 days, this wasn't just travel and the nature of your time abroad indicated that you weren't residing in the UK during that year and so you don't qualify. But you'll know yourself if there is some circumstance about your absences from the UK that might suggest that, even though less than 450 days, they did look like something inconsistent with being a UK resident.

Margaret Clarke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058239926/british-citizenship

I believe it’s 5 cumulative years spread out no more than a certain time period, the last 1 or two years of which must be continuous (continuous meaning no more gaps than a week or two).

Philip Gamble is an excellent UK immigration lawyer who helped me get citizenship through my grandparents.

Mellor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118909344#Comment_118909344

I'd be pretty confident that the the "no gaps more than a week (or two)" part is incorrect. Prospective citizenship applicants can take holidays.

It's 90 days in the year prior. So you could actually spend a week abroad every month and be in accordance with the requirements.

If you are away for more than 2 years, you would lose eligibility as you would need to apply for a return resident visa to regian indefinite leave to remain

Hi, thanks everyone for your advice!