Finally its all over...

[peppekalle]

Congratulations on your success.You can now enjoy life without worrying about the border agency ever again.

[navalaviator]

Congratulations on your success.You can now enjoy life without worrying about the border agency ever again.

Not really to be honest in my opinion as if you live for two or more years out of the UK then ILR is lapsed and have to convince them again that you have strong ties and bla bla bla.....

No doubt that it gives you a relief from having to worry about getting caught by ukba at work or while traveling back and forth to your homecountry but then again there have been cases where people were entered as visitors despite having ILR and were asked questions about why you visited to you home country and bla bla bla.............and oh how did you get ILR etc.

ILR sort of makes you stranded in between your home country and the UK and particularly if you are denied citizenship and in the current climate of such uncertainty about rapidly changing and stringent Good Character requirement its really worrying.

Refusal of citizenship can put you under tons of stress as you are stuck here and can't go back home and not a a British citizen either with full rights and freedom of travel as obviously people work their back side off to get ILR and then if you are denied citizenship over some stupid reason then you are in mess.

Can't stay for more then 2 years out of here.

Can't go to other EU countries on ILR

Still hold your back home waste of time passport.

Still a foreigner and don't have full rights.

Basically ILR puts you in this stupid limbo despite the fact you paid enormous amount of money to get this and plus added stress and priceless tension of worrying all these years about your future as whether you will be granted one or not......................

[ouflak1]

Can't go to other EU countries on ILR

This is the most disappointing thing to me. Even temporary visitors to other EU countries have more freedom of movement than permanent residents of Founding EU member The United Kingdom. Ireland is the lone exception, but even that is starting to come under question. If Ireland leaves the open travel agreement, then as far as travel in EU is concerned, UK ILR is embarrassingly worthless.

And while I don't share naval's pessimism, the fact is that you will always be questioned about your visa, how you got it, any 'discrepancies' (that really aren't the business of the UKBA), and even if your circumstances have changed after just a week trip out of the country. I'm wondering what it's going to be like if/when I actually do get citizenship. How many strange questions will I still get? Will my daughter, who was born with UK citizenship, get any of these questions?

[navalaviator]

Can't go to other EU countries on ILR

This is the most disappointing thing to me. Even temporary visitors to other EU countries have more freedom of movement than permanent residents of Founding EU member The United Kingdom. Ireland is the lone exception, but even that is starting to come under question. If Ireland leaves the open travel agreement, then as far as travel in EU is concerned, UK ILR is embarrassingly worthless.

And while I don't share naval's pessimism, the fact is that you will always be questioned about your visa, how you got it, any 'discrepancies' (that really aren't the business of the UKBA), and even if