This depends on whether you are married to a British citizen.

If you are married to a British citizen, you can apply for naturalisation as soon as you have obtained Indefinite Leave to Remain. However, you will need to satisfy the requirements for British citizenship above.

If you are not married to a British citizen, you must not have been subject to immigration time restrictions for at least 12 months prior to an application for naturalisation. This is likely to mean that you will only be able to apply for British citizenship 12 months after your grant of Indefinite Leave to Remain.

The Good Character requirement does not have a clear definition. However, there are some instances in which a refusal is likely. These are:

• prior criminal convictions, unless 3 years have passed;
• deception or dishonesty, including deception in a current or previous immigration application which will result in the applicant being barred from another application for 10 years; and
• failure to comply with immigration laws, including illegal entry, overstaying, and illegal working.

If you have been refused an application previously on grounds of Good Character, speak to us today.

Your British citizenship application will need to be supported by two referees.

One referee should be a person in a professional standing, such as a civil servant, a member of a professional body such as a solicitor or barrister (who are not representing your application), or minister of religion. They can be of any nationality.

A second referee should a British passport holder and either a professional person over the age of 25.

Naturalisation applications typically take around three months to receive British citizenship decisions by the Home Office. However, it can take up to six months.

Recent changes have made clear that a CSI problem is not as fatal to a citizenship application as was once thought.

Home Office guidance now recognises that a person “affiliated” with the NHS will be considered to have held CSI.  To be so affiliated, an EU national must have been “ordinarily resident” in the UK.

A person will be ordinarily resident in the UK if their residence is voluntary, lawful, and for a settled purpose, terms elaborated upon in separate guidance.

The application fee for a British citizenship application is £1,330.

Once your application is successful, you will need to spend £80 to arrange your British citizenship ceremony, this will include the administration of a citizenship oath and pledge at the ceremony.

Yes. Once your British citizenship application has been submitted, you can travel outside of the UK while it is being considered. As a part of your application, you can submit a certified copy of your passport and keep the original in order to travel.

Your application will not affect your immigration permissions, but you will need to demonstrate entitlement to re-enter. You should travel with evidence of your relevant immigration status.

Keep in mind that you need to enrol your biometric information within 45 days of your Naturalisation application, which may be necessary in person. Failure to provide this will nullify your pending application.

You will also be be required to arrange your British citizenship ceremony within 90 days of your application being approved.

If you are a BNO, BOTC, BOC, British Subject or British protected person, then you are not classed as a British citizen, but Naturalisation is unlikely to be the appropriate British citizenship route. You will have alternative routes to British citizen through registration.

Yes, you can travel outside the UK after your British citizenship application has been submitted. You can submit a certified copy of your passport as part of the supporting documentation, and keep the original to enable you to travel.

You should keep details of your current immigration status – i.e. ILR or settled status – with you when travelling, in order to ensure you are entitled to re-enter the UK and/or ensure your e-visa is properly updated.

The best way to ensure that your naturalisation application is successful is to work on it with Truth Legal. We’ll ensure that you meet all relevant eligibility criteria before starting the application process, as well as pulling together all the documentation you need.

We’ll also advise on matters such as the Life in the UK test and the English language requirements. The key to any successful application is to take time and care before applying to ensure that all criteria are met and details such as referees handled correctly.

If you don’t meet the ‘good character’ requirement of the citizenship by naturalisation application then your application will fail. This is one of the criteria over which there is never any flexibility or discretion.

You will be asked to provide details of any crimes you have been convicted of, including any traffic offences. Not all offences will mean your application is refused. It will depend on whether you received a prison sentence, the duration of any sentence and how long has passed since you were released.

For example, a sentence of up to one year is likely to lead to your application being refused unless a period of ten years has passed since the sentence ended.

You will be asked to provide information on any crimes you have been convicted of, including road traffic offenses. Not all offenses will lead to a refusal of your application.

This will depend on whether you received a prison sentence, the duration of the sentence, and how long has passed since the end of the sentence. For example, if you received a sentence of up to 1 year, your application is likely to be refused unless 10 years have passed since the end of the sentence.

The guidance on whether a refugee could apply for British citizenship was revised in February 2025. Prior to this guidance, any refugee in the UK for at least five years was entitled to apply for ILR. After holding ILR for a minimum of one year, they were then free to apply for citizenship by naturalisation (providing all other criteria were met).

