My absences from the UK are high due to the COVID-19 pandemic – can I still apply for British citizenship?

Generally, the Home Office is open to considering naturalisation applications, where your absences from the UK have exceeded the permitted thresholds, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To be naturalised as a British citizen, the Home Office will normally expect your absences from the UK to not exceed an average of 3 months per year throughout the relevant 5-year or 3-year period, on which your application relies (depending on whether or not you are married to an existing British citizen at the date of application).

Home Office policy does, however, enable you to submit an application for discretionary consideration where your absences from the UK are up to 900 days in the relevant 5-year period (or up to 540 days in the relevant 3-year period).

Current policy enables the Home Office to exercise discretion in respect of excess absences, which were as a result of an applicant being “unable to return to the UK because of the global pandemic”. In our practical experience to date, the Home Office has been broadly willing to exercise discretion on such basis, and we have made numerous successful applications.  

This will be welcome news to many applicants who were caught outside of the UK in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, lockdowns and infection, and are now considering applying for British citizenship.

How Gherson can assist

Gherson’s Immigration Team are highly experienced in advising on UK immigration and nationality matters. If you have any questions arising from this blog, please do not hesitate to contact us for advice, send us an e-mail, or, alternatively, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn to stay-up-to-date.

The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Gherson accepts no responsibility for loss which may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please do not hesitate to contact Gherson. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Gherson.

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