ILR

Hi

My husband is here on a spousal visa

How far in advance can you apply for ILR? is on the day the spousal visa expires or can this be sent off a few weeks in advance??

Also any idea on the timescale at which these are processed in the UK

Thanks in advance

My husband is here on a spousal visa

By this you mean you have an ILR or a citizenship yourself?

How far in advance can you apply for ILR? is on the day the spousal visa expires or can this be sent off a few weeks in advance??

In order that applicants do not have to wait until the day before their leave expires before applying for settlement, HO will consider applications made earlier. There is an allowance of 28 days before the visa expires. I assume that this will apply to spouse settlement visa too.

Also any idea on the timescale at which these are processed in the UK

You can book an appointment at the PEO and get it stamped on the same day if the officer is satisfied with your papers. The postal application will take more time.

Thanks for that

sorry not explained the situation properly. I am English.

Also if you can help with another query

He came in FEB 04 on a visitors visa and we were married in june 04 he was then granted a spouse visa.

For the british nationality requirement is it 3 years residency in England from the FEB 04 when he first came or is this 3 years residency from the date of marriage?

Time spent on a visitor's visa will not be considered for ILR or naturalisation as it is a non-settlement visa.

thanks for your help

ana1 wrote:He came in FEB 04 on a visitors visa and we were married in june 04 he was then granted a spouse visa.

For the british nationality requirement is it 3 years residency in England from the FEB 04 when he first came or is this 3 years residency from the date of marriage?

Sorry to disagree with my fellow Moderator MWazir but I think the position is this :-

Ana, can you just let us have a bit more detail. Your husband came to the UK on a visitor visa and then the two of you married. Given that the marriage was after 01.04.03 when the no-switching rule was introduced, your husband returned to his country and applied for the spouse visa there? Or if the spouse visa was granted in the UK can you please explain how?

The three-year rule to which you refer works in this way. At no time when in the UK must the applicant have been "an illegal". But apart from that there is no problem counting time legally in the UK, whatever the basis of the stay in the UK at that time. The question is ..... absolutely essential ... was the applicant physically in the UK at the start of the three-year qualifying period? If the answer is yes then an application for naturalisation is possible, assuming the other tests also passed.

Consider the following facts (clearly not your husband's) for the (now) spouse of a British Citizen :-

• comes to the UK on a visitor visa say 01.02.03
• gets married in the UK say 01.06.03
• leaves the UK on say 01.07.03, before the expiry of their visitor visa
• applies for spouse visa in their home country and after that is granted they return to the UK say 01.11.03
• apart from a two-week holiday abroad they have lived in the UK even since 01.11.03

When can they apply for naturalisation on these facts? For example, if the application arrived at IND in Liverpool on say 02.02.06, would that be OK? I think yes. They have passed :-

• the "in the UK three years earlier" test
• at all times when in the UK in the three year period they have been legal
• their absences outside the UK during the three years are a lot less than 270 days
• their absences outside the UK in the last year have been less than 90 days
• we shall assume they have ILR, have passed the Citizenship Test, and the good character requirement causes no problem

-: so no problem at all them applying say 02.02.06. What would not be OK is the application arriving in Liverpool in say July 2006 to October 2006 because the "in the UK three years earlier" test would then be failed.

MWazir wrote:Time spent on a visitor's visa will not be considered for ILR or naturalisation as it is a non-settlement visa.

Can't comment about ILR, but for spouse naturalisation all *lawful* presence in the UK counts as long as ILR is held on the day of application.

ana1 wrote:My husband is here on a spousal visa

After getting that visa, how long was it before he first entered the UK using that visa?

Can you give us the start date and end date as quoted on the visa, and also the date he first entered using that visa?

for spouse naturalisation all *lawful* presence in the UK counts as long as ILR is held on the day of application.

Ana,
My apologies, I wasnt aware of this fact.

Hi sorry for not responding sooner

Thanks for answering my query

just to clarify

My husband came here in Feb 04 on a visitors visa for 6 months

We then got married in the UK in June 04 before the expiration of his visitors visa. We couldn't apply to change it over here so we went back to his home country after the wedding and whilst there applied for a spouse visa, this was granted and we returned at the end of June on his spouse visa which has been granted until June 06

I am sure i have read somewhere that in order to apply for british nationality not only do you have to have lived here for 3 years , [b]the last 12 months of that have to be free from any time restrictions??.[/b]

If we apply in Feb 07 based on him being here living legally for three years then the no time restriction cirteria will not have been met as this would begin in June 06 when ILR is granted (hopefully)

Does this criteria still exist?

Ana, if you read my post dated 29th you will see that your husband will be time-qualified to apply for naturalisation in February 2007, as soon as he can pass the "was in the UK exactly three years before IND receive the naturalisation" test.

So for example, if he arrived on say 20.02.04 then if IND receive the application say 21.02.07 or later that month ... no problem.

He will of course need to pass the Citizenship Test, or complete a combined ESOL/Citizenship course. And to have ILR.