Keeping PR valid when moving abroad

[richy]

Hi,
I have been living in the UK for the past 7 years and I was granted my UK permanent resident staus in August 2016. I am a citizen of Latvia (A8) who had exercised the EU treaty rights in the UK. I am moving to Poland for the period of up to 2 years in the beginning of March 2017 but I am willing to return to the UK and continue living here thereafter.
Could you please advise me how can I keep my UK permanent residence card valid even though I might be absent from the UK for the period up to 2 years.

[noajthan]

Hi,
I have been living in the UK for the past 7 years and I was granted my UK permanent resident staus in August 2016. I am a citizen of Latvia (A8) who had exercised the EU treaty rights in the UK. I am moving to Poland for the period of up to 2 years in the beginning of March 2017 but I am willing to return to the UK and continue living here thereafter.
Could you please advise me how can I keep my UK permanent residence card valid even though I might be absent from the UK for the period up to 2 years.

Come back to UK before 2 years.
if you leave it 2+ years PR status will be lost. For ever; (due to Brexit no chance to reacquire).

[richy]

Hi,
I have been living in the UK for the past 7 years and I was granted my UK permanent resident staus in August 2016. I am a citizen of Latvia (A8) who had exercised the EU treaty rights in the UK. I am moving to Poland for the period of up to 2 years in the beginning of March 2017 but I am willing to return to the UK and continue living here thereafter.
Could you please advise me how can I keep my UK permanent residence card valid even though I might be absent from the UK for the period up to 2 years.

Come back to UK before 2 years.
if you leave it 2+ years PR status will be lost. For ever; (due to Brexit no chance to reacquire).

If return back to the UK within 2 years, will my 5 year period for the British citizenship be interrupted? Does it mean once I am back, I will have to wait for another 5 years to apply for the citizenship?

[noajthan]

If return back to the UK within 2 years, will my 5 year period for the British citizenship be interrupted? Does it mean once I am back, I will have to wait for another 5 years to apply for the citizenship?

If you have ambitions for citizenship you need to fulfill the (different) requirements on absences.
For example a cumulative absence of 2 years will blow that out the water or at least delay any application.

You have to keep hold of your PR and satisfy all requirements for naturalisation, including LITUK, English, referees, sound mind, good character, residence/absences & etc etc.
Suggest read naturalisation guidance to get up to speed on such vital matters.

[ohara]

If you have held PR for over 12 months, your best bet is probably to apply for citizenship now. If you lose PR due to absence, you probably won't ever get another chance to do it again this easily.

[secret.simon]

Read up on the residence requirement for naturalisation. They are completely unrelated to the requirements for PR.

Broadly, you need to have been absent no more than 90 days in the year preceding the date of application, no more than 450 days in the five years preceding the date of the application and be physically present in the UK at the start of the five year period preceding the date of application (so, date of application - five years + 1 day).

As Ohara suggested, you may want to start the ball rolling now, rather than wait for developments in the next two years. Remember that you can apply for naturalisation after a year of acquiring PR and not after a year of the DCPR. Search these forums for how to apply for an SAR to find out the date of acquisition of PR on the Home Office Records.