Under the old guidance, illegal entry into the UK which was more than 10 years prior to an application would not be grounds for refusal. The guidance also provided some discretion regarding the circumstances of illegal entry, such as if the person had been trafficked.

The new guidance states, however, that anyone applying for citizenship after 10th February 2025, who previously entered the UK illegally, will normally be refused citizenship. The guidance refers to people having made a ‘dangerous journey’ such as travelling by small boat or concealed in a vehicle.

Given the relatively small number of routes through which refugees can enter the UK legally, this change in the guidance means that, as things stand, someone granted refugee status in the UK can apply for citizenship but may be refused if they initially gained entry illegally.

If you are already married to or in a civil partnership with a British citizen then you can apply for British citizenship as soon as ILR or settled status have been granted. If you are not married to a British citizen, however, then you must hold ILR or settled status for a minimum of a year before making you citizenship by naturalisation application.

If your British naturalisation application is refused then you can ask the UKVI to reconsider if you think they have made an error. You need to be able to point out exactly what the error is to have any chance of success, however, such as the UKVI failing to attach your responses to their enquiries to your application.

Alternatively, you can make another application, once you’ve ascertained exactly why your original application was refused. The fee for each new application, however, is the same as it was for the original application.

Anyone applying for British citizenship by naturalisation needs to satisfy the English language requirement, with very few exceptions. These exceptions are:

• The age of the applicant – this applies if you are under 18 or over 65 at the time of the application. If you are between 60-64 years of age when applying then the requirement might be waived if it is felt that you will be over 65 by the time you reach the required standard.
• The physical or mental condition of the applicant – there is discretion to waive the language requirement if it is felt that the applicant has a long term illness, disability or mental condition which prevents them from learning or speaking English to the required standard. The guidance states that any such illness or condition needs to be permanent in nature.

Yes, you can apply for British citizenship if you have spent some time outside the UK. The limits set in place are as follows:

• If you are married to a British citizen, you must not have been absent from the UK
• For more than 270 days in the three years directly preceding your application 
• If you are not married to a British citizen, you must not been absent from the UK for more than 450 days in the five years directly preceding your application

In both cases, you must not have been absent from the UK for more than 90 days during the 12 months immediately preceding your application. If you have absences in excess of these thresholds then you can try and persuade the Home Office to exercise discretion in your favour. Our blog goes into this issue of excess absences in more detail.

The criteria for proving your knowledge of life in the UK is to pass the Life in the UK test. This is a test consisting of 24 questions over 45 minutes dealing with topics such as politics in the UK, UK, history and local customs.

In order to pass the test, you need to score 75%. Several guides and learning aids are available for when preparing for the test, and the fee involved is £50. If you fail the test you can pay to re-sit it as many times as needed.

The basic fees associated with the British citizenship by naturalisation application are as follows:

• Application fee – £1,605 plus a citizenship ceremony fee of £130
• Life in the UK test fee – £50

There will also be a fee involved if you have to sit an approved English language test as part of your application.

If you have spent more time absent from the UK than the limits set out in the criteria then you can ask for discretion to be applied to your application. This can be applied to allow absences of up to 300 days in three years for those married to a British citizen, and 480 days in five years for those not married to a British citizen.

The discretionary flexibility outlined above must be applied unless there are other grounds on which the application may be refused. In addition, as an individual you can make a discretionary application in the following circumstances:

• If you are married to a British citizen and have been absent from the UK for between 300 and 540 days in the three years preceding your application
• If you are not married to a British citizen and have been absent from the UK for between 480 and 900 days in the five years preceding your application

Most application of this kind will not be successful unless you can demonstrate that:

• You have established your home in the UK
• You have employment in the UK
• You have established your family in the UK
• Your finances are established in the UK

In addition to these conditions, at least one of the following has to apply:

• Depending upon whether you are married to a British citizen, and the exact number of absences from the UK you have had, you must have one to three years residence in the UK without substantial absences before the statutory qualifying period
• Your excess absences are linked to overseas postings
• Your excess absences were an unavoidable consequence of your employment
• You can demonstrate extremely compelling reasons – of a compassionate or occupational nature – to justify naturalisation being granted
• You were absent from the UK because you had been removed from the UK, and the decision to remove you was later overturned
• You were incorrectly prevented from resuming permanent residence in the UK following an absence
• You were unable to return to the UK due to a global pandemic

In addition, you can exceed the permitted 90 day-limit over the most recent 12 months in certain situations. Our detailed blog goes into this issue of excess absences in more detail.