Forces spouses

Hi, my German wife and I got married in 1979 in Germany. I at the time was a serving soldier in Germany. Since getting married my wife and I have lived in Uk and Germany on several occasions. I left the Army in 1993 whereupon we (including two children,who themselves have married an had children) moved permanently to the Uk and have lived there ever since. My wife has worked continually throughout our marriage and has qualified for a UK state pension. My wife has recently expressed concern about having the “right to abode” in the UK and even the possibility of being required to leave the country with Brexit looming. Could any light be shed on this,I can remember as a serving soldier being told that my spouse had the automatic right of abode purely by the fact that her children were British citizens. Sorry for being long winded.

Your wife doesn't have and never had the Right of Abode in the UK, which is only held by British citizens and some Commonwealth citizens before 1983.

If your wife had requested for an ILR stamp before 2000, she would have been issued one automatically and free of charge. It may be worth checking her old passports. Note that it would have to have been requested and would not have been automatic.

hussar175 wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 04, 2018 4:18 pm

My wife has worked continually throughout our marriage and has qualified for a UK state pension.

If your wife has worked any five continuous years in the UK, she would have automatically acquired PR under EU law. Get her to apply for a DCPR with the five oldest continuous P60s and then, after she gets a DCPR, she can immediately apply for British citizenship as the spouse of a British citizen.

She needs to acquire British citizenship before March 29th 2019 in order not to lose her German citizenship (German law automatically strips her of German citizenship if she acquires a non-EU citizenship).