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Hi everyone,

I am writing for advice on what I should do next, and more specifically, -when- I should begin doing it.
I am holding an Ancestry visa, which I applied for through my English grandfather. It will expire in March 2018.

I am wondering if anyone could recommend what I should do next - re-apply for an ancestry visa, or try to apply for ILR. The reason why I can't decide on this is because of some conflicting information / concerns, such as a strict need to be employed for five years, and others such as six-month processing times. In other words, I'm not sure which rule I'll be breaching if I applied for either. Nor am I sure which one has a higher chance of getting approved without the least amount of drama. I do not want to have my application rejected simply because I didn't apply it at the right time.

Any advice or recommendations would be useful to help point me to the right direction so that I may research the steps and carry the process forward.


This is my synopsis so far:

Ancestry visa validity: 10/03/13 - 10/03/18
Employment: 10/09/13 - present (in NHS)
(Unemployment period = looking for work)

Documents that I have:
- English grandfather's birth cert & death cert
- Two passports; One expired (where visa currently resides), one new passport.
- UK driving license
- NI number / PAYE / P60

Other than my late grandfather, who has passed away, I have no other family here as my grandfather did not marry my grandmother. My father, who grew up outside of UK, was adopted. I should hope this would not interfere with the process of ancestry re-application / ILR, but please give advice if this information might be clause for refusal.

I have no dependents and live on my own.

I am beginning to work on having my English competency evidence at the moment, with using my degree and sending it for confirmation through NARIC. If there is anything else I should do, please let me know.

I am also looking into starting my study / application for the LIUK test. In terms of timeline, please suggest when would be a good time to take it so that it would be ready and valid to apply for either the ancestry visa or ILR.

Thank you for reading and appreciate the help.

You should apply for ILR within 28 days of your 5 years residence. You can apply in person for a same day decision, it is not only a postal application.

You do not HAVE to be employed for every single day in the UK. Having breaks in between is acceptable, but you must generally be working as it is an employment visa, but not as strict as the work sponsored visas.

You need your fathers birth certificate post adoption and the adoption papers. How did you get an ancestry visa if you don't have these? You don't need the death cert.

What is your nationality? Some nationalities don't need the English language requirement.

You can do LIUK at any point, the test certificate DOES NOT expire.

Hi CR001, thank you for your reply and the information.

CR001 wrote:You need your fathers birth certificate post adoption and the adoption papers. How did you get an ancestry visa if you don't have these? You don't need the death cert.

I have my father's birth certificate, but there are no adoption papers; My scenario is a tad complicated. My grandfather, an English soldier, was seeing my grandmother, a Dutch journalist. One day my grandmother just disappeared. My grandfather had no clue of her whereabouts and left Singapore. He only knew about my dad 30yrs later. My grandmother apparently had found out she was pregnant with my dad and did not tell my grandfather. She gave birth to my dad in Singapore, put my grandfather's name down as the father of the child, and left my dad in hospital. No one could find her since. The people who "adopted" my dad were her colleagues, who was visiting her. There were no adoption papers. The whole thing was a secretive affair which his adopted family did not tell. We only relied on vague memories being pieced together as my grandmother visited his adopted family, had a "discussion", and left. My dad's birth cert has my grandmother's name cancelled out / faked.

I'm not sure why I was not asked for it. When I applied for the ancestry visa, I was ready and armed for correspondences between my dad and grandfather, as well as my grandfather stating his relation to me. That is the only evidence I have.

CR001 wrote:You should apply for ILR within 28 days of your 5 years residence. You can apply in person for a same day decision, it is not only a postal application.

I forgot to mention that although my visa was valid from 10/03/13, I only moved to the UK on 02/04/13. Looks like I'll be applying 28 days after my visa expires then? Or am I misunderstanding this? Does that mean they're going to reject it with a "you are refused because you are illegal from 10-03-18 - Apr 2018"?

CR001 wrote:What is your nationality? Some nationalities don't need the English language requirement.

I am Singaporean. Although English is its main language, I could not find the country listed and therefore assume I have to go through an evidence check regardless.

CR001 wrote:You can do LIUK at any point, the test certificate DOES NOT expire.

Great

You can apply 28 days before your visa start date as far as I am aware.

Trust me, you want to do ILR rather than apply (unnecessarily) for another Ancestry visa. For another Ancestry, you have to pay £1000 Immigration Health Surcharge upfront on top of the visa application fee.

Only reason I asked about adoption papers is my situation was the same when I applied for Ancestry visa, but my mom was only adopted at age 3, so she had other birth documents with another name, was adopted and new birth cert issued.

Yikes, I wasn't aware of that £1000 health surcharge. They're really milking us out aren't they!? Thanks for the heads up!! ILR it is, that was an easy decision.

The reason why I wasn't sure about ILR was because I read somewhere that someone suggested re-applying for ancestry visa to bypass the complications of the 5yr residency, that it was on a different form with less paperwork after being here for 10yrs.

