Immigrationboards.com

Hi, I was recently granted ILR (January 2022) after having lived in the UK for 5+ years. I'm married to a UK citizen and we came to the UK after having legally lived in Spain as residents. We used the Surinder Singh route and I was given an EU family member residency status in England, even if I'm American. Note we also have a child born in Spain who has both American and English citizenship. Before I filled in the EEA settlement application, I remember the government notices warning us that anything that had to do with the EU was now void and I assumed my residency card saying EU Family member was included in that. However, when I got my ILR status, no new residency card/BRP came. I wrote to them and they said it wasn't a delivery issue and that I should wait for a case officer to get back to me. However, I went to my university to update them on the ILR status and the immigration team there said the government is fading these residency card/BRPs out and that as mine doesn't expire until July 2022 and I can prove my immigration status with a government website and code, I don't need a new one and they probably won't be sending me one. The solicitor who helped me with my ILR application also wasn't sure what the government was doing and no one has gotten back to me from the government. I'm flying to Italy for a five day holiday with my partner at the end of the month and I want to make sure I don't need a new residency card that lists my immigration status as ILR and not EU family member. Can anyone offer any advice?

If you don't explicitly apply for a new BRC, you won't get one upon getting Settled Status/ILR if your old BRC is still valid. This is because as long as the expiration date has not passed you don't necessarily need a new one. Your solicitor should know this.

A non-EU family member with status under the EU scheme can keep using their old BRC to travel, if that's the document used to apply for Settled status. It doesn't matter if it doesn't say "ILR" on it, the up to date status will be displayed to border officer when checking the card at the border.

You can also apply for a replacement card with "settled status" written on it. Useful for when your current one expires, but you don't need to wait till then to apply.

See https://visas-immigration.service.gov.u ... nt-service