Applying for British Citizenship - Confused - Clarification Help Please

56puddles

Background:
Non-EU national, married (10 Yrs) and living in UK to British spouse, no dependents.  Non-EU national has ILR status (indefinite leave to remain) in the UK.

Confusion:
Gov.UK statement 'You must have been physically present in the UK exactly 3 years before the Home Office receives your application.'

Question:
Does the above statement mean for instance - if individual as summarised above takes a short leave break to return to Non-EU 'home' country to visit bank and legal representatives to arrange personal matters (had to be in-person) for a 3-day period, April 2023 - does this mean the individual would be unable to make a UK Citizenship application until April 2026?
Or, would 10 years residency/ILR automatically bypass the 3-year rule, albeit, they have had short intervals out of the UK; holidays, returning to home country to arrange personal matters (death in family), etc. during the 10-year period since living in the UK?

Any insight or help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,
56puddles

vacheron

My understanding (and it has been a while) is that they will check their records to see if you were in the UK exactly 3 years previous to the day they receive your application.

Being out of the country for a couple of days say 2 months later should not cause an issue (unless of course, your application was lost in the post or something, meaning received it exactly 2 months later)!  

sheramber

it is 5 years not three.

It is  explained here how short absences are treated

https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-indefinite-leave-to-remain