Immigrationboards.com

Hi, my 1 year after ILR wil lbe on 23rd August 2017 and the NCS offered me an appointment for the 17th. Is that ok? She was going to give me first week of August and I asked whether it's too early, she said that they have leeway of a week.

Does anyone have any experience of this? I can ask them to hold on to my application until the 23rd, but just wondering if they can send it sooner, or if it might get refused on that basis?

Any thoughts / advice will be very much appriciated.

it will get refused

apply 1 yr after due date

As Plabo says, you must have held ILR for a FULL 12 months before applying.

Date of application is the date of your NCS appointment and NOT the date that HO receive the application.

hmmm thanks for the guidance. I wonder why they gave me the appointment on the 17th?! Surely, they are trained in this very area...

silverchloride wrote:hmmm thanks for the guidance. I wonder why they gave me the appointment on the 17th?! Surely, they are trained in this very area...

They are a 3rd party agent and are not employed by HO.

Unless you are married to a British citizen, you MUST wait a full 12 months.

Thanks very much! I've emailed them now... not impressed that they didn't know this basic info.

silverchloride wrote:Thanks very much! I've emailed them now... not impressed that they didn't know this basic info.

You were probably dealing with someone from the council call centre. The trained nationality advisors do not take appointment calls.

Just to clarify some of the points raised in this thread: an application will not normally be refused just because the section 6(1) applicant has not yet completed 12 months free from immigration time restrictions. Apart from the fact that the Home Office has discretion to waive this requirement in some (very limited cases), it is long-standing policy to allow an early applicant to re-declare their application, provided that the application was not made more than two months early. For NCS cases, this is a largely academic point because NCS advisors are likely to object to transmitting an application to the HO that would require redeclaration.

Indguru90 wrote:
You were probably dealing with someone from the council call centre. The trained nationality advisors do not take appointment calls.

Just to clarify some of the points raised in this thread: an application will not normally be refused just because the section 6(1) applicant has not yet completed 12 months free from immigration time restrictions. Apart from the fact that the Home Office has discretion to waive this requirement in some (very limited cases), it is long-standing policy to allow an early applicant to re-declare their application, provided that the application was not made more than two months early. For NCS cases, this is a largely academic point because NCS advisors are likely to object to transmitting an application to the HO that would require redeclaration.

Yeah it's strange cos she went through my form with me (online request) looking at when I got ILR, etc and if I met the requirements. I specifically mentioned it to her that one cannot apply before 1 year has been completed on ILR, to which she said 'we have a leeway of up to a week'...

Hi all,

They have just got to me as follows:

I can understand your concern and you are correct to check. Assuming your application is sent from our office on the 17th August it can arrive the 18th. The home office does not work at the weekend. We normally advise you will be contacted 2-3 weeks after that by the Home Office to acknowledge receipt of your application. There is no information on the website regarding this as it is an operational timescale agreed between the Home Office and ourselves. I hope this alleviates any concerns. If you are still unsure we can change your appointment to a later date.

Does this make any sense? Or are they confused?

Your application date is the date of your NCS appointment and NOT the date that HO receives your application.

Your choice what you want to do and if you want to risk it for the sake of 6 days.

silverchloride wrote:Yeah it's strange cos she went through my form with me (online request) looking at when I got ILR, etc and if I met the requirements. I specifically mentioned it to her that one cannot apply before 1 year has been completed on ILR, to which she said 'we have a leeway of up to a week'...

Yes, I think there is some leeway in declaring the date of application. It does not have to be the date of the appointment, but it could be a slightly later date, assuming that the NCS holds on to your documents for a few days.

thsths wrote:

silverchloride wrote:Yeah it's strange cos she went through my form with me (online request) looking at when I got ILR, etc and if I met the requirements. I specifically mentioned it to her that one cannot apply before 1 year has been completed on ILR, to which she said 'we have a leeway of up to a week'...

