ILR Question family staying abroad

[neilroy]

Hello,
One of my friend in planning to apply for ILR in december. His family is staying abroad and they have dependent visa. He plans to bring his family one month before the application date and send his wife and duaghter back to india after they get ILR. Can he do that? Will his wife's & daughter ILR wont be cancelled if that spend most of the time abroad. The reason for this his daughter is in a boarding school and come to UK only in holiday. Will his daughter be eligible for British citizen registration after ILR even if she continues to stay abroad?

[John]

A number of points there. Firstly the ILR will be effectively cancelled if the person stays out of the UK for a continual period exceeding two years. That is, the person would need to apply to be treated as a "returning resident" before being allowed in to the UK.

But hopefully the above situation will not arise. Even so every time that ILR visa is used it needs to be to resume residence. Treating the ILR like a glorified visitor's visa might cause problems.

British citizenship? Sounds like the main visa holder will be eligible to apply after five years in the UK (as long as ILR held for a year). However his wife might have problems applying at the same time because of excess time outside the UK. The daughter? How old by the way? If still a minor it will be possible for an application for registration as British to be submitted by her father when he applies for his naturalisation. With an explanation about the boarding school that application might well be successful.

The mother's naturalisation? After her husband has his naturalisation, by definition, she will be married to a British Citizen. Accordingly a three-year qualifying period will apply for her. She needs to ensure that her time outside the UK does not exceed 270 days, or 90 days outside the UK in the last year, before IND receive the application. There is a bit of leeway on those numbers but not a lot.