Immigrationboards.com

Hello
My husband has been here 5 years now (Oct 19) but visa expires in March. He read the ILR Application paperwork and it seems to imply that he can only apply 28 days prior to his current visa expiration. Whereas I thought it was within 28 days of before reaching 5 years here.

2nd question, if he applies now and it takes up to 6 months to complete the process, but his current visa expires in March , can he work and travel while waiting for this to be approved?

Thank you for reading

Assuming he is on a spouse settlement visa, he can apply for ilr no sooner than within 28 days before reaching 5 years residence counted from the date of entry to the UK OR before his current visa expires.

He cannot travel out of the UK while he has an application pending with Ho as his application will be considered withdrawn and if his visa is expired, won't be able to re-enter the UK.

He can continue working as he is protected by section 3C of the immigration rules while an application is pending with ho.

Standard service is currently around 8 weeks.

Thank you for your very speedy reply, so he is right in saying he effectively needs to wait until mid February before applying as visa expires in March.

One more question from reading other posts. Should he be arranging his life in the U.K. test now? Or does that happen as part of the application?
Again, thank you

What date did he enter the UK on his spouse visa?? This is an important detail.

He needs to complete the life in the UK test and English B1 test, if applicable, BEFORE he applies inline for ilr as the forms ask specifically for these details. They are both completely separate tests and processes to applying for ilr.

He arrived in October 2014

He could have applied for ILR in September/October last year already, assuming he came initially on a spouse visa and not the 6 months fiance visa

Ahhh that’s what I thought ..... gonna have to get a move on now