Immigrationboards.com

Hi, I'm currently thinking to apply for citizenship after holding ILR for 22 years. The problem i have is that in the last 5 years 2 and a half of those have been spent abroad, however someone who worked for a immigration law firm suggested i might qualify for special circumstances. Would anyone know if there was any truth to this.
I have gone through the full education system here and consider this my home (i know the govt won't care about that). I really dont want to lose all that money from hearsay and can't find anything to confirm or deny the speculation?

What do you feel the 'special circumstances' are?

This is exactly it, i don't think i had any such thing. However this friend said her lawyer friend said as i have been in the uk for such a long time i might be able to dismiss the being out of the country with the explanation on strong ties to the uk.

The booklet seems to indicate that you have up to 900 days in the last 5 years. (for being resident for more than 8 years), this would be by discretion. You might have to wait a few months to get absences in the last 12 months below 100 days. Of course this just means they won't outright refuse your application, just that it'll be considered.