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Residency Requirement - 3 or 5 years?

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:01 pm
by imranh
Hi there

I am just confused on the link below regarding below;

https://www.gov.uk/becoming-a-british-citizen

It says
And you must usually have:

lived in the UK for at least the 5 years before the date of your application
spent no more than 450 days outside the UK during those 5 years
I am sure the residency requirement was 3 years and not 5 years??

My wife got her ILR in January 2013 and she originally came on her settlement visa in December 2010. I always thought residency requirement was 3 years and I remember reading this a few times in the past. My wife's ILR qualifying period was about 2 years from getting her settlement visa as oppose to the 4/5 year rule as is at the moment.

Any advice because she was going to apply in the summer and now she may wait until December if the 5 year rule applies to her.

Please advise because I am confused!!!

Many Thanks in advance

Kind Regards

Re: Residency Requirement - 3 or 5 years?

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:13 pm
by CR001
Are you a British Citizen?

If you are, from your link, there is another link that you should click on for spouse of BC, done for you below and she could probably have applied in December 2013 already as spouse of BC :

https://www.gov.uk/becoming-a-british-c ... sh-citizen
ived in the UK for at least the 3 years before your application is received
spent no more than 270 days outside the UK in those 3 years
spent no more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months
not broken any immigration laws while in the UK