I feel relieved to know your story was similar to mine, I feel lost as most if not all of my expat friends can't help because they were here through marriage and have a completely different scenario from me. I tried contacting my "family" here and they want nothing to do with me because of how sensitive the topic is. They were polite enough to at least reply to me on my heritage here in Yorkshire at least.

So ... it looks like I'm applying for ILR in February 2018 and can't apply any earlier than that?

I will dig out a few 'successful' topics tomorrow and post the links for you so you can read the queries and advice and through to the success of ILR.

CR001 wrote:I will dig out a few 'successful' topics tomorrow and post the links for you so you can read the queries and advice and through to the success of ILR.

CR001 You are an angel. Thank you so much.

32flavours wrote:

CR001 wrote:I will dig out a few 'successful' topics tomorrow and post the links for you so you can read the queries and advice and through to the success of ILR.

CR001 You are an angel. Thank you so much.

So sorry for the delayed response. The day after you posted the forum crashed and then I couldn't find your post once I remembered. The best user and link that was successful is the one below.

http://www.immigrationboards.com/indefi ... stry%20ilr

CR001 No worries at all, and thank you for getting back to me on this, really appreciate it.

I am revisiting my own thread because I'm worried sick. The application for ILR draws near

32flavours wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 20, 2017 1:14 pm

I am revisiting my own thread because I'm worried sick. The application for ILR draws near

Don't stress, it is not as bad as you think. Just ask if anything is unclear and we will help you. Read through the extensive link I already provided.

I will... thank you very much CR001 and everyone for the support
I have been reading too many horror stories about people getting kicked out of the country and it's starting to get to me :S

It's me again! It's February now so I'm writing to clarify something worrying me.
This is my question / problem:

10/3/13 - Ancestry visa issued.
10/3/18 - Ancestry visa expiry.
2/4/13 - Physically arrived to the UK. Went for a trip to France for a week from then but otherwise been in the UK all the way and employed from that year on.

I'm trying to book an appointment for the ILR but the earliest date I can get it for is 17/3/18, which is a week after my visa expires.

I don't quite know what to do from here as I'll technically be on an expired visa for a week ish before I apply for ILR so what should I do?

I've read through the forums and I'm understanding some things, but have an issue with the application which I need to clarify.

I'm on ancestry visa which expires on the 10/3/18.
I am intending to apply for ILR, where my fifth year anniversary for being a UK resident is on 2/4/18.
The earliest application booking appointment available (premium, on the day) is 17/3/18.
That's after my visa expires, so I'm worried about where to go from here.

Please advise, thank you.

So basically I'm on ancestry visa which expires on the 10/3/18.
I am intending to apply for ILR, where my fifth year anniversary for being a UK resident is on 2/4/18.
The earliest application booking appointment available (premium, on the day) is 17/3/18.
That's after my visa expires, so I'm worried about where to go from here. :S

Sorry if I retyped this again, I think I'm going into shock. lol.

Apply by post or look for dates at other premium centers.

I have, and the earliest available is 17th :/
is the only chance I have left is to apply by post ?

March is the busiest time for appointments as members trye to get slots before the fees go up in April.

Suggest keep looking, it might be a few days too early as appointments are sometimes only available up to 20 or 28 days before.

You must apply for ILR before your visa expires otherwise ILR will be refused. If you cannot get a premium service slot, you will have to apply by post.

Ok I'm going to try and apply by post within the 6-10th March window.

Can I just confirm that I'll be covered under section 3C during the process? Cos my visa will expire on the 10th..

You will be covered by Section 3c leave if your application was submitted before your current Ancestry visa runs out. If you submit it later, even just the day after the visa expires, Section 3c leave will not apply.

Thank you, I feel a lot more assured now. It’s such a small window to post so hoping to do it asap....

Thank you so much everyone for the advice and support

Hi everyone,

Just want to extend my gratitude for all the help I've received thus far, all of you are a massive help and support in an otherwise potentially mentally-damaging part of my life.

I'll try to update the timeline and/or success story if any. Now, I suppose, the only thing I'm stuck with is that I've got a plane ticket in June that I'm probably going to lose, seeing how most of the applications get completed within a 3 month average

Btw,

I'm not sure if I should include any documentation to support a standing of good character? Would it be necessary / help? If it does, I am intending to send in my CRB check docus as I work in the hospital / mental health.

I am also including proof that I was volunteering before I found a job (first three months).

Would any of these help?

32flavours wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:45 pm

Btw,

I'm not sure if I should include any documentation to support a standing of good character? Would it be necessary / help? If it does, I am intending to send in my CRB check docus as I work in the hospital / mental health.

I am also including proof that I was volunteering before I found a job (first three months).

Would any of these help?

Not necessary. They will do their own checks.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 16, 2018 9:20 am

Not necessary. They will do their own checks.

Thanks, I shall not include it then, I have lots of proof of active community participation but I also don't want to make them look through extra paperwork.

I passed my LiUK test today Yay!