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hi there my name is nick mason and i'm an immigration lawyer in this video we're going to look at the evidence required in support of an application to naturalize as a british citizen there are broadly 10 eligibility requirements and these are set out in more detail in a separate video on the same subject so if you're unsure about your eligibility then check out that video first but with regards to providing additional supporting evidence the requirements can be split into three groups first the requirements where additional evidence is not usually required then requirements where additional evidence is sometimes required and finally requirements where additional evidence is always required let's deal with the requirements where additional evidence is not usually required first for the requirement to be over 18 years of age this will be declared in the application form and should be clear from the identity document for example the passport you'll be providing with your application additional evidence does not usually therefore need to be provided for the requirement to have full capacity has made clear and the relevant guidance the home office will usually assume that a person is of full capacity unless there is information to suggest otherwise the vast majority of applicants will therefore not need to provide additional evidence for this requirement there is no requirement to provide additional evidence beyond the information you provide regarding your absences which you're going to list in the online form to show that you've been in the uk at the beginning of your qualifying period the key thing to do is to make sure that you are not submitting your online application which will determine the dates of your qualifying period at a date when you are not physically present in the uk on the first day of the qualifying period so for example if you are submitting your application on the 1st september 2022 and your qualifying period is 5 years you need to make sure that you are not out of the country on the 1st of september 2017. now let's look at the requirements where you sometimes have to provide additional evidence if you're required to take the life in the uk test and have taken the test since the 17th of december 2019 you'll get a unique reference number and you'll enter this number into the application form and no further evidence is required however if you took the test before 17th of december 2019 you'll have a letter with a test reference id instead of a unique reference number and i'd usually provide this letter with your supporting documents whether you need to provide evidence to show that you meet the english language requirement or depend on how you meet it if you meet the requirement by being a national of a majority english-speaking country then you not need to provide any additional evidence beyond your identity document confirming your nationality for example a passport however if you meet the requirement by way of an english language test certificate from a qualifying test ensuring that it is a qualifying task which is accepted by the uk vi in these types of applications or for example having a degree taught in the uk then you should upload those relevant documents with your application if you meet the good character requirement you will not need to provide any additional evidence confirming this beyond confirming in the application form that you do meet the good character requirement however it's important for everyone applying to natural light as a british citizen to read the good character policy guidance if you've been involved in conduct which the home office considers falls foul of the good character requirement then it may be that further evidence should be provided relating to that conduct for example this might include evidence which provides further detail or mitigation relating to the conduct or relating to the otherwise good character or standing of an applicant outside of that conduct if you believe you may fall foul of the good character requirement then this is the type of thing that we would advise you seek independent legal advice on applicants are asked in a naturalization application if it is their intention to make the uk their permanent home this will be accepted by the home office without the need to provide any additional evidence in the circumstances set out in the guidance for example where a person has not exceeded the maximum absences permitted during the qualifying period however where the guidance suggests that this will not be automatically accepted then it may be advisable to provide evidence of the future intention that you hold to make the uk your permanent home this could be a wide variety of evidence depending on your circumstances but for example evidence of ownership of a home evidence of its evidence of employment tax residency and domicile evidence for the location of family members enrollment of family members in school things like that finally let's take a look at the eligibility requirements where additional supporting evidence is always required so it's important to note that there are multiple ways in which individuals can be lawfully residing in the uk and the evidence you'll need to provide will therefore vary depending on your circumstances so i'm going to provide some examples here but every case is different and if you're unsure about your particular circumstances then you should seek independent legal advice on that so for those who have passports which are stamped at the border a full copy which means a scan of each page of each passport that's been held over the period of time should be provided in support of the application in addition to this i would usually suggest uploading evidence of any biometric residence permits held over the period that you're relying on for instance if you're in the uk on a spouse visa you might provide in addition to the full copy of your passport copies of your brps from your first grant of leave and then your extension and then your last brp granting settlement for individuals who do not have their passport stamped at the border for example u.s nationals the guidance suggests that other evidence can be provided such as employers letters tax and national insurance letters as you can see the guidance is weirdly specific about whether or not to accept doctor's letters regarding regular attendance stating that these can be accepted if nothing else is available for those who have had jobs during the relevant period