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Hi guys,

My girlfriend is a Zimbabwean national, she moved to the UK 8 years ago (following her parents) and lived their continuously for 7 years. Se has indefinite leave to remain (she says that this is a "refugee" version of ILR) and a blue refugee travel document. I am a UK and Irish dual national, and we have spent the last 8 months living and working in Australia.

We have been trying to find out what she needs to do in order to not lose her travel document and ILR. It seems insane to me that you cannot really call and ask anyone the specifics of your situation and are instead given very vague and incomplete bits of text to read on websites.

She thinks that she will lose both her ILR and travel document if she is outside the UK continuously for more than 2 years but she doesn't know this for sure, and doesn't know what qualifies as "returning" before that period ie. can you come back for a few weeks and renew your 2 years out of the country?

She may lose her ILR if she spends longer than two continuous years outside the UK. She should return for the purpose of settlement within two years.

vinny wrote:She may lose her ILR if she spends longer than two continuous years outside the UK. She should return for the purpose of settlement within two years.

Thanks, two questions:

1) If you lose ILR do you lose your travel document?

2) How do they determine if you are returning for "the purpose of settlement"?

Basically we are looking to spend the bulk of the next few years working in Aus without her losing her current rights in the UK.

Ciaran88 wrote:

vinny wrote:She may lose her ILR if she spends longer than two continuous years outside the UK. She should return for the purpose of settlement within two years.

Thanks, two questions:

1) If you lose ILR do you lose your travel document?

Both the documents have their own requirement and conditions - so losing one does not automatically invalidate the other unless they were issued with that condition in the first place.

Ciaran88 wrote:2) How do they determine if you are returning for "the purpose of settlement"?

Basically we are looking to spend the bulk of the next few years working in Aus without her losing her current rights in the UK.

It is a subjective decision and up to you to justify and VI to accept. Things that would support it, for example, includes things like whether you have property, kids admitted to a UK school, employment in UK, etc.

Ciaran88 wrote:Basically we are looking to spend the bulk of the next few years working in Aus without her losing her current rights in the UK.

Not only is she likely to lose her ILR in the UK if she stays away for more than two years (and short visits do not keep ILR alive; she has to be resident in the UK to keep ILR alive), but it may make her getting British citizenship later on much harder, as the residence requirements for naturalisation are different from that for ILR.

If she has held ILR for more than a year, has she considered applying for British citizenship?

Also see my slightly different interpretation of how ILR is assessed at point of entry into the UK and Paragraphs 18-20 of the Immigration Rules on when and how leave lapses.