I entered the UK on a Fiancée Visa in October '12 to get married; I adjusted my status on 06/11/12 (Solihull PEO); in October 14, I was approved for ILR (at Croydon).

In mid-October '15, I applied for citizenship. I didn't hear back until January '16 and had my naturalization ceremony on 17 February. It took me a few weeks to get my application together but got my port approved 10/04/16.

All in all, it took 3.5 years from the day I arrived for the first time to the day I had my shiny new port in my hands. I don't think that I would have saved any time if I'd been more on the ball and had my citizen and port application paperwork ready to go exactly on the very first day I was eligible... while I went appointment for my FLR(M) and ILR visas, no such service exists for citizenship and first port application, so I had to wait the wait until they were adjudicated.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. The reason I asked is because I complained about not being able to vote today as I am on the 5-year route still but then someone said that it's nothing new having to wait so long to get the port, as before the 2012 changes they also had to wait a long time (more than 5 years to get the port according to her). But I said to her she probably took time to apply at each stage but she said she couldn't but she was sure people were not allowed to apply for a port after only 2 years as I suggested. It's good to know that there were definitely some people who managed to get the port in less than 5 years in the past even though it's not 2 years like I thought.

If you don't mind me asking how did you manage to still apply under the old rules if they changed them on June 2012?

 

They changed in July 2012. As long as you applied before 9 July 2012 you were under the old rules.

 

The requirement for UK Citizenship as a spouse was the same in 2012 as it is now. As a spouse you have to have ILR AND you have to have been married to your UK citizen spouse for at least 3 years. The difference is that in 2012 you gained ILR after 2 years but then had to wait an additional year to meet the 3 year marriage requirement. Now, you meet the 3 year marriage requirement first but have to wait an additional 2 years before you meet the ILR requirement.

 

That's fantastic! I was already in the UK with a Post-Study Work visa which expired after my wedding in December 2012 so it never occurred to me to check in advance the requirements and I applied at the beginning of 2013. The worst part is we originally were planning to marry in the summer and decided to delaye it till the winter. If we had married sooner I might have found out in time to apply before the changes :doh: