Drink driving conviction - citizenship implications

Hi All,

To provide some context to my immigration history:

- I applied for ILR (10 year route) 3rd week of June earlier this year.

- I got a drink driving conviction end of July for which I am undertaking a 14 month ban and paid a fine in court. I declared this to the Home Office within a week of being convicted via e-mail (early August) with a detailed letter and mitigation documents (character references and a letter of remorse).

- I was granted ILR this week (End-August).

Regarding the conviction: it was drink driving with no insurance. Both offences are in one conviction, in a single one-off incident. Previous to this, I have a clean record. I have signed up for the drink drive awareness course which is in end October.

I was wondering what this means with regards to timelines for my citizenship eligibility? Under the new rule changes (2023), the 'balance of probabilities' make it vague regarding when I could apply: can I apply in a few months after the course (as evidence of rehabilitation) or wait 2-3 years or 5 years after which it becomes spent? (I'm technically eligible to apply for Naturalisation immediately as my spouse is British)

Thank you so much and your thoughts would be appreciated!

What exactly is the code for your driving ban? People with a TT99 have reported being denied naturalisation.

contorted_svy wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 27, 2024 4:52 pm

What exactly is the code for your driving ban? People with a TT99 have reported being denied naturalisation.

The driving ban code is 'DR10' (endorsement removal year from licence: 2035, although I think it gets spent in 5 years?) and the insurance code is 'IN10' (endorsement removal date from licence: 2024)

I suggest you should read the Good character guidance https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... racter.pdf

Length of time since offences
You must consider how long ago the offences took place. The more recent the
offence, the more likely it is the applicant is not of good character.
Older offences may still indicate the person is not of good character, if the
circumstances of the conviction or disposal call the person’s character into question.
It is also more likely that a person will not be meet the good character requirement on
the sole basis of non-custodial offences or out of court disposals where the offences
took place recently.

Your offence was very recent - I would perhaps wait until you at least spent the 14 months and regain your full license and volunteer in the community/take more driving courses to show your character has improved.

contorted_svy wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 27, 2024 5:07 pm

I suggest you should read the Good character guidance https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... racter.pdf

Length of time since offences
You must consider how long ago the offences took place. The more recent the
offence, the more likely it is the applicant is not of good character.
Older offences may still indicate the person is not of good character, if the
circumstances of the conviction or disposal call the person’s character into question.
It is also more likely that a person will not be meet the good character requirement on
the sole basis of non-custodial offences or out of court disposals where the offences
took place recently.

Your offence was very recent - I would perhaps wait until you at least spent the 14 months and regain your full license and volunteer in the community/take more driving courses to show your character has improved.

Thanks for sending the guidance - I had a look through and it's quite vague regarding how 'recent' is too recent for these out of court disposals/fines. Do you think after the 14 months ban is over and regaining my licence back (I also do some community research work) would be enough? Or do you think the previous guidance of 3 years to wait is the metric to follow?

It is unfortunately hard to know. Try searching what people who had TT99s did and how that led to refusal - though the good character guidance changed only 2 years ago so it is hard to know the details of their decision making.

Hi Anon, I'm in a similar situation as you were. Applied for ILR 11 November and now I've been charged to court for drink driving to attend the court on 16th December. Verdict unknown yet but what are the documents you used as your character references and mitigation to the home office please?

Thank you in advance

Bamzy wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 12, 2024 11:39 pm

Hi Anon, I'm in a similar situation as you were. Applied for ILR 11 November and now I've been charged to court for drink driving to attend the court on 16th December. Verdict unknown yet but what are the documents you used as your character references and mitigation to the home office please?

Thank you in advance

Hi Bamzy, I used 3 character references from close family and wrote a letter explaining my case and apologising. Did you find out the court verdict?