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Hello All,

Thanks for the everyone for their contribution to this forum.

Today I received documents back and ILR is granted for me, wife and 2 kids. application sent on 14th May.

However, there is an issue - Homeoffice did not put ILR stamp in her passport instead stamped it on A4 paper. They call it as Immigration Status Document.

My wife's Indian passport expired in 2009 and at then we got it renewed. During the renewal Indian embassy stamped the extension on 3rd page of passport (Her original passport was valid for 5 years and therefore as per Indian embassy they renew the same passport by putting rubber stamp on it).

I thought of saving £950 my making postal application, but i must say this is the worthless saving I have ever done and will ever do in my life. Long wait, anxiety and on top it this issue. Had i been in person i would have explained them. So please think carefully before you take any decision (postal / in-person).

Now the questions are -
Can someone tell me if it is valid to travel on the IDC to India? Will indian immigration officers will accept it as valid document?

Can I contact homeoffice and get the passport stamped? (but however it will take long time and family may miss summer vacation this year). so if this doc is valid in India and In Uk then my family can travel this summer and once they are back I will pursue it with the home office.

Any suggestions, guidance will be highly appreaciated.

Kind Regards and Thanks

why do you need the status document to get into India? you need it to get back into the UK. Your wife needs to carry both documents (her passport and ISD) when travelling outside the UK. The ISD is accepted as valid evidence of the holder's entitlement to be in the UK. You can get the document transferred using form NTL but they can take 14 weeks or more. You have to pay for this so you should try to argue that you shouldn't have to as it's their mistake.

Hello Greenie,

Thanks for you reply. That means she can travel between UK and India with passport and ISD paper?

She would be doing only 1 trip between now and next year(when we will be applying for British passport), therefore i don't want spend more money for NTL.

I will really appreciate if you can share your understanding with me.

Kind Regards,

Was there any covering letter issued with the ISD paper?

Yes,

There was covering letter suggesting to go for NTL. which will cost around £300 again on top of that long wait. Reason given was "passport was not available" whereas passport was there with validity stamped on page-3 (front page shows passport expired in Dec-2008).

Point to note is, i used the same passport in 2009 for Tier-1 renewal. To me it looks like case worker has overlooked the covering note and also missed the renewal stamp on page-3.

we have to go to india only once from now to next july (when i will be due for British passport). if ISD with passport is valid then I wouldn't worry and make india trip.

Please suggest.