Yes, I think there is some leeway in declaring the date of application. It does not have to be the date of the appointment, but it could be a slightly later date, assuming that the NCS holds on to your documents for a few days.

The guidance notes clearly state date of application is the date of NCS appointment, regardless of how long NCS hold onto it.

Silverchloride, do not waste time (and money, depending on the local authority) on rescheduling the NCS appointment. The NCS has given you the correct information about the 10 day waiveable period.

Nationality Instructions Chapter 18 Annex 2, para.7.5(c) provides: "Discretion to disregard immigration time restrictions in the final 12 months may normally be exercised if... the period of limited leave was less than 10 days at the beginning of the 12 month period before the date of application"

If you attend your NCS appointment 6 days "early", because the period is below the 10 day threshold, it is waived as a matter of routine discretion. You're fine attending on 17 August.

Indguru90 wrote:Silverchloride, do not waste time (and money, depending on the local authority) on rescheduling the NCS appointment. The NCS has given you the correct information about the 10 day waiveable period.

Nationality Instructions Chapter 18 Annex 2, para.7.5(c) provides: "Discretion to disregard immigration time restrictions in the final 12 months may normally be exercised if... the period of limited leave was less than 10 days at the beginning of the 12 month period before the date of application"

If you attend your NCS appointment 6 days "early", because the period is below the 10 day threshold, it is waived as a matter of routine discretion. You're fine attending on 17 August.

Hmmm yeah, I find it quite odd they gave me the appointment.... Plus looking at their response above, I don't think they are looking at 'date of NCS appointment is the date of application' they are looking at when Home Office will recieve it and look at it...

Ideally speaking, I'd like to get an appointment asap but I don't want to risk going down the route of 'discretion', as I keep reading these horror stories of how they refuse naturalisation on smal lthings... Quite confused now!

silverchloride wrote:

Indguru90 wrote:Silverchloride, do not waste time (and money, depending on the local authority) on rescheduling the NCS appointment. The NCS has given you the correct information about the 10 day waiveable period.

Nationality Instructions Chapter 18 Annex 2, para.7.5(c) provides: "Discretion to disregard immigration time restrictions in the final 12 months may normally be exercised if... the period of limited leave was less than 10 days at the beginning of the 12 month period before the date of application"

If you attend your NCS appointment 6 days "early", because the period is below the 10 day threshold, it is waived as a matter of routine discretion. You're fine attending on 17 August.

Hmmm yeah, I find it quite odd they gave me the appointment.... Plus looking at their response above, I don't think they are looking at 'date of NCS appointment is the date of application' they are looking at when Home Office will recieve it and look at it...

Ideally speaking, I'd like to get an appointment asap but I don't want to risk going down the route of 'discretion', as I keep reading these horror stories of how they refuse naturalisation on smal lthings... Quite confused now!

I don't think there's anything odd about their giving you the appointment early. It's probably not the first time this has been done. This is in line with UKVI guidance. The NCS will not however hold on to your application until 23 August. The date of the application is the date of receipt by the NCS, as pointed out by other posters.

Use of the word "discretion" is admittedly very confusing. Think about it as there being different types/levels of discretion, they don't all mean the same thing:

- As a technical matter, the entire naturalisation process is discretionary - nobody is legally entitled to be naturalised. Let's call this the overarching discretion. The legislation lays down minimum requirements that must be met before the Home Secretary may in her discretion grant naturalisation.

- The Home Secretary then has interpretive discretion, e.g. in issuing guidance on what on earth "good character" means.

- The Home Secretary additionally has a number of specific discretionary powers allowing her to waive (i.e. disregard) certain of the statutory conditions, such as the requirement that the applicant be settled for at least 12 months. This specific discretion comes in two types: formal and actual.