i would usually suggest obtaining a letter from each employer to confirm the start and the end dates so for example an individual whose passport was not stamped and who arrived to start a job in 2015 and is still employed in that role at the time of the application in that case i'd be providing a letter from the employer confirming the start date and that they remain employed by the company for filing with the application and the supporting documents i would also just suggest that the guidance does not prevent other evidence of residents being considered and so it's possible to look at other immigration routes for ideas on what the authorities consider to be acceptable evidence of residence for example this is the list of acceptable evidence given to individuals applying to the eu settled status scheme settlement status scheme and as you can see it's a lot broader than that given in the naturalization guidance remember that this evidence though will only show presence in the uk and that it is not evidence of lawful residents just physical presence so you need to provide additional evidence of the lawfulness of this day i.e that you had immigration permission to be in the uk at the time that you were here if you haven't already and whilst we're talking about the situation for eu nationals eu nationals will be in a slightly strange position in terms of proving residents whereby they're going to be combining the residents that they were granted usually under the eu settled status scheme with a period of residence before that but they may not have an immigration document to show that they were legally resident in the uk so in those circumstances you have to look at the activity of the eu national to determine whether that individual was legally in the uk unless they had applied for and been granted a residence document under the pre-brexit eu regulations so taking an example of a eu national who arrived in 2012 for example and who was studying for three years before getting a job in 2015 and who's been employed since now and has also has eu settled status you'd be looking to provide evidence of each of those component parts of the activities that they've been undertaking to show that they are lawfully resident in the uk that's because under the pre-brexit rules eu nationals had to be undertaking certain activities in the uk in order to be lawfully resident so those are work study self-sufficiency are you showing you've got enough money to support yourself and actively seeking work with a genuine chance of being engaged so as long as those activities were being undertaken for that period of time then the eu national war have been lawfully resident however in for the purpose of the naturalization application you only provide evidence of that activity to show that the eu national was lawfully resident so in those uh circumstances for eu nationals it's not as straightforward as someone who is being granted a visa or a brp which you can show you will therefore have to go into a bit more detail for those purposes and one final thing about that is that it's not just for the the relevant qualifying period that you need to provide that information you need to look back 10 years up to the date of the application to show the activity that you were undertaking as an eu national that's because naturalization applications have a good character requirement as we've discussed and part of that good character requirement is to look at whether there's been any breach of immigration rules in the past 10 years so not just the qualifying period the five year or three year but for 10 years so all of my eu nationals i always advise to provide evidence going back 10 years of the activity that they've been undertaking and the final final point for eu nationals to be aware of is that if they have been relying on periods of study or self-sufficiency as the basis of their activity as the basis of that lawful residence in the uk before being granted settled status then there is an ongoing argument about whether individuals needed to have held what's called comprehensive sickness insurance basically health insurance in order to be lawfully resident as a self-sufficient person or as a student that argument is still rumbling on the latest is that the the european courts have found that access to the nhs is sufficient to mean that csi was held and therefore residence was lawful however the home office guidance has not been updated to reflect that and therefore in my covering letters that i write for clients who are european nationals i usually for the avoidance of doubt ask for discretion to be exercised as per the guidance that's still in place for applications made for european nationals in that position and so my advice is to is is to to make that those points in the covering letter uh refer to the recent decision in the european courts but in the event that the home office still doesn't accept this to ask for discretion to be exercised to overlook this requirement to the extent required so the requirement to be free of immigration time restrictions for a 12-month period unless relying on marriage to a british citizen in which case the the 12-month period doesn't apply will usually be satisfied by provision of evidence of settled status or indefinitely germain and so you normally provide evidence of this in the form of whatever the grant of that status was so brp stating that you've got settled status or settlement or the pdf letter from the home office in an eu settled status scheme application confirming the date that you got to test the status so in addition to providing certain information about your referees in the online application form you'll also need to download a declaration for them to sign from the online application portal with your picture at the top where the referee just needs to sign that they confirm it's a true likeness and that they've known you and they meet the requirements of being a referee and this document will need to be uploaded with your supporting documents when you upload them on the online portal so that is a summary of the main evidential requirements in a naturalization application a reminder that every case is different and if you're not sure about the evidence that you need to submit in your naturalization application then please get in touch if you would like to arrange a consultation for me to review your application i hope you found this video useful remember to like and subscribe if you want more immigration and citizenship videos from edgewater you