I have to say that I think the theories about applications being sorted according to country of origin are wrong.
As I understand it applications go to a central point where they are logged into the system and either married with the applicant's existing file or, if he/she doesn't have one, a file is created.
Then the applications are simply dealt out (as in a card game) among the various caseworking groups, in the order in which they arrive. Apart from dealing with naturalisation applications, some of the groups are also trained to deal with the various registration provisions, which require a different skillset. This means that the workload varies among the groups, so some applications take longer than others.
I really think it is as simple as that. I've seen Indians get a result within a couple of weeks and I've seen EU nationals wait for five months. It's random. It depends on how busy the particular group is.
One thing that
doesn't help the process, at a time when IND are saying that the average waiting time is 4.5 months, is pestering them after four weeks. That achieves nothing, except that it delays some other guy's application by the length of time it took to deal with the telephone enquiry...
To answer your "physical presence" question, you need to have been free of time limits on your stay for one year on the day that IND receive your application, and you need to have been in the UK on a day precisely five years before that. It is nothing to do with when the caseworker looks at it. It is when it arrived. And I'd be surprised if Guide AN(NEW) doesn't say that somewhere.
paul
Edited by user
18 years ago
|
Reason: Not specified