Immigrationboards.com

Mary is a UK Citizen who 55 yrs old. She married John 62 yrs who entered the UK on a spouse visa. John's native language is English.

John is illiterate [ extremely] and will not be able to do the Life in the Uk test. Mary is very concerned about this and does not know what to do as John will need to apply for ILR very soon.

What are Mary and John options for applying for ILR with life in the UK test / exemption?

33G wrote:If in the special circumstances of any particular case the Secretary of State thinks fit, he may waive the need to fulfil the requirement to have sufficient knowledge of the English language and sufficient knowledge about life in the United Kingdom if he considers that, because of the applicant's physical or mental condition, it would be unreasonable to expect him to fulfil that requirement.

Click on links for more info.

Dear xleft:
John grew up very poor. His family didnt send him to school after age 6 because the said he wasnt learning anything and will never learn anything, instead he was made to work on the farm. He had a rough childhood.

I see you are rather insultive by stating "he never learned the alphabet ". There are a lot of people 60 years ago could not afford or were given the opportunity by their parents or guardians to aquire literacy or numeracy skills. In some countries today this is still the same..

The fact is the 62 yrs old man cannot read, I dont know if he didnt learn the alphabet. Many people can say the alphabet but still cannot read and write, many people can count but cannot do simple mathimatical calculations.

He was never tested for learning disability/difficulties.. nor does he have a document to say he cannot read due to medical conditions. Hence, the questions in the first post..

Adult Education centres usually offer free adult literacy courses. I'm not sure what his options are otherwise, as the ESOL alternative is for those whose 1st language isn't English.
If he doesn't qualify for an exemption he could apply for an extension (Further Leave to Remain) to give him time to improve sufficiently to pass the test.
Just one other thought...which depends on whether he has good recall of the spoken word. You could read the questions from the official Life in the UK book, followed by the answers. He would then opt to listen to the questions through headphones during the test, instead of reading from the screen.
My husband was more familiar with Arabic script, but passed the KOL test by doing this. Takes time and patience on both sides though!
I agree with your comment about Xleft. You'll see that Moderators have already placed him on 'thin ice'. I've deleted his post by the way.

There is an audio CD of the book.