Fifty-seven years in Britain, and two years in Spain that nearly cost him

He came to England aged eleven in 1966. Two pandemic years in Spain broke the naturalisation absence limits, so his citizenship rested on Home Office discretion.

British Citizenship

He arrived in England as an eleven-year-old in 1966 and worked here for four decades. Then he was consulting in Spain when the pandemic hit, and stayed. On his naturalisation application that made him an absentee.

At a glance

Client: Spanish national, in the UK since 1966, retired business owner
UK ties: British wife, four British adult children, nine grandchildren, UK home
Matter: Naturalisation with a discretionary absences argument
The obstacle: Roughly 120 days abroad in the last year against a 90-day limit, and around 220 days over three years
Instructed: 15 April 2026, after a first consultation in January 2024

How they found us

He first consulted us in January 2024 and called us again in April 2026 to go ahead.

The challenge

He was granted settlement in 2019 after living and working in the UK continuously since 1966.
He was consulting in Spain when the pandemic began and had to base himself there, spending 2021 and 2022 abroad before returning in March 2023.
Both the twelve-month and three-year absence thresholds were breached.
The application therefore rested entirely on the Home Office exercising discretion.

What we did

Assessed it properly at the first consultation. Our senior associate's view was that he could naturalise now while asking for discretion, that some absences fall to be discounted as pandemic-related, and that a long period of residence before the absence combined with continuous residence since returning made it a strong case.
Waited for the ties to strengthen. Between the 2024 consultation and the 2026 instruction he married a British citizen, bought a house and continued paying UK tax, all of which went into the discretion argument.
Wrote the discretion case explicitly. A cover letter setting out why discretion should be applied, rather than submitting the application and hoping the caseworker inferred it.
Told him what he was buying. That this is a discretionary application and the firm would submit the strongest possible case, not a guaranteed one.

Why it matters

Naturalisation counts days, not decades. Someone who has spent almost their whole life in Britain can fail the residence test on two unusual years. The answer is not to argue the rule is unfair. It is to give the caseworker the material to apply the discretion the rules already allow.