Citizenship Form Query

On 28 May 2008, I'll have been a resident of the UK for 3 years. Because I'm married to a British citizen, I know that I am coming up on the time when I can apply for citizenship. I've read the application guide notes and I know that I have to also take into consideration any time I've been outside of the UK between my arrival date and when they receive my application. I've been through my passport and it is looking like I have to wait another month and a half before I can apply.

My concern is the following: I traveled to Dublin 2 times between this time period and on both occasions, my passport was not stamped when I returned to England (both times were at East Midlands Airport). I have traveled to other areas after these 2 trips to Ireland. Does anyone forsee this being a big problem? I obviously know what date I returned both times but unfortunately my passport doesn't reflect these dates.

Thank you in advance.

I had the same problem. Fortunately I still had the booking email from the airline so I printed that out and sent it with the application as proof of the date I returned to the UK. Do you have anything like that? Or boarding passes maybe?

Hi Brin. Thanks for your reply. 

I was also thinking along those lines of supplying them with any flight itinerary. I'm pretty sure I might still have one for the second trip but it is very doubtful I still have anything for the first trip as that was in January 2006. 

It will be obvious that I did eventually return from Dublin as my passports show stamps of arrival in other countries after the fact. I'm just wondering if I need to play it safe and include any "lost" time between the Dublin arrival stamp and the arrival stamp for the trip that followed.

I sent along a brief note explaining that I hadn't gotten a stamp on return from Ireland(I'm sure they're aware that this happens as it's fairly common), including the booking email as further proof. If you have any evidence to show you did in fact return to the UK then I suppose it can't hurt to inlcude it. I don't really know. I would think that if the rest of your evidence is solid and if you give a reasonable explanation then it shouldn't be a problem. But don't take my word as gospel  -  I haven't gotten my approval letter yet (long waiting times just now)!

Just out of curiosity, brin, how long has it been since you've sent the application in? I still have some time before I do that. I am obviously going to set an appointment to get the application reviewed and my documents verified beforehand. I don't know if there is much of a wait for that either though I wouldn't imagine there would be.

I applied using the nationality checking service in Newcastle on 18 March. I got my acknowledgement letter about 4 weeks later. This letter just lets you know they've received your application and payment. Now I'm just waiting for approval, which according to the BIA website could be months.

I would think that the wait time for an appointment with an NCS (assuming that's what you mean by having your application reviewed and documents verified) would depend on the particular location that you book with. I think I was able to get mine within about 2 weeks or so.