Hi

will be applying for the wifes citizenship shortly & just want to clarify a couple of details.

She already has her ILR and has been in the country since 2006.

As a spouse I know she needs 3 years residency & my questions are.

a) as I understand it she must have been physically in the country 3 years prior to her application & the home office will calculate that by counting back 3 years from the date they receive her application.

would there be a problem if we were out of the country whilst they were processing her application as long as we did not exceed the 90 days in 12 month & 270 days in 3 year limit.

The residential requirement is counted back from the date of the application.

So, as you say, she must have been physically present in the UK on the day three years prior to them receiving the application and during that three years have spent no more than 270 days in total out of the UK with no more than 90 days in the final year.

To check this and to check her identity* they will need to see her passport, so unless you use the Nationality Checking Service she wont have her passport back until the application has been completed.

So whilst there will be no actual limit on how long she can spend out of the UK while her application is being processed, if she doesn't have her passport then she can't leave the UK.

*She can use documents other than her passport for the identity check, see the form, but she should use whichever evidence she used when taking the LitUK test or registering for an ESOL with citizenship course/exam.

The residential requirement is counted back from the date of the application. So, as you say, she must have been physically present in the UK on the day three years prior to them receiving the application and during that three years have spent no more than 270 days in total out of the UK with no more than 90 days in the final year. To check this and to check her identity* they will need to see her passport, so unless you use the Nationality Checking Service she wont have her passport back until the application has been completed. So whilst there will be no actual limit on how long she can spend out of the UK while her application is being processed, if she doesn't have her passport then she can't leave the UK. *She can use documents other than her passport for the identity check, see the form, but she should use whichever evidence she used when taking the LitUK test or registering for an ESOL with citizenship course/exam.

Cheers 7by7 didn't use the nationality checking service last time and ended up regreting it purely because of the length of time they had our documents so will probably spend the money this time around.