Tightening the Home Office policy on good character requirement during naturalisation

In January 2019, the Home Office published new 53-page guide “Good character requirement”, which describes when an applicant is considered a person of a good character. For the first time the Home Office states that people who have overstayed at any point over the last ten years will be refused in naturalisation applications with only one exception – when overstaying is the only negative factor affecting the good character of the applicant, and one of the following conditions are met:

∙ the person’s application for leave to remain was made before 24 November 2016 and within 28 days of the expiry of their previous leave, or

∙ the person’s application for leave to remain was made on or after 24 November 2016, and the application did not fall for refusal on the grounds of overstaying because an exception under paragraph 39E of the Immigration Rules applied, or

∙ the period without leave was not the fault of the applicant, for example where it arose from a Home Office decision to refuse which is subsequently withdrawn or quashed or which the courts have required the Home Office to reconsider.