163.According to paragraph 4B(1) the qualifying period is a period of years ending with the date of the application. This means the qualifying period must be a consecutive period of years. This means that a person cannot aggregate two periods of qualifying immigration status where they are separated by a period where the person did not hold such a status. Not all temporary leave falls under the definition of ‘qualifying temporary residence leave’ as set out in section 49(3) and so will not count towards the qualifying period. This definition is dependant upon the description of types of leave which can result in a grant of probationary citizenship leave which will be set out in the Immigration Rules. It is currently intended that a person who holds temporary residence leave as a worker for 2 years will have qualifying temporary residence leave. However, if that person chooses to become a full-time student (which will not be a form of qualifying temporary residence leave) and then returns to work , it is not possible to count the earlier period of 2 years during which they were working towards the overall qualifying period in a subsequent application for naturalisation. This person would start their qualifying period for naturalisation from the date they resumed working, that is when they hold a qualifying form of temporary residence leave.
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