Hi Sven,

Like yourself I hold a German passport, and am applying for British citizenship.

I called the IND with exactly the same query. I was advised that you will need to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK, then after 12 months you may apply for citizenship, if by then you have lived in the UK for 5 years or more.

Hope this help.

I am a Dutch citizen and have been resident here for 12 years.  I too was puzzled, but the NCS told me that as EU citizens have automatic indefinite leave to remain (at least the original members of the EU - some of the very recent additions to the EU have slightly different rules)  we do not need to apply for anything. Thus we can apply for citizenship if we have met the residency requirement of 5 years.  I used the date that I first arrived in the UK on the form, and then used my P60s to prove that I have been here for at least 5 years.  The NCS processed the form, and I've had an acknowledgement that my application has arrived, but am waiting on my decision. 

So...hopefully I won't hear back that I've wasted 268 pounds on my application!

has anyone else heard anything different?

Thank you for the reply but a question - when you say that indefinite leave to remain was only granted in April 2006 ...do you mean that no one in the EU was granted indefinite leave to remain (including Germany and Netherlands) until April 2006? Or do you mean other countries?

If no one in the EU had indefinite leave to remain until April 2006 surely the checking service should have advised me not to apply?

After some more reading, I think that you may be right.

however, I shall be applying for a full refund from my NCS service...to pay them 40 pounds to make sure that it was correct and for them not to know this information is ridiculous...I could have saved the application until April.

I'll let you know if  it doesn't get refused!

Be warned!!! Our friend was right...no EU citizen should apply before April 2007 due to the change in indefinite leave to remain.

My checking service told me that I could apply anyway, but the IND has just refused my application.  They will not even hold it until April 2007, but I have to start all over again, and I have lost my application fee.

I have rung the checking service who tell me that my advisor should have known this rule and are looking into it for me

don't waste your money and WAIT!  Feel very abused by the system now but will reapply in April 2007

I am German by nationality, but would like to apply for British nationality. The AN form supplied by the Home office states that '... you will automatically have permanent residence status after exercising EEA free movement rights in the UK for any continuous period of 5 years ending on or after 30 April 2006, and therefore will not have to apply for indefinite leave to remain.'

In the next sentence, is states that ' ... you should normally have held permanent resident status fir 12 months before applying for naturalisation.'

How do I get this status? Point 1.2 of the AN Form refers specifically to the statements above and asks for an enter date. Which date do I put in there - just the one when I first arrived over here, or when I fist started to pay taxes, or which date>

Having lived and worked in the UK (having paid tax and National Insurence) as a citizen of another EU state, which steps do I have to take in regards to my application. apart from filling in the AN form together with my Britishness Test result and the documentation stated at the end of the AN form?

Perhaps anybody else got similar problems and has already gone through the whole admin process. Could anybody let me know, please?