ILR and my wife?

[nightblade628]

Hi all,

I'm a South African who's spent 5 years in the UK on an ancestral visa (until april 2009) and now nearly another year on my Indefinite leave to remain.

I got married 2 years ago to my wife who is also South African while I was still under Ancestral. She thus received a dependancy visa mirroring my own, I believe it was valid for 5 years but she only needed to stay here for 2 in order to qualify for ILR (but I'm not 100% on the rules for this).

Long story short, her passport was stolen; we've just gone through the lengthy process of having it replaced. I was unsure if, to replace her visa, she should apply for another dependancy visa or if she'd be allowed to get an ILR like myself.

I called the UKBA and they told me that since I'm now on ILR, she would be able to apply for one too, but would obviously need the Life in the UK test.

What confuses me is they told me she can apply for ILR under form Set(O), however this appears to mostly cater for the highly skilled migrants programme. Surely, as my dependant, she would need form Set(M)? And would she have had to complete her second year in the country (which will happen in April this year) or could she have applied for ILR as soon as I had mine? I'm so confused and the website doesn't do much to clear this up.

Thanks for your help!