How Long Does It Take To Get UK Citizenship

Continuous Residency Requirements

You must demonstrate that you have resided in the UK for at least five years and that during that period, you have met the following criteria:

• Spent not more than 450 days outside the UK throughout those five years, or 270 days outside the UK during the previous three years
• Maximum of 90 days outside the UK during the previous calendar year.

90 Days Rule for British Citizenship

In order to be eligible for citizenship in the United Kingdom, you will need to have spent no more than 90 days outside the country in the year immediately before the day on which you submitted your application for British citizenship by naturalisation.

If you are not married to a British citizen, you will furthermore be required to demonstrate that you have spent less than 450 days outside of the United Kingdom during the course of the previous five years.

You will need to have spent no more than 270 days outside of the UK in the three years prior to applying for citizenship in the UK if you are married to a British citizen.

Differences in Residency Requirement For Different British Citizenship Routes

Spouse Route

Generally speaking, you may apply for citizenship through the spouse route after around 5 years; however, you might need to wait several months before each of your requests is approved. You would need to wait 10 years before applying for ILR if you fail to meet the financial or English language requirements. Consequently, if you choose this method, it can take you at least 10 years to become a citizen.

European Economic Area National

As an EEA national, you must typically wait at least six years before you may seek citizenship. You must restart your five-year term if you have spent more than two years outside the UK during that time since it will no longer be considered five years of “continuous” residence.

You must resume the five-year term if you stop using your treaty rights during that time.

Refugee

As a refugee, it typically takes at least 6 years to petition for British citizenship. Many refugees are unaware of the ‘good character’ condition of the naturalisation application when seeking for British citizenship.

They think they may seek for naturalisation after five years of lawful residence in the UK.

The Home Office, however, has put a 10-year restriction on persons who have been associated with immigration-related concerns. This may include sneaking into the UK or dodging immigration checks.

General Migrant

As a Tier 2 (General) Migrant, the application process for British citizenship typically takes at least 6 years to complete. If you leave the United Kingdom for more than 180 days in any period of 12 months, your continuity of residence will be broken, and you may be required to seek further leave to stay instead. This will make it take longer for you to become a citizen of the United Kingdom.

Spouse or Partner Route

As a spouse, the conventional path to citizenship would look like this:

• Marriage;
• Requesting entrance clearance as a spouse – visa processing periods for Nigerian are often no more than six months;
• If your application is approved, you will be given permission to stay for 2.5 years (no more than 33 months);
• If you and your British spouse are still together, you may request an extension of FLR(M) for an additional 2.5 years (no longer than 30 months);
• The next stage is to submit an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) after you have lived together continuously for at least five years (60 months). ILR is when a person has indefinite permission to stay in the UK and enjoys the advantages of being a British citizen (such as access to public finances and the NHS), but they are still considered to be citizens of their country of birth.
• You may apply for naturalisation as a British citizen after you obtain ILR.

To summarise, after about five years of being married to your partner, you are eligible to submit an application for citizenship; however, it is possible that you will need to wait a few months for each of your applications to be approved.

European Economic Area National (EEAN) or a family member of EEAN

The general process as follows:

• As an EEA citizen, all you need to enter the UK is a current passport or national identification card from an EEA nation. Before visiting the UK, if you are a non-EEA family member of an EEA person, you must apply for an EEA family permit. It’s suitable for six months;
• You may apply for a registration certificate or residency card to make it simpler to demonstrate your eligibility to live and work in the UK; however, this is not required;
• You are eligible to apply for permanent residence if you have been in the UK continuously for five years. You must have met the criteria for the five years.If your spouse was a “qualified” person or had a permanent address for the whole 5-year period, and you are a non-EEA family member, then.
• If you have the paperwork attesting to your permanent residency, you may apply for British citizenship one year after you pass the test.

To summarise, in order to be eligible to submit an application for EEA citizenship, one must typically wait a minimum of six years after becoming a national of the EEA.

For Refugees

Although the amount of time it takes for a person with refugee status to become a citizen of the United Kingdom might vary, the overall procedure consists of the following steps:

• Make an application for asylum in the United Kingdom; if your application is successful, you will be awarded five years’ worth of refugee status or permission to stay for humanitarian grounds;
• You are eligible to submit an application for indefinite permission to stay (ILR) when 5 years have passed;
• Before you may apply for British citizenship, you are required to have Indefinite Leave to Remain for at least a year.

As a result, and to summarise, the process of applying for citizenship as a refugee in the United Kingdom often takes at least six years.