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Hi if my wife gets her ILR after her 2 year spouse visa, how long is she allowed outside the UK ?

thanks

i mean when she has the ilr stamp in her passport, is there a maximum time she is allowed out of the UK ??

hamster88 wrote:i mean when she has the ilr stamp in her passport, is there a maximum time she is allowed out of the UK ??

If she leaves the UK for more than two years she will need to re-apply for a visa as a returning resident - details here http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas ... residents/

If she plans on applying for British citizenship, however, the limit is 90 days per year outside the UK in the 3 years immediately prior to applying

BTW, there will be no ILR stamp or vignette in her passport - all successful ILR applicants now get issued with a biometric residence permit instead

so once she has ILR, she can leave the uk for less than 2 years and come back for a few months, then leave for less than 2 years again and come back again for a few months ??

hamster88: she might be allowed to do this once or twice but she can’t do this forever.

As she won’t be able to prove to immigration officials that she has strong ties with UK and she intends to make UK her home. It’s completely at the discretion of the immigration officer if she is doing it quite frequently.

if she has been away a long time, does she just go through customs the usual way ? or would they pull her to one side ? etc ect

If she spends more than 2 years outside the UK, her ILR will certainly be revoked. However, she could apply for a Returning Residents visa if she can shows strong family ties in the UK so that she can re-enter

Up to the end of that two year period the UKBA has a discretionary power to revoke her ILR. This generally is only exercised if a person spends between 3-6 months or over outside the UK in any one period, but provided she can show that her permanent life remains in the UK then they will usually not exercise their power to revoke.

so if she goes on holiday for 3 - 6 months out of the uk. She will need to prove she has a life in the uk when she goes through immigration ??
surely this is just an inconvenience ?