UKM Form Question regarding Referee

[SaraLondon]

I am applying for British Citizenship through the UKM form route. I know that one of the referees must be a British citizen and that they must be in specific professions.

Here is my dilemma

1) I am in the US and the only people I know in the UK are my family members. How can I get a second referee if I do not know anyone other than family in the UK? Am I now not able to apply for my British Citizenship via this route now as I do not know a British citizen that is not family that I could use as a referee?

This is the route that I am required to take as I was born of a British mother before 1983 outside of the UK (United States).

My ultimate goal is to move to the UK to be with family as I no longer have any living family in the United States, they are all in the UK. I now feel that I am stuck

[Jaune08]

1) I am in the US and the only people I know in the UK are my family members. How can I get a second referee if I do not know anyone other than family in the UK? Am I now not able to apply for my British Citizenship via this route now as I do not know a British citizen that is not family that I could use as a referee?

I don’t know if this might be applicable/helpful to your case, but I also had problems to find the second referee for my daugther’s application (she was one year old and never got a professional relationship with any British citizen because we weren’t living in the UK). What we did was asking to my husbands accountant to sign. He stated very clearly that even though it wasn’t a direct professional interaction since she’s wasnt living in the UK, he sorted out the finances for her citizenship application and my visa. And it did pass without a problem. Maybe you can do something similar.

We were also told by a lawyer that if the referee didn’t pass, we could travel to the UK, go to either a dentist or a relative’s GP surgery for consultation (i.e., check up) and ask them to sign, I don’t know if that works or it’s accepted because we didn’t need and do it, but our solicitor advised us that as second option.

[seagul]

Section 3 - Referees and Identity
3.1 One referee should be a person of any nationality who has professional standing, for
example, minister of religion, civil servant, or a member of a professional body, for example,
accountant or solicitor (who is not representing you with this application). The other referee must
normally be a holder of a British citizen passport and either a professional person or over the age
of 25 (see Guide UKM).
Both should declare that:
• they are not a relative, solicitor or agent of the applicant
• they are not employed by the Home Office
• they have not been convicted of an imprisonable offence (unless that conviction can be
disregarded in line with the table shown on page 10 of Guide UKM)
• they have known the applicant personally for more than 3 years
• they are willing to give full details of their knowledge of the applicant
• they will advise the Home Office of any reason why the applicant should not be naturalised