PR and Citizenship Query

Dear All,

I have a query for my friend. His PR (ILR) is due in January 2010.
His wife is currently in India and expecting their child in Feb 2010.
His wife had been living in the UK with him for the last 3 years and just left for India.

1) Assuming my friend gets PR/ILR in Jan 2010, can his wife and child apply for PR once they return back to UK around March/April 2010? or will they have to stay as dependants of PR holder for 2 further years?

2) whats the impact on the citizenship? will the child have to stay for 5 more years to apply for citizenship, even if his father gets citizenship one year later in 2011?

Thanks

1. His wife can apply for ILR once she is back to UK and no need for the child to apply for ILR if they are planning for citizenship.
2. Child can apply for naturalization (Citizenship) once one of their parents gets ILR.

I am not sure either of those answers is correct.

uklondonuser, your friend's wife's current UK visa, when does that expire?

The child, if born outside the UK, will of course need a Child Settlement visa, in order to fly to the UK.

Whilst your friend and his wife are perfectly entitled to decide where the baby is to be born, from the immigration/citizenship point of view, if the baby is not going to be born in the UK considerably upsets the "natural flow" of applications, and noticeably adds to the cost of applications.

The Five Years Unbroken Residency requirement for settlement application, applies to the dependent of these visas also, who are expected to have spent the whole time in the UK, with their partner.

Come next spring, the wife would have been in India for about 6 months, whiles her husband would be in the UK. An application for settlement (ILR) cannot be made whiles the dependent is living overseas. Also, she would have broken the residency requirements.

One of the requirements are that, they are living together as Husband and Wife, and if the wife cannot provide justifiable reason why she has not been in the UK for 6 months, she might not qualify for ILR.