Hi there

My wife would like to apply for British citizenship and we are slightly confused about one aspect of the three year qualifying residency period. She was granted ILR in June 2013, having been living with me in the UK under a settlement visa since April 2011. Prior to that my wife lived with me in the UK under a student visa from January 2010 to March 2011.

The question is whether the student visa period counts towards the three year requirement so that we can apply now (if it does we actually could have applied as soon as she got the ILR), or does it not count meaning we need to wait until April 2014?

The UKBA link on 7by7's helpful citizenship guide states the applicant must have been "resident" for three years. I understand residency is not defined in the Immigration Act but I found some Immigration Inspectorate instructions (link below) which seems to say under para 2.1 that study is normally a form of residence. Also booklet AN containing the naturalisation requirements says the applicant just has to have "lived" here for three years, which she definitely has. However, Guide AN states you must enter in section 2 of the application form the date "you first arrived with a view to staying in the UK on a long-term basis". This slightly calls it into question because her study visa was a fixed 15 month period so I'm not sure we can technically say she was staying on a "long-term" basis.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/policyandlaw/IDIs/idischapter19/section2/section2.pdf?view=Binary

My interpretation is that we are probably ok and the study time does count but it would be great if someone could confirm this and/or point us to the relevant definitive guidance.

Thanks

The information given by UKVI (as the UKBA is now called) is somewhat disingenuous.

The actual requirement is not to have been resident, merely physically and legally present. The type of visa held at that time doesn't matter.

So she can apply three years after the date she entered as a student; provided she meets all the other requirements, especially the time out of the UK limit.

That's great thanks very much for your help.