Wife’s British Citizenship application

Dear CR001 & all moderators,

This question is regarding my wife’s BC application.

History: She got ILR in Feb 2018 via Refugee Route
My daughter is a British Citizen via MN1 since April 2018 (born Dec 2017)

I am on Tier 1E and applying for ILR in 1.5 months.

We got married in UK in Jan 2017. We had a religious marriage so under UK law we are not considered married. However, we have been living together since Jan 2017 (almost 2 years) and have a daughter.

Going thorugh the BC application online.

Q1) When it asks about “Are you married”. The answer will be yes or no?

If yes, it asks about the date and where it happened. Do we simply put the date and happnened in UK? We do not have any registration done though.

Q2) My daughter is already a BC now. One of the question asks: Do you have any dependents even if not applying with you?
Do we say yes?

Q3) My wife applied for her ILR application with her father as the main applicant as a family in October 2017 (we were married at that time also). This time she wants to apply as a family with her father mother and siblings also as she wants to attend the ceremony together plus she will be with her parents at the time of application. The form lets you add additional applicants for example if her father is the main applicant. Is that still possible?

Please let me know.

Thank you

Q1) No. You are not married from the viewpoint of the law.

Q2) Yes. It does specifically ask you to state all dependents.

secret.simon wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 19, 2018 7:35 am

Q1) No. You are not married from the viewpoint of the law.

Q2) Yes. It does specifically ask you to state all dependents.

Thank you for your reply.

Please can someone respond to Q3 also?

Thank you

Each application for BC is considered separately under its own merits and there is no guarantee that all applicants will receive approval at the same time.

Casa wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 19, 2018 1:27 pm

Each application for BC is considered separately under its own merits and there is no guarantee that all applicants will receive approval at the same time.

Thank you

Dear moderators,

My wife is due for Brititish Citizenship application next month Feb 2019. She already has ILR since Feb 2018.

We are expecting our second child in March 2019 in UK.

As per my understanding our child will be British by Birth and I can apply for a passport right away.

Q: Is it better to wait for my wifes BC application to clear or it does not matter?

Q: To apply for the childs British passport I would need the UK birth certificate and mother’s ILR? Do we need to send the original BRP or a copy would do also? Just considering if we would have the original since my wifes BC application will be gone in Feb 2019 but I am not sure if via the new system they will retain her BRP or just return it back (as they did not retain my original passport or brp in my recent case)

We wish/plan to travel by June so I want to get all this sorted asap.

Thank you

Q: Is it better to wait for my wifes BC application to clear or it does not matter?

Makes no difference. The child will be British based on the fact she holds ILR.

Q: To apply for the childs British passport I would need the UK birth certificate and mother’s ILR? Do we need to send the original BRP or a copy would do also? Just considering if we would have the original since my wifes BC application will be gone in Feb 2019 but I am not sure if via the new system they will retain her BRP or just return it back (as they did not retain my original passport or brp in my recent case)

You need to send originals. The new system she gets to keep her original documents.

Thank you CR001.

Another question please:

I know that if the spouse holds BC, the partner can apply for BC right away after ILR and does not have to wait for 1 year.

Given I do not have marriage registration done in UK so by law I am not married. However, we have been religiously married and living together for over 2 years.

If she gets BC in due course, and I get ILR via Tier 1 in due course. Is there a possibility I can apply for BC in this situation?

I am not really bothered to wait another year as long I have ILR and can freely travel but just wanted to clear it.

Thank you again

Given I do not have marriage registration done in UK so by law I am not married. However, we have been religiously married and living together for over 2 years.

If she gets BC in due course, and I get ILR via Tier 1 in due course. Is there a possibility I can apply for BC in this situation?

Where did your, presumably islamic, marriage take place, UK or abroad??

CR001 wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:01 pm

Given I do not have marriage registration done in UK so by law I am not married. However, we have been religiously married and living together for over 2 years.

If she gets BC in due course, and I get ILR via Tier 1 in due course. Is there a possibility I can apply for BC in this situation?

Where did your, presumably islamic, marriage take place, UK or abroad??

UK

Then no, you cannot apply for citizenship without waiting 12 months on ILR as your islamic marriage conducted in the UK won't be recognised and you are considered an unmarried partner.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:04 pm

Then no, you cannot apply for citizenship without waiting 12 months on ILR as your islamic marriage conducted in the UK won't be recognised and you are considered an unmarried partner.

Thank you for your quick response as always

Dear Moderators,

My wife was a minor when she came to UK around 9 years ago dependent on his father who seeked assylum in UK and they all were given refugee status. She has ILR now and her British application is due next month.
I am on Tier 1 Ent and have applied for my ILR.

We both are from the same home country and religiously married (islamic) for the last over 2 years now. We have 1 daughter (British Citizen) and expecting another child who will be British by birth in March.

I am planning on visiting my home country in July/August (assuming my ILR application and my wifes BC application is approved by then ).

Question: Is it okay for her to travel back to the home country from where his father seeked assylum? We are married now and she is my dependent. Do you see any problem for her to accompany me to visit our home country as my immediate family is there and I have strong ties to my home country??

