Finally ILR and citizenship question

After submitting my application in March I finally got approved for my ILR. From fiancé visa to FLR to the second FLR to now you guys have been so so helpful. Thank you so much for saving us from further nightmares with the confusing border information.

Final question- website says you have to wait 12 months after ILR for your citizenship.

But then it also says if you are married to a British citizen and have ILR you can apply whenever.

When is the earliest I can apply for citizenship?

Congratulations on getting your ILR .

If you are married to a UK citizen, you do NOT have to wait 12 months to apply for citizenship.... in fact, if you now have your ILR BRP, you could apply for citizenship today if you wanted.

The residency requirements for citizenship for people married to UK citizens are:
- you hold ILR (for any length of time)
- you were physically inside the UK on the exact date 3 years prior to your citizenship application date (i.e. if you submitted it today, you would have to be able to show you were in the UK on 30th September 2017)
- you have not been outside the UK for more than 270 days in the last 3 years, with no more than 90 of those days in the last 12 months (you do not count the days you left and returned to the UK)

So in answer to your question:

The earliest date you can apply for citizenship is today.

Thank you. Might try to hop right back into the Covid queues and see if I can be a citizen before 2021.

One can dream. 🤣🤣

Don’t suppose anyone knows what the ETA on citizenship is at present. Everything I’ve found on the internet said up to six months due to things having to be mailed in.

With so many things being online now has this decreased? I want to go home to visit in January. Nothing had been booked so I could go at the end of the month. I am halfway through my citizenship application and it occurs to me that maybe I don’t want to submit it if it prevents me from using my holiday days before April 1st.

Don’t suppose anyone knows what the ETA on citizenship is at present. Everything I’ve found on the internet said up to six months due to things having to be mailed in.

With so many things being online now has this decreased? I want to go home to visit in January. Nothing had been booked so I could go at the end of the month. I am halfway through my citizenship application and it occurs to me that maybe I don’t want to submit it if it prevents me from using my holiday days before April 1st.

Before Covid, the average time to process a citizenship application was around 4 months, but it can usually take anywhere between about 2 months and 6 months, and in some cases, it can even be up to 1 year. Because of Brexit, a lot of EEA citizens have applied for citizenship all at once in the last 1.5 years, so processing times have increased since 2019.

Also, don't forget that after your citizenship application has been approved, you then have to attend a citizenship ceremony to officially become a citizen, which needs to be done within 3 months of being granted citizenship (though they have extended the 3-month deadline due to Covid). Usually the ceremonies are in person, either private ceremonies, or with a number of other people... but because of Covid, some areas are now allowing virtual ceremonies..

Then once you have attended the ceremony, you'll need to apply for your UK passport, which could take another 6+ weeks to be issued after that.

You can see some current processing times here:
https://www.immigrationboards.com/british-citizenship/naturalisation-application-processing-timelines-only-t80616-11420.html

Some people on that forum have received their approvals in 2-3 months (applied mid-July, approved late-September or early-Oct), but others have been waiting up to a year.

I will definitely bookmark that website. Are you allowed to leave the country if your application is in progress without starting again?