Dawie wrote:
I don't understand how you could possibly obtain ILR without it being confirmed in your passport.
Not everyone has a valid passport. For example, when people that I know who had entered the UK as asylum seekers were granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR), they had no valid passports because the country of their citizenship was at that time in such a state of anarchy and confusion that new passports to replace their expired passports could not be issued. The conferral of ILR was confirmed in letters from the Home Office, which was the only proof they ever had. (They are now naturalised British citizens - the letters from the Home Office were submitted with their applications as proof of their ILR.)
This is a perfectly ordinary procedure. It is not, after all, compulsory to have a valid passport, and some people with ILR may never have had a passport in their life (e.g. a person born in the UK). See, e.g.
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/lawand ... e/fullcode, which is the Home Office Code of Practice to Prevent Illegal Working, which states among the specified documents to prove the right to work:
A passport or other travel document endorsed to show that the person named is exempt from immigration control, has indefinite leave to enter, or remain in, the United Kingdom or has no time limit on his or her stay; or a letter issued by the Home Office confirming that the person named has such status....
A passport or other travel document endorsed to show that the person named has current leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom and is not precluded from taking the employment in question, or a letter issued by the Home Office confirming that this is the case...
A letter issued by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office indicating that the person named in the letter is a British citizen or has permission to take employment...
