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Hi,

I recently married my Romanian girlfriend. We got married in England without a problem. My wife was able to get a certificate from our local registrar and we were married in our local Baptist church.

We were wondering how my wife can become a British Citizen now? What is the process? Is it necessary?

I've tried to look on the government website but find it difficult to find the answers I'm looking for

Any help would be appreciated

Kind regards

BM

Are you British?

How long has your Romanian wife lived and worked in the UK?

Does she have Permanent Residence (PR)?

If she has recently arrived in the UK, she will need to be exercising her Treaty Rights under the EU directive for 5 years, after which she will gain automatic PR. She can then apply for confirmation of PR and once she has received that she can apply for citizenship as spouse of British Citizen and will need to meet the English Language Level B1 and Life in the UK tests.

There is no short cut unfortunately.

so if you are an EEA national and married to a British citizen then can you can apply for BC after 3 years or 5 years?

I know someone who is a Swedish Passport holder and married to a British citizen but he insists that he can apply for BC after 2 years? is he right?

No.

Technically you have to be free from immigration time restrictions in order to be eligible to apply for BC but still its not clear whether an EEA national can apply after 3 years or 5 years specifically if married to a British citizen.There is nothing specifically mentioned anywhere on the UKBA site regarding the issue.

navalaviator wrote:but still its not clear

Still not clear to you, you mean? It is very clear on the UKBA website.

so you can NOT apply for citizenship after 3 years of marriage with a British citizen if you are an EEA national and you have to complete 5 years in the UK and have permanent residence in order to be eligible for the BC.

Sorry for being bit daft but I got really confused because as I said above that an acquaintance of mine insists that he is eligible to apply for BC as he is married to a British citizen and claims that if you are an EU national(Swedish in this case) and married to UK citizen then you can apply for BC after 2 years and seems like most probably he is mixing 2 years of spouse visa and ILR with the BC.

Yes, you must be settled, and under EEA rules, that is in your case, the spouse of an EEA national who is exercising treaty rights for 5 years. Moreover, the new immigration rules for spouses is also 5 years, so most new applicants will have to wait 5 years, even though the legislation could potentially allow them to naturalise after 3.