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HI All,

I am thinking of applying for naturalization soon and I have a question about driving offence. I entered UK for the first time in may 2005. I got a speeding ticket when I was caught by a speed camera (driving at 38mph on a 30mph road) in june 2006. Since I was driving on a foreign driving license I got summons from the court and I paid a fine of £95 (including court fee of £35) and got 3 points on my driving licesne (though I never had to personally appear in the court) and the offence was noted as SP30. Based on my research there is a decent chance that I can still be approved for naturalisation.

Now my query is this. Is it better for me to apply now or should I wait until it is spent?

Thanks.

First the offence is one of those classified as minor offence and you are likely to get approval if you applied before it is spent. If you apply after it is spent, the Home Office is not in the business of reviewing Court sentences, all they would do is to apply the ruling to the approval criteria so you should be fine.

Tonytee

Thanks tonytee. That does provide some level of comfort.

Did you apply? Do you know the results?

tonytee wrote:First the offence is one of those classified as minor offence and you are likely to get approval if you applied before it is spent. If you apply after it is spent, the Home Office is not in the business of reviewing Court sentences, all they would do is to apply the ruling to the approval criteria so you should be fine.

Tonytee

Although the offence itself is classified as a minor one, it has ended with a court sentence, which means IT IS a conviction (which should be spent before applying for naturalisation).
Some people are accepted as UKBA apply discretion to such cases (especially if they are towards the end of 5 years "spending" time).
Plenty others have their applications rejected.

dex123 wrote:Now my query is this. Is it better for me to apply now or should I wait until it is spent?

To be safe, I'd wait until it is spent (i.e. 5 years after the date on your court sentence)