Student/Ancestry Visa?

Question

Well, I'm an Australian in my last year of high school (year 12) and I would really like to move to England. Firstly, I would like to study languages at a London university. For this I need to get a student visa which allows me to live there (after meeting all the requirements) for the duration of my course, then I have to leave. Because 3 of my grandparents were born in England, I can also acquire an Ancestry visa (after meeting all the requirements). I've read that if you have an Ancestry visa and live in England for 4 or 5 years you can apply for permanent residency or naturalise. So, my question is will the fact that I will have already lived in the UK for however many years it takes to do my degree as a student mean that I can apply for residency after a shorter amount of time? Will those years count? Any help or advice is appreciated.

Answer 1

No. The time need to be consectutive to qualify. The residential requirements for British citizenship are:

have been resident in the United Kingdom for at least five years (this is known as the residential qualifying period); and

have been present in the United Kingdom five years before the date of your application; and

have not spent more than 450 days outside the United Kingdom during the five year period; and

have not spend more than 90 days outside the United Kingdom in the last 12 months of the five-year period; and

have not been in breach of the immigration rules at any stage during the five-year period.

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/british...