Thank you

Dear CR001, Please can I have your comment on the above issue?
Many thanks

It could create a problem for her to visit the country if she has refugee status , ILR ....unless circumstances have been changed ...it’s depend on what basis she claimed asylum?

bluebird12 wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:43 pm

It could create a problem for her to visit the country if she has refugee status , ILR ....unless circumstances have been changed ...it’s depend on what basis she claimed asylum?

Her father claimed assylum as he had death threats (I do not want to disclose more on a public forum) but she was a MINOR then. As per my understanding she was a minor when she came in this country and now she is married to me and my dependent and my immigration status is not related to her. As my family is back home how would I take my British kids (14 months old and another on the way expected in March) back home without her? Personally I think it should be okay but I am wondering what other opinions are?

and I said to visit home country AFTER my wife is a British Citizen also not visit on her ILR.

Thank you for your opinion.

Any more opinions will be appreciated Thanks

Please can anyone vinny, secret.simon, casa, cr001 give your opinion. Actually I have to manage some things back home accordingly to my above query. Will appreciate your response.
Thank you

Dear Members,

Please can anyone answer the following:

The BC application is for my wife. She has ILR via refugee status. The checklist says:

1) “If you are an Non-EEA National, you need to include your passport to prove you have lived in the UK for the past 5 years (3 years if you are married to, or the partner of, a British citizen).

If you do not have your passport, or it was not stamped when you entered the UK, you need to include letters (for example, from your employer or government department) as proof.

Bank statements or household bills are not suitable proof you have been living in the UK”

She does not have a valid home country passport in her possession as she has a refugee settlement ILR. She has home office travel document though. Will that be enough proof? Or she has to provide something else??

2) As per my understanding the documents she needs is:

LIUK
UK degree
ILR BRP
2 referees

Home Office Travel document she has had it for the last 7 years (2 travel documents - one current, one expired)

Does she need anything else??


3) She has not been outside UK for the last 5 years for more than 5 weeks in total (Will the home office travel documents prove it or she needs something else?)

4) (i) Proof of freedom from immigration time restrictions, (ii) current BRP and (iii) proof of identity. Does the ILR BRP alone satisfy all three?

Your answers will be appreciated.
Thank you

More clarification:

She has only travelled outside UK in the last 5 years on the home office travel document (only 5 weeks in total). Also her 5 years residence period will be Feb 2014 - Feb 2019. She was in uni from Sep 2013- Sep 2016 and was awarded UK degree around Oct 2016.

She is not employed or has never been employed before. She is my dependent.

Will the stamps on HO travel document (blue convention document) and UK degree be enough to prove her start and end of 5 year residence?

Thank you

Let’s hope that they don’t have a low opinion of the UK Border Force.

vinny wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 31, 2019 1:25 am

Let’s hope that they don’t have a low opinion of the UK Border Force.

Thank you vinny, I was not aware this could be a valid reason of refusal also.
She was around 14 when she came to UK. Her whole family assylum was accepted after 2 years. They gained ILR after 5 years.

Given she has had a HO travel document since 2012 will that not be enough? UK degree from 2013-2016? Marriage in UK (Jan 2017 in UK - although religious)- British Citizen Child born in Dec 2017 (have the NHS letters)

She has not been outside UK much for the last 8.5 years. Went to school and uni here.

How else can we prove it since shes not employed and dont have the home country passport as HO retained that in 2010??

and if im correct we dont have to go via NCS now as we can apply online and use new service.

Please help with your opinion.

Thanks

I have done some research but have not really found the answer in my particular case:

Question: Given my wife has a refugee status ILR and she has never been employed, what could be the “proof of 5 year residence” for BC?

We can provide:
UK degree (will that proof be counted?)
NHS letters (since first baby was born in UK and we are expecting another one so we have a lot of NHS hospital documents related to my wife and child?)

Will they be sufficient?

How many documents we need to prove?

per month/per quarter/per year??

Any help will be appreciated as I am just stuck with this proof now

Thank you

Dear Members,

Please help:

My wife has ILR via refugee route.
No home country passport
Home Office Travel document since 2013
5 year residency 2014-2019

She travelled to:
Berlin 2014 (4 days)
Switzerland 2015 (3 days)
Spain 2016 (4 days)
2017 (no travel)
Turkey 2018 (7 days)

I just checked her home office blue convention travel document and it has been stamped on entry into destination country and stamped again on exit by destination country. Also it has been stamped by UK immigration on airport on UK arrival. Also she filled out a landing card every time on arrival in UK.

Will that be enough to prove her 5 year residency that she was physically in UK for that period? Since travel document was made in 2013 and all travels outside UK are recorded?

I am just confused as she does not have the home country passport but good thing the travel document is stamped as mentioned above.

Please comment. Much appreciated.

Thank you

I applied as a refugee, with no passport and two travel documents. They were accepted just fine.

You wife's sound fine too as they have all the stamps.

Just make sure there aren't any gaps between the different travel documents and if there are, provide other evidence such as letters from GPs/hospitals, university letter, child benefits and other types of government letters.