-- Actual discretion means the caseworker must come to a value judgment on the facts as to whether it is warranted to exercise a discretion, e.g. does that person have excess absences but his life is firmly established in the UK? It is in relation to actual, specific discretion that the (inaccurate) expression "naturalisation by discretion" is often used.
-- Formal discretion by contrast means that the Home Secretary has "crystallised" discretion into a fairly inflexible policy. The 10-day rule is one of those. The applicant is not relying on the caseworker making a value judgment - Home Office policy is as a matter of formality or routine to waive the 10 days, and the NCS is aware of this Home Office policy.

Indguru90 wrote:
I don't think there's anything odd about their giving you the appointment early. It's probably not the first time this has been done. This is in line with UKVI guidance. The NCS will not however hold on to your application until 23 August. The date of the application is the date of receipt by the NCS, as pointed out by other posters.

Use of the word "discretion" is admittedly very confusing. Think about it as there being different types/levels of discretion, they don't all mean the same thing:

- As a technical matter, the entire naturalisation process is discretionary - nobody is legally entitled to be naturalised. Let's call this the overarching discretion. The legislation lays down minimum requirements that must be met before the Home Secretary may in her discretion grant naturalisation.

- The Home Secretary then has interpretive discretion, e.g. in issuing guidance on what on earth "good character" means.

- The Home Secretary additionally has a number of specific discretionary powers allowing her to waive (i.e. disregard) certain of the statutory conditions, such as the requirement that the applicant be settled for at least 12 months. This specific discretion comes in two types: formal and actual.

-- Actual discretion means the caseworker must come to a value judgment on the facts as to whether it is warranted to exercise a discretion, e.g. does that person have excess absences but his life is firmly established in the UK? It is in relation to actual, specific discretion that the (inaccurate) expression "naturalisation by discretion" is often used.
-- Formal discretion by contrast means that the Home Secretary has "crystallised" discretion into a fairly inflexible policy. The 10-day rule is one of those. The applicant is not relying on the caseworker making a value judgment - Home Office policy is as a matter of formality or routine to waive the 10 days, and the NCS is aware of this Home Office policy.

That's some very good points. Many thanks! I am just getting worried because of the advise given by others on this thread, and also by the reassurance from NCS when I categorically asked them about the date of appoitment not being exactly 1 year or after ILR. I guess it's also because there is no 28 day rule in naturalisation which makes is more complicated...

I wonder if there is precident of visa refusals if someone applied earlier? Or if any other forum members have experience of getting appointments before their 1 year on ILR and being successful... I just don't want to give the UKVI people any lame excuse of turning it down as they are quite strict as it is on rules

What's the rush for?

plabo wrote:What's the rush for?

Nothing as such, just thought I'd be nice to send it off sooner (if possible/applicable!).

silverchloride wrote:

plabo wrote:What's the rush for?

Nothing as such, just thought I'd be nice to send it off sooner (if possible/applicable!).

Gaining a few days may not feel so nice if you lose the £1,282 application fee.

Casa wrote:Gaining a few days may not feel so nice if you lose the £1,282 application fee.

Yeah you're right - I'm going to get it changed on Monday. Just feel odd at the confusion they've caused and making me worried about how good they will be going through the actual documentation etc

Many thanks everyone, this forum is a life saver!

I'm going to change my appointment date, but seems like it could be possible:


Applicants under section 6(1) who have not been free of immigration time restrictions for 12 months Applicants under section 6(1) of the 1981 act are also required to have been free of immigration time restrictions for the remainder of this period. There is however discretion to waive this requirement.

Discretion to disregard immigration time restrictions in the 12 months prior to application can be exercised if
one of more of the following is met:


- the applicant had less than 12 months free of conditions when they applied, but meets the requirement by the time you consider the application and all the other requirements are met

- the period of limited leave was less than 10 days at the beginning of the 12 month period

- the period of limited leave was between 10 and 90 days at the beginning of the 12 month period, and the applicant:
o meets all the other requirements
o has strong links with the UK through having established their home, property and family here



Page 24 (Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... n-v1.0.pdf)