Immigrationboards.com

Hi everybody,
Is there anyone who has applied citizenship after 14 years ILR?
Some people said applicant must have 5 years legal status before applying, but some includes my rep said it can be done just after one year ILR. I have 2 years ILR and one year DLR before that and over 18 years living in the country.
Any ideas?

Perhaps your qualifying period may start when you had applied for DLR.

vinny wrote:Perhaps your qualifying period may start when you had applied for DLR.

Thank you for your quick reply.
We did not apply for DL at all. Our story is too long to repeat here again ( which I have posted elsewhere in this forum).
It will be the fifth years from Jan 2010 if we count from the date we made our application. The reason I post here is I want to know the success rate of this type of circumstances as the application is very high and going up every year.

It depends, it's discretionary,they do allow some people after 12 months but its a risk.its more likely to be seen with legacy cases/LOTR.

chorc123, this is actually quite a complicated matter and unless you give more detail about your UK immigration history, it is impossible to come to a conclusion to your question.

I have quickly scanned your previous posts and apart from a brief mention that you were a student, I cannot spot anything.

So please briefly gives details of your UK immigration history, in order that a proper comment can be made.

The background to all this is that you must be "legal" at all times in the 5-year qualifying period when applying for Naturalisation. Now that will clearly be the case 5 years after you got your ILR, but only by having details of your UK immigration history might it be possible to come up with better than that.

There is under paragraphs 2 and 4 of Schedule 1 to the 1981 Act, discretion to disregard breaches of the immigration laws during the qualifying period. This can be used where persons fall outside of the provisions set out in 8. Breaches of the immigration laws during the 5/3 year qualifying period (click).

Amber, you are of course correct about the possibility of UKBA disregarding.

Nevertheless it would still be useful to have more detail. chorc123, am I right to think that you used to have a valid student visa, so were legal at that time, and then you overstayed?

John wrote:Amber, you are of course correct about the possibility of UKBA disregarding.

Nevertheless it would still be useful to have more detail. chorc123, am I right to think that you used to have a valid student visa, so were legal at that time, and then you overstayed?

Yes, we have 7 years legal at the beginning, then due to numbers of error from solicitor and struggled with the case. We had two British born kids at the time and we supposed to apply for 7 years concession at 2005. Sadly, this person did not apply for us before the 7 years child concession gone. Then, because we had no more money and our business went burst, and home eviction after that time, also he had our thousands pounds deposit for the case and he held all documents. We could not go any where, only to wait till to the 14th years. Then he did not do the job properly, which he supposed to apply for ILR. Again, he did not do it correctly. As we contacted our MP to help, eventually UKBA gave 3 years on 2011 Feb. My story hadn't stop there, this person did not give us back the passport and documents and wanted more money ( thousands of pounds). Eventually, we have another representative and MP to help us to get everything back and applied ILR again that year. I was granted on around 2011 and my partner granted a year ago.

I applied under 14 years long residence and was given ILR. I applied for naturalisation 4 months after getting my ILR and asked them to apply their discretion in regards to having no immigration control for the last year as my application took nearly 11 months.

My naturalisation application took about 2 months and it was a success.

14years wrote:I applied under 14 years long residence and was given ILR. I applied for naturalisation 4 months after getting my ILR and asked them to apply their discretion in regards to having no immigration control for the last year as my application took nearly 11 months.

My naturalisation application took about 2 months and it was a success.

Thank you for your reply.
It is a very good news to us.

Please when you fill the application make sure you ask them for their discretion to be applied in regards to last 5 years of legal stay and it wouldn't hurt to explain about your length of stay in this country, your connection here and your good character. you have come this far now so don't rush things. I was in a position where I could afford to take a gamble. I knew before I applied that its a 50/50 chance for me but I just wanted to do it anyway. Thank GOD it worked in my favour but mentally I was prepared to accept both outcomes. I hope they will look at your application favourably.

14years wrote:Please when you fill the application make sure you ask them for their discretion to be applied in regards to last 5 years of legal stay and it wouldn't hurt to explain about your length of stay in this country, your connection here and your good character. you have come this far now so don't rush things. I was in a position where I could afford to take a gamble. I knew before I applied that its a 50/50 chance for me but I just wanted to do it anyway. Thank GOD it worked in my favour but mentally I was prepared to accept both outcomes. I hope they will look at your application favourably.

Thank you very much for your advice.
I think I would prefer to do so through my rep. in safe side.
Yes, it is a lot of money for that!!