Citizenship Application Procedure after ILR SET(M) - Reference Doc

One has been hand signed, the other electronically.


Monday afternoon my wife has her biometrics. There was no mention of it needing the references to be hand signed but let them conduct their business and if they need to get in touch with the referees to confirm, that should be fine.


Thanks

The wife went for her biometrics today, it was very swift! Less than 10mins.


Are there any recent decisions from people on here? Let's hear the good news! 

Hi, apologies for asking the same question it seems has already been asked but I’m still slightly confused.
Re 2 referees.  It says one can hold any passport - I’ve used a teacher in the U.S.

I assumed that not needing a U.K. passport meant they didn’t need to reside in the UK, but the application doesn’t appear to be setup to enter a non-UK address.  Is this ok for professional referee to be American AND reside/work in America?

Secondly, nothing in the document list even states passport photos are required (at this point in the application), but the referee forms say to put a passport photo on them.
Can the forms be scanned? Can the form be signed and scanned back to me? And do I need to print and add the photo then scan again or can I add an electronic photo?

Thank you.

Hi, apologies for asking the same question it seems has already been asked but I’m still slightly confused.
Re 2 referees.  It says one can hold any passport - I’ve used a teacher in the U.S.

I assumed that not needing a U.K. passport meant they didn’t need to reside in the UK, but the application doesn’t appear to be setup to enter a non-UK address.  Is this ok for professional referee to be American AND reside/work in America?

Secondly, nothing in the document list even states passport photos are required (at this point in the application), but the referee forms say to put a passport photo on them.
Can the forms be scanned? Can the form be signed and scanned back to me? And do I need to print and add the photo then scan again or can I add an electronic photo?

Thank you.

Hi Tex,

The Document list is something I wrote as nothing similar existed.  It is a starting point and tries to balance guidance without being too long by including minute detail.
A good rule is to try to satisfy the requirements to the best of your ability - try not to bend the requirements or make shortcuts.  I think you'll agree this is so important it's worth doing properly...

Pretty sure the referees need to be professionals who reside in the UK in case UKVI wants to contact them. I would not use an overseas reference.
The referee forms ask for a passport photo so add a passport photo.  We think this is a legacy requirement that never got updated, but still it is best to do what they ask for.   Personally, I glued the passport photos on, had the hardcopies signed with wet signature, then submitted scans.  So I had the hardcopies if they were ever required.

Good luck!

@Texgirl

I used a British passport holder based in America (don't recall issues including their address) and a British passport holder based in the UK.

I just went back to review the advice and I believe the professional person can be any nationality and the other must be a British passport holder.

However, I still have an outstanding application - just passed the three month mark when others seem to have been decided much more quickly - so perhaps I have interpreted incorrectly! Will update when I know...

Hi Tex,

The Document list is something I wrote as nothing similar existed.  It is a starting point and tries to balance guidance without being too long by including minute detail.
A good rule is to try to satisfy the requirements to the best of your ability - try not to bend the requirements or make shortcuts.  I think you'll agree this is so important it's worth doing properly...

Pretty sure the referees need to be professionals who reside in the UK in case UKVI wants to contact them. I would not use an overseas reference.
The referee forms ask for a passport photo so add a passport photo.  We think this is a legacy requirement that never got updated, but still it is best to do what they ask for.   Personally, I glued the passport photos on, had the hardcopies signed with wet signature, then submitted scans.  So I had the hardcopies if they were ever required.

Good luck!

Citizenship approval email received today. Successful!


I now need to wait one day before booking a ceremony date.


How do you apply for the certificate entitlement if you are travelling abroad?


For example travelling before or after the ceremony date (based on availability)

Would a Public Servant qualify as a ''Professional''?  I see Civil Servant is on the list but not Public so I assume no?  Also on the application it asks me of my relationsip to my referee's, if I put friend would that be alright or do I have to a more business sort of relationship with them?

Hi all,

Long time no see! I hope everyone is well.

We are also looking at applying for citizenship for my wife who received her ILR (5 year route) back in 2022.
As she's married to me (British Citizen) she'd be applying on the 3 year basis.

Other than holidays here and there she's not been out of the country for more than 270 days which is fine. My question is if she's out of the country now on a long holiday (maternity leave) can she apply now and choose a date for the biometrics after her return? She won't be back in the UK until the end of July. So I wanted to double check if 70 day out of the country rule applies at point of application?

If we apply after her return she will have been out of the country for more than 90 days in the last 12 months, so I assume we'd need to wait until next July before applying for this?

Would a Public Servant qualify as a ''Professional''?  I see Civil Servant is on the list but not Public so I assume no?  Also on the application it asks me of my relationsip to my referee's, if I put friend would that be alright or do I have to a more business sort of relationship with them?

My suggestion is to think through the process and ask yourself: "What problem is the Home Office trying to resolve or answer?"
Basically, the Home Office wants to know two things:
-- You are who you say you are,
and
-- possibly more importantly, that the referees are who you say they are, and that they can thus vouch for you when you say who you are.

How would the HO confirm information about your referees?
During my application process, I saw that the vast majority of the entries on the referee list are ones where there is some sort of registration or organisation available for the Home Office to verify that person..

If you list as your professional referee Mark Jones, accountant, the Home Office would have an organisation to contact and ask: "Is Mark Jones a registered accountant? And if so, when was he first registered? And how can we contact him?" (Does that contact info match what you said?).  And not just your neighbor who comes over every so often and helps you balance your bank account statement, whose name is actually Jack Jones and who may have only lived in the country for a couple of years (he may say 5yrs) so can't have known you long enough. Please note that I'm not saying that Mark Jones is necessarily a ne'er-do-well or a member of a foreign gang. My point is how can the Home Office confirm what your application says about him should they want to so confirm?
So, I highly recommend that you try to use a profession on the list. If not able to do so for whatever reason, try very hard for your referee to have some sort of professional accreditation from a recognised organisation which the Home Office can contact.

Otherwise, you're dependent on the thoughts (and mood) of the HO individual reviewing your application. You want to avoid that dependency.

Also in my view, if my neighbour happens to be an accountant, I would see no problem in using her as my professional referee even if she did not do my taxes.

Similarly, I would strongly advise to use as a personal referee someone who is residing in the UK. (Even if it'might not be a strict requirement. I don't know the requirement.)
Again, think through the process.
Would a person in Singapore be able to vouch that you have met the requirements?  Such as having resided here for the  requisite period of time? (Your  mailing address alone wouldn't necessarily prove physical residency. Why chance it if not totally necessary?)

I was lucky in several ways: my accountant had done our taxes for the previous 8 years and was a perfect professional referee. And I have had the same landlord since 2012 and he was overjoyed to be my personal reference, helping me to obtain citizenship in his beloved country. (Be a good tenant, and be totally lucky like I was and end up with a good landlord. I also pointed out to him that when I obtained UKC, he would no longer need to check on the government website to ensure that I had a right to rent here.)

Best of luck to you.

Very helpful, thank you.

Applying today!

Hi everyone, I am a bit confused... my husband applied for his citizenship last week. When he went to book an appointment for the biometrics, apparently he had to paid for the document scanning service (because the 'upload' option wasn't available)? So now he does not have the option to just upload them, and has to take everything in hard copy - is that right?

I'm just a bit worried because the referee forms are electronically signed and we thought that wouldn't be an issue because we'd be uploading scans anyway...