Is applying for British passport our next step??

Hi Everyone

I hope someone can help me out as I dont know where to start.

Early this year, my wife was granted ILR - we applied for ILR using the SET(M) form and she is Pakistani. She got her biometrics card only a few days after. She is currently studying her ESOL level 2 course.

So, is our next step to apply for British passport and hence she becomes a British citizen?

I have already checked the UKBA website and it seems that our next step is to apply for her citizenship using the AN form.

Is Citizenship the same as naturalization?

Is my wife still required to pass the LITUK test despite her only being at ESOL level 2?


Thanks in advance for reading my post and for your help.


Many Thanks

You have to naturalise as a citizen before you can apply for a passport.

She needs to complete form AN to apply for naturalisation as British Citizen. Once she received approval and a letter of invitation to the ceremony, she needs to book the ceremony with her local council. She will receive her naturalisation certificate at the ceremony and then she can apply for her passport.

Did she not need LITUK for her ILR??? If she has passed it for ILR, she does not need to do it again. If not, she will need to pass it for citizenship application.

How long has your wife been resident in the UK??

See this.

imranh wrote:Hi Everyone

I hope someone can help me out as I dont know where to start.

Early this year, my wife was granted ILR - we applied for ILR using the SET(M) form and she is Pakistani. She got her biometrics card only a few days after. She is currently studying her ESOL level 2 course.

So, is our next step to apply for British passport and hence she becomes a British citizen?

I have already checked the UKBA website and it seems that our next step is to apply for her citizenship using the AN form.

Is Citizenship the same as naturalization?

Is my wife still required to pass the LITUK test despite her only being at ESOL level 2?


Thanks in advance for reading my post and for your help.


Many Thanks

I assume you are British. See http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/briti ... ofcitizen/ for the requirements your spouse needs to meet in order to naturalise as a British Citizen. If she met the KOLL for settlement (ilr) then she can use this and will not require more for naturalisation so long as she is eligible to naturalise before October 2013.

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the input and advice so far - much appreciated. I have read the links which has given me more of an understanding

Just to add further information to our situation - I am British and my wife arrived to the UK in December 2010 and she got her ILR earlier this year. Since arriving to the UK she has spent all her time in the UK.

She did not take the Life in the UK test as part of her ILR, instead she attended and passed the ESOL course and is currently on ESOL level 2. It appears from CR001's reply that she still needs to pass the Life in the UK test (even though she has not even begun ESOL level 3 yet!!!)

she was intending to apply for naturalisation in January 2014 as by then she would have spent over 3 years in the UK (without going abroad). That should be ok, shouldnt it (providing she passes her LITUK test)????

Many Thanks once again for your replies and help.

Kind Regards