A new British citizen and old foreign passport with ILR?

[AlexCh]

My wife is becoming a British citizen next week and we were going to go on holiday in November - but we were informed that it now takes 6-8 weeks to get her first British passport, which is too late for our holiday.

I spoke to the Naturalisation department of the Home Office and they thought that if she becomes a British citizen, she cannot come back to the country using her foreign passport with ILR as her ILR will be invalid already - but they were not very sure …

Any ideas on the forum? We need to make our decision really quickly - the travel agent is waiting ...

[sakura]

My wife is becoming a British citizen next week and we were going to go on holiday in November - but we were informed that it now takes 6-8 weeks to get her first British passport, which is too late for our holiday.

I spoke to the Naturalisation department of the Home Office and they thought that if she becomes a British citizen, she cannot come back to the country using her foreign passport with ILR as her ILR will be invalid already - but they were not very sure …

Any ideas on the forum? We need to make our decision really quickly - the travel agent is waiting ...

ILR doesn't get invalidated just because one is a BC. Actually....do a search on this board, the same question came up about 2 weeks ago.

[AlexCh]

ILR doesn't get invalidated just because one is a BC. Actually....do a search on this board, the same question came up about 2 weeks ago.

Well I did the search and found the following information:


...
And the guys in immigration are getting strict on this. a collegue of mine used his Indian passport to go to US from UK and came back on the Indian passport and was quizzed by the guys for an hour. He was warned not to repeat it and either get british passport or get roa.
...


I think - she is not a British citizen till she has passed the ceremony? So if she moves the ceremony date to December - we will be fine? Are there any restrictions on time when you must pass the ceremony?

[ismangil]

Unfortunately with borderline cases like these you are at the mercy of the officer when you arrive.

If you can put off the holiday, that would be best!

[AlexCh]

Unfortunately with borderline cases like these you are at the mercy of the officer when you arrive.

If you can put off the holiday, that would be best!

I am actually thinking about putting off my wife's citizenship ceremony - but this also may be a problem as in the letter they say she has to pass it in 3 months and she probably will need to delay it to 3 months and 1 week.

Till she has not passed the ceremony - she is not a British citizen yet, so she still can use her foreign passport with ILR?

[magsi23]

Unfortunately with borderline cases like these you are at the mercy of the officer when you arrive.

If you can put off the holiday, that would be best!

I am actually thinking about putting off my wife's citizenship ceremony - but this also may be a problem as in the letter they say she has to pass it in 3 months and she probably will need to delay it to 3 months and 1 week.

Till she has not passed the ceremony - she is not a British citizen yet, so she still can use her foreign passport with ILR?

I agree if she has not passed the ceremony she should be able to come back on foreign passport with ILR

[ismangil]

Maybe you can delay the ceremony, but as you say either it will be more than 3 months, or maybe you will cut it so close there is no ceremonies place available etc.

Delay the holiday, then you can have all the holiday you want, go for a round the world trip, even!

[JAJ]

I agree if she has not passed the ceremony she should be able to come back on foreign passport with ILR

Technically the ILR is invalid as soon as she becomes a British citizen, but since the passport ILR stamp is not cancelled it can be used to travel in emergencies. Others have done so.

Bring a copy of naturalisation certificate in case Immigration ask on arrival.

However it is of course at your own risk.

There is also the question of whether your wife's foreign passport will still be valid after she becomes a British citizen. What nationality is she?

[Christophe]

Till she has not passed the ceremony - she is not a British citizen yet, so she still can use her foreign passport with ILR?

She can absoulely use her non-British passport with the ILR endorsement before she has had the ceremony: it is at that point that she becomes a British citizen.

As others have said, the ILR stamp is technically invalid after that. If I were in her position, I think I would risk the holiday: new British citizens travelling on their old ILR-endorsed passport are hardly at the top of the list of people that the immigration officers are on the look-out for! As JAJ said, you could take the naturalisation certifcate with you (although I'd only produce if it is needed).

The other point, also made by JAJ, is that if she automatically loses her original citizenship on becoming British by the operation of the law of the other country, then that passport will also be technically invalid. That, to me, would carry a bigger risk if things go wrong than the ILR problem would.

[AlexCh]

Delay the holiday, then you can have all the holiday you want, go for a round the world trip, even!

I cannot delay the holiday - I will just lose it

[AlexCh]

The other point, also made by JAJ, is that if she automatically loses her original citizenship on becoming British by the operation of the law of the other country, then that passport will also be technically invalid. That, to me, would carry a bigger risk if things go wrong than the ILR problem would.

Nope - she is Russian - Russia does not care how many other citizenships you have - more or less the same attitude as the UK has.

[Dawie]

I personally was in exactly the same position as your wife. I had a holiday scheduled a few days after my citizenship ceremony and there was no way I was going to be able to get my British passport in time for my holiday.

So I made a photocopy of my naturalisation certificate and went on holiday with my South African passport + ILR sticker inside. Needless to say, I had absolutely no problem reentering the UK. It was obvious to me that the immigration officer had absolutely no knowledge of the fact that I was a British citizen from their terminal.

Remember the most important fact: no matter what, your wife will be a British citizen and even if there is some issue, they cannot deny her entry into the UK.

[Christophe]

Nope - she is Russian - Russia does not care how many other citizenships you have - more or less the same attitude as the UK has.

In that case, my advice (unofficial as it is!) would be just to go ahead and enjoy your holiday. And as Dawie says, if she is a British citizen she can't actually be ultimately denied entry to the UK. In practice, I think she'll just sail through using her ILR endorsement - as Dawie did!

[ismangil]

Who am I to argue with a "Guru" and a "Sage".

I change my advice: go on your holiday!

[Christophe]

Who am I to argue with a "Guru" and a "Sage".

I change my advice: go on your holiday!

lol. Who knows? It's one of those situations where one simply has to make a decision based on all the circumstances.

Best wishes from your unsagely sage.

[AlexCh]

Who am I to argue with a "Guru" and a "Sage".

I change my advice: go on your holiday!

lol. Who knows? It's one of those situations where one simply has to make a decision based on all the circumstances.

Best wishes from your unsagely sage.

Being a complete pain in the mule, I called directly to the immigration control in Heathrow (because nobody else in the Home Office could give me a definite answer) and asked them the question - they confirmed that she could come back and pass the imm. control using her Russian passport and ILR. In this case she has to put Russian as her nationality in the landing card.

So all looks bright now and we can fly to Maldives for a couple of weeks

But it still does not explain why that guy had problems:

...
And the guys in immigration are getting strict on this. a collegue of mine used his Indian passport to go to US from UK and came back on the Indian passport and was quizzed by the guys for an hour. He was warned not to repeat it and either get british passport or get roa.
...

[AlexCh]

It was obvious to me that the immigration officer had absolutely no knowledge of the fact that I was a British citizen from their terminal.

It may be just a matter of time required to update their system - we are going on holiday 6 weeks after the ceremony and 6 weeks is exactly the time required now to get your first British passport - but since they take all your passports and it may take a little longer, we really do not want to take the risk.

I have a friend who had a problem with an air company in Germany - for some reason the company staff wanted to check if his ILR was genuine - they called to some special number in the UK, gave his ILR number and people on the other side of the phone not only confirmed that the ILR was valid, they also knew that he has already applied for the British citizenship.