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Hello all,

I am EU citizen living and working in the UK for around 8 years now. In April this year I obtained the permanent residence card and I am planning to apply for British Citizenship asap. For the past 8 years I have been employed by the same organisation where I still work. In January 2011 I took a career break to study abroad, in France for approximately 4 months towards my master degree. Now, I know there are some people who face difficulties when applying for naturalisation because they studied and did not pay insurance. I am not sure if my employer payed any insurance when I was away. I don't think he did but I was not in the UK too. How will HO look at my situation please? Would that career break reset all the previous years I spent in the UK (when I was exercising the treaty rights)? Or simply the clock will pause and that 4 months will not be counted into the required time to be spent in the UK before applying for naturalisation? If the latter is true I should be able to apply for British Citizenship now (providing other required conditions are met)?
I would be grateful for any thoughts on this problem.

Ignatia wrote:Hello all,

I am EU citizen living and working in the UK for around 8 years now. In April this year I obtained the permanent residence card and I am planning to apply for British Citizenship asap. For the past 8 years I have been employed by the same organisation where I still work. In January 2011 I took a career break to study abroad, in France for approximately 4 months towards my master degree. Now, I know there are some people who face difficulties when applying for naturalisation because they studied and did not pay insurance. I am not sure if my employer payed any insurance when I was away. I don't think he did but I was not in the UK too. How will HO look at my situation please? Would that career break reset all the previous years I spent in the UK (when I was exercising the treaty rights)? Or simply the clock will pause and that 4 months will not be counted into the required time to be spent in the UK before applying for naturalisation? If the latter is true I should be able to apply for British Citizenship now (providing other required conditions are met)?
I would be grateful for any thoughts on this problem.

You seem to have conflated some misunderstandings of EU migration rules with naturalisation requirements.

if you already have a DCPR dating back from over a year ago then that is your Willie Wonka golden ticket, if you will.

You simply apply for the privilege of citizenship when all other requirements have been/can be met.

So that includes meeting the naturalisation absence rules (different from EU rules):
max 450 days absence over 5 years, including max 90 days absence in the past 12 months before applying;

Also proof you were physically present in UK 5 years (to the day) before date of application (assuming you are not married to a British spouse);

• sound mind;
  good character;
  referees;
  LITUK;
  proof of English;

etc.

You can see 'insurance' simply does not come into the equation.

If you were away in France from Jan to May 2011 you were clearly back in UK by June 2011 - which is 5 years ago, so all good,

What you may not know is the date PR was acquired and the date as recorded in your HO CID record; (its not the issue date on the DCPR, doh!).
The $64,000 question is: was it over a year ago?!

Apply to naturalise via NCS and NCS can check the PR date on a private HO hotline.
Or request your SAR from UKVI, it may contain this date.

Bonne chance!