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PR received. Naturalization query

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:54 pm
by ammirza
Hi,
I've applied for PR in Mar 2011 using EEA3 form and received the blue certificate of PR today.

My question is:

- My 5 years got completed in Sep 2010, but I applied in Mar 11 and the date on PR certification is 16 May. When will my 1 year (post PR) be completed so that I can apply for citizenship?

- When applying for citizenship, will I again have to send the bulk of documents to prove treaty rights etc., or can I just send my PR certificate at that time? One of the reason I applied for PR was to confirm that homeoffice agrees to the evidences of my treaty rights so that my citizenship application would be more straight forward. I personally think, there's no point in sending the proofs again as I wouldn't have received the PR at the first place.

Would appreciate if someone could resolve my queries or share their thoughts.

Thanks

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 2:10 pm
by olcay
Congratulations!
I don't think you will have to send all the documents again.

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 3:46 pm
by Jambo
Well, there is the simple way and the right way...

You can apply for naturalisation after 5+1 years so you can apply for naturalisation in September 2011 (assuming you meet the residence requirements and pass the life in the UK test). In that case, it is likely you will need to provide all the documents again. More likely if you are using NCS as this is not their typical case and they might need "convincing" that you are allowed to apply at this point (for which having all the documents with you is useful. They will photocopy it all just in case).
You need to understand that nationalisation applications are dealt with a different department within the home office and having provide documents to one department doesn't save you from doing it again.

If you wait until 16 May 2012, then the blue certificate would be enough to show you have completed PR + 1.

Having said that all, I don't see any advantage of gaining British citizenship in addition to another EU one. It's not cheap and would just mean that any family member (now or in future) would be subject to national immigrations rules and not EU ones.

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 5:52 pm
by Plum70
Jambo wrote:...and would just mean that any family member (now or in future) would be subject to national immigrations rules and not EU ones.
Not true. Provided that dual nationality is permitted, an EU national can become British and have their family members benefit from either the EU or national route - quite an advantage to have more than one option, no?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 8:24 pm
by ammirza
Well.. Thanks for all the replies, really appreciate that.

I can't possess dual nationality and I'll have to surrender my existing, however, as my wife is non-eea, I feel that British citizenship route is better to go for. Besides, after my PR, my future children will be British anyways so I don't see any harm in getting UK nationality by surrendering my other one.

Coming back to the topic, to be on the safer side, if I apply in May 2012, then I can send my PR certificate (to cover 5 years) plus 1 year proof in the form of P60 I guess? Does this mean, I can simply skip the last 5 years details section in the AN form?

Look forward to your responses.
Regards

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 11:09 pm
by Jambo
If you hold a PR confirmation, you can skip section 2.4 in the AN form (EU exercising treaty rights).
You don't need to show P60 for the final year. There is no requirement to be economically active for naturalisation (in fact, very few documents are needed for naturalisation which always amaze people on working visa who are used to send tons of documents to the HO). You just need to meet the residence requirement + good character + LIUK test.