Immigrationboards.com

Hi, all

Hope you all are doing great.

I have a silly doubt, but before asking I need to give a bit of a background to my situation.

So, I have an ILR and have the right to apply for Citizenship. I wanted to do that however my mother met with an accident. She is with my brother who is taking very good care of her, however I will have to travel back and forth to take care of my mother as she is bedridden and cannot travel. Now, I was thinking to apply for Citizenship but that will take some time, and the lead process is also too much. So, I wanted to check if applying for naturali7and getting a passport is the only option I have? Or is it possible that I do not renounce my Indian passport but still get naturalized and been able to travel to UK whenever I want? I know ILR can still be used but I am looking for an alternative to ILR.

A little confused by the enquiry but I think this covers my thoughts.

As I understand it India does not allow you to hold citizenship along with another. This is unfortunate. There's clear guidance here which indicates after getting British citizenship you would have to apply to renounce Indian nationality and surrender passport. https://www.hcilondon.gov.in/page/surre ... -passport/

As you say, you can travel freely with your ILR status back to the UK when having trips.

If you intend to naturalise British then timing seems key to think about. You need to bear in mind the absence requirements for naturalisation in terms of the previous year and previous 3 or 5 years depending on which apply to you. And you also need to consider your ability to easily travel to India.

Ultimately you're going to have to make a choice unless India changes the law to allow dual citizenship. But it strikes me your current situation is probably best for now unless the absences are going to affect naturalisation application in coming months or years due to absence requirements being put at risk and you want to be British. Alternatively you could try to naturalise in the coming months if you meet all requirements and just make sure you can attend the ceremony (you get 3 months to arrange so unless out of country for months at a time should not be a problem).... then you would renounce Indian nationality and obviously have to travel there as a foreigner to be with your mother. If you did apply for naturalisation then your travel after the application is made does not count as absences.

Once you obtain British citizenship and lose Indian citizenship, you can apply for an OCI on your British passport - many Indian forum members do exactly that and use that to travel to India. Once you have applied for citizenship you can travel, citizenship is not an immigration application.

To build on @contorted_svy's answer above, you can travel while the application is in progress.

If you get a successful response, you need to contact the local council within 21 days and attend the naturalisation ceremony in the UK within 90 days.

After that, there are many actions that you will need to do in the UK that will constrain your ability to travel abroad.

You should apply for your first British passport within the UK. Applying for your first British passport from abroad can cause (a) delays and (b) your entire naturalisation application to be revisited. You will need to provide HMPO with all your uncancelled Indian passport(s), both current and expired. Therefore, at least during this period, you will be unable to travel outside the UK at all.

Once you get your first British passport, you then need to apply for the Indian diplomatic authorities for a surrender certificate and then apply for OCI. To the best of my knowledge, all these steps above needs to be done with the Indian diplomatic authorities within the UK. But wait for others to advise.

So, essentially between your naturalisation ceremony and you being granted OCI, you would not be able to travel back to India. You can leave the UK after you get your British passport, but not sure about the traveling to India without OCI part.

As for holding ILR, you can hold ILR permanently/indefinitely within the UK. Long absences from the UK can lead to your ILR being questioned and revoked. And it lapses automatically on an absence of two continuous years from the UK.

Conversely, as an Indian citizen with ILR, you have almost all the rights of a British citizen within the UK (such as the right to vote, to be appointed or elected to most public offices, etc).