EU Legislation & British Nationality

Families of EEA Nationals
EEA stands for European Economic Area. EEA nationals and their family members enjoy special privileges in relation to immigration within the EEA.

Where an EEA national moves to another EEA country under EU law this is often referred to as exercising his of her Treaty rights. In these circumstances, EU law allows a person to be joined by his of her family member. The reason for this is that EU law recognises that excluding those family members will in many cases effectively prevent the EEA national from exercising his or her free movement rights – someone will not usually want to move to another country if this means being separated from his or her family. Our immigration lawyers deal daily with the rights of EU nationals and non EU nationals.

NATIONALITY

You must be free from immigration time restrictions when you make your naturalisation application.

There are seven requirements you need to meet before you apply:

you are aged 18 or over; and
you are of sound mind; and
you intend to continue to live in the United Kingdom, or to continue in crown service, the service of an international organisation of which the United Kingdom is a member, or the service of a company or association established in the United Kingdom; and
you can communicate in English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic to an acceptable degree; and
you have sufficient knowledge of life in the United Kingdom; and
you are of good character; and
you meet the residential requirements

Residential requirements
To demonstrate the residential requirements for naturalisation you need to:

have been resident in the United Kingdom for at least five years (this is known as the residential qualifying period); and
have been present in the United Kingdom five years before the date of your application; and
have not spent more than 450 days outside the United Kingdom during the five year period; and
have not spent more than 90 days outside the United Kingdom in the last 12 months of the five-year period; and
have not been in breach of the immigration rules at any stage during the five-year period.

If you are applying as a spouse of a British national

You must be free from immigration time restrictions when you make your naturalisation application.

There are seven requirements you need to meet before you apply:

you are aged 18 or over; and
you are of sound mind; and
you can communicate in English, Welsh or Scottish Gaelic to an acceptable degree; and
you have sufficient knowledge of life in the United Kingdom; and
you are of good character; and
you are the husband, wife or civil partner of a British citizen; and
you meet the residential requirements; or
your husband, wife or civil partner is in Crown or designated service outside the United Kingdom.

Residential requirements
In order to demonstrate the residential requirements for naturalisation you need to:

have been resident in the United Kingdom for at least three years (this is known as the residential qualifying period); and
have been present in the United Kingdom three years before the date of your application; and
have not spent more than 270 days outside the United Kingdom during the three year period; and
have not spent more than 90 days outside the United Kingdom in the last 12 months of the three year period; and
have not been in breach of the immigration rules at any stage during the three year period.