Applying for citizenship without having ILR first?

[jayxx]

I am a BC from birth and my wife will have been in the UK for 7 years from the start of this october. She came here as a student on a 3 year visa and obtained a one year IGS. We got married on the day her visa expired and posted it to the Home Office the next day.

The application for our marriage visa was initially declined due to them initially stating we filled a form that was out of date and that they could not take fee payment. We down loaded this form off the UKBA website!

We also found out afterwards that the card had been used fraudulently (over £2k was taken out causing the card to be declined). To cut a long story short a year long battle via my local MP and the Home Office MP resulted in our visa being accepted for the standard 2 year period.

Essentially my wife has been here for 3 years on a student visa, 1 year on an IGS, 1 year in limbo and 2 years on a marriage visa. As far as I know this all counts as legal stay and we still have all correspondence from Parliament and our MP along with UKBA letters.

I now want to apply for UK citizenship and am disgusted to see that they now want us to pay £1k for ILR which will only be useful for one year before having to shell out another £1k for a UK passport.

She has always been working since being in this country. My question is this, I have noticed that there are discretion to the 12 months of time free stay requirements. I believe the following statement applies to our situation;
This page explains how we can use our discretion to disregard immigration time restrictions during the last 12 months of the residential qualifying period when considering applications for naturalisation as a British citizen.

You must be free from immigration time restrictions on the day when you apply for naturalisation as a British citizen. Unless you are married to a British citizen, you should also have been free from immigration time restrictions for at least 12 months before you make your application. If you have not been free from time restrictions for 12 months, we will normally use our discretion to disregard this if:

(1) the time restriction was in place for more than 90 days at the beginning of the 12-month period, (2) all other requirements including the residence requirement are met, (3) you can show that you have established links to the UK through your home, family and larger part of your estate, and (4) there are compelling business or compassionate reasons to approve your application; or

Has anyone had any success with pursuing this. We are both home owners, I run my own business and we have numerous family here.

I find it in direct violation of ones human rights to even have to apply to stay here and be charged such a significant amount on the basis of a successful marriage. I mean how can they split up a couple that are working diligently and paying significant amounts of UK tax.

Any similar experiences would be much appreciated. Apologies for the long post.

[Beige]

I don't think there's a way around applying for naturalisation without initially acquiring indefinite leave to remain. Its a very expensive process, but unfortunately it is what it is.

[Lucapooka]

You need to be free from immigration time restrictions (aka ILR or PR). There is no way around this.

[newperson]

I find it in direct violation of ones human rights to even have to apply to stay here and be charged such a significant amount on the basis of a successful marriage. I mean how can they split up a couple that are working diligently and paying significant amounts of UK tax.

I understand where your irritation is coming from as well as your reluctance to part with even more money. I've been there myself. But to be frank, and I mean completely honest, the UKBA will consider the above reasoning to be absolute and utter codswallop. The caseworker will literally laugh out loud...and then reach for her "refuse" button/stamp/lever.

Apply for ILR.

[jayxx]

Appreciate the response guys. Regarding the above post, these public sector workers have no clue IMO. They are just pen pushers. When my wifes initial application was declined I phoned 6 solicitors 2 of them good friends of mine and all told me to get my wife to Leave the country. I did not accept this and disputed directly with the home office minister Phil Woolas via our very helpful local MP. As stated it was accepted in the end.

I think there needs to be more people challenging these arbitory rules which are made to squeeze more cash out of people trying to live their live in an honest an legitimate manner. The individuals who come here illegally get a free ride at our expense and I simply cannot accept this.

The way I see it, if she will be eligible for ILR then BC is the same thing. The principal here is more important that the money to me.

[PaperPusher]

ILR and citizenship is not the same thing. I don't rate your chances.