Immigrationboards.com

Can someone verify that that for residency over 7 years the threshold on absences is 730 days? I found someone saying it in a post here:

"My wife is in a similar situation where she has got nearly 720 absences and I had to delay our naturalisation application to be in 7 year residency period where upto 730 absences are disregarded."

This is for my spouse's application.

Not sure where this 7 year reference comes from but naturalisation is based on meeting the residence requirements for either 5 years or 3 years (married to spouse BC). The absences limits are :

Residential requirements

To demonstrate the residential requirements for naturalisation, you must have:
* been resident in the UK for at least five years (this is known as the residential qualifying period); and
* been present in the UK five years before the date of your application; and
* not spent more than 450 days outside the UK during the five-year period; and
* not spent more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months of the five-year period; and
* not been in breach of the Immigration Rules at any stage during the five-year period.

The link below explains when discretion is applied

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/briti ... cesfromuk/

Thanks, but I found a reference here, a UKBA document dated Dec 2012. Check page 32 of 44 (in pdf), see 5A1. Seems for spouses the limit is 540 days.

But please also bear in mind that these absences will be considered at discretion and all other qualifying requirements will need to be met 100%.

My wife is in UK for over 5 years. So it seems we could either choose to go for 450 days in 5 years or 270 days in 3 years. Is that a choice bestowed upon the applicant?

Yes, the applicant can choose under which residence requirement to apply. If you are already British, 3 years is fine if the standard requirements are met. If she would rather apply on the basis of 5 years, she can do that too.

When did she get ILR??

I am not BC yet, We will be applying together. Does that affect our choice of 3 and 5 years? She hasn't got ILR. Will be next year, planning ahead.

If she applies on the basis of spouse of BC, they will only consider her application once yours is done/approved as you are only BC once you have attended the ceremony and received your certificate.

For a joint application, it would then make sense if she applies on the basis of 5 years in her own right.

Do you have ILR yet?