After how long to apply for naturalisation as a BC?

Hi

My uncle who lives abroad recently applied for a spouses visa as his wife is a British Citizen. His passport has now been endorsed with a stamp which states 'indefinite leave to enter'. What does this stamp exactly mean and most importantly, after how long can he apply for naturalisation as a BC?

P.S - uncle and aunt will both be moving to the UK shortly.

Any help on the above would be higly appreciated.

Thank you.

Presumably your Uncle and your Aunt have been married or lived together outside the UK for at least 4 years? That would explain the issue of ILE rather than a 2-year spouse visa. Good news!

What does it mean? Effectively he has already got the ILR that he otherwise would have had to apply for in nearly 2 years time.

Naturalisation? He cannot apply for that until he has been in the UK for at least 3 years. So it is probably the case that he will need to wait until after the 3rd anniversary of his arrival in the UK using his ILE visa.

I say probably ... because has he visited the UK at all in the last 2 or 3 years? If so, can you get the detailed dates of when he entered and left the UK? If so, please post that information.

Hi John

Thank you very much for your reply. I only just found out from my uncle that intially, when he applied for his spouse visa, he was infact issued with the 2 year spouse visa that you mention. However, upon obtaining some legal advice, he was infact entitled to ILE as he has been living with my aunt outside the UK for more than 4 years.

He therefore approached the British High Commission and they surprisingly admitted that they had actually made a mistake in issuing the 2 year spouse visa and therefore rectified the mistake and endorsed his passport wih ILE!

My uncle has travelled to the UK in the last 3 years and has stayed in the UK for at least 3 months or so at a time as far as I can remember! Can he use the time he has spent in the UK on visit visas in his favour when he applies for naturalisation?

Also, one more thing.....I understand that his ILE is infact the same as ILR. With ILR, if you stay outside the UK for more than 2 years, you have to apply for returning resident visas and immigration can cancel your ILR status if they think you are spending most of the time overseas. Does this apply to ILE also? Are there any time limits, conditions or implications for ILE compared to the ILR as mentioned above? Please do let me know if there are so that I can inform my uncle.

Thank you.

S. Patel