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I am a non-EU citizen living in the UK on an Indefinite Leave to Remain. If my application for British citizenship succeeds, will my ILR get automatically invalidated? Would it be possible for me not to apply for a British passport and keep using the non-EU passport to leave and enter the UK as an ILR holder?

Thank you for your help!

It does invalidate the ILR. In practice you could still use your old passport with ILR to enter the UK.

However, why would you want to do that? If this because your current/old country doesn't allow dual nationality and you don't want them to find out? Then, this would not work. You lose your nationality once you become British in the ceremony and not when applying for a passport. India for example fines you on travels after obtaining foreign nationality regardless when you applied for the British passport.

However, even if you were to use your current passport with ILR to travel in and out of the UK, you would not be able to renew your ILR sticker when it came time to renew your passport.

You could, completely legitimately, elect to have a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode placed in your current passport: British citizens who are also citizens of another country can have a certificate of entitlement in this way, provided that they don't have a British passport. This certificate confirms that you have the right of abode in the UK, and you would be able to use the UK/EU/EEA/Swiss entry points at airports, since you would not be subject to immigration control.

But the passport needs to be a valid one – as Jambo says, if you are looking not to get a British passport because your country of current citizenship won't allow you to keep it if you naturalise as British, it won't help you very much, since you'd be trying to travel using a passport that is no longer valid.

Beyond that, it is hard to see why you would want to do this. What is your country of current citizenship?

Of course, if you're not intending to travel at all, it's not necessary to have any passport!

sorry to place a question in some one else's thread, but I think to be able to use the other passport with ILR sticker would be quite convinient along with british passport, for example IF(hopefully) I qualify for naturalization and passport my country allows dual nationality. But it requires british passport holders to obtain visa. So for me it would be quite convinient to fly into and out of my country with old passport and ILR(they do check if I have a valid visa to and from the destination I am travelling), but to use the british passport to actually enter UK or travel to usa(with esta)/eu.

so I think if the ILR does not get invalidated it would have been very convinient for me.

It doesn't get invalidated in the sense of putting a big cross on it in your passport so you can still use it to show the airline you are allowed to travel but then you can also show your British passport in that case. If dual nationality is allowed, this is not a problem.

Jambo wrote:It doesn't get invalidated in the sense of putting a big cross on it in your passport so you can still use it to show the airline you are allowed to travel but then you can also show your British passport in that case. If dual nationality is allowed, this is not a problem.

In his country maybe somethink like in Poland. There is law which does't say you can't Have another nationality but if you hold Polish one every time you Enter/leave poland you must show Polish passport/ID card.
Otherwise they can refuse crossing border. I know it is stupid, but that the law, and some people follow it.

I believe many countries in the world have a similar law (the US for example) although the UK doesn't require you to use your British passport to enter.

This doesn't contradict what I wrote - you use use your Polish passport to enter and exit Poland and your British one to enter and exit the UK. You will also need to show your British one when checking in for the flight to show you are allowed to travel (and don't need a visa).
(Poland is just used as an example. I know it is part of the EU).

Hi,

I got a bit lost in the semantics of why someone would want to do it and didn't quite catch the answer. In my case I would be dual Australian British citizen which both governments allow.

My reason for wanting to do it is down to timescales. As I've neglected home life by qualifying on 180 days absences/5 years I'm going to need to come and go this year. It is entirely foreseeable with all the restrictions - possibly 6 months consideration, booking ceremony within 90 days of approval, 4-6 weeks passport application - that I would be here to do the ceremony but not for a subsequent 4-6 weeks to wait for a passport.

I could foresee leaving the UK with a British citizenship letter/certificate, Australian passport containing invalidated(?) ILR. What would be my options for re-entry and are there any other options? For example, could I use the citizenship letter/certificate to apply for a British passport at the British Embassy in Australia and do the waiting there before re-entering?

djanm wrote:
For example, could I use the citizenship letter/certificate to apply for a British passport at the British Embassy in Australia and do the waiting there before re-entering?

Yes,how to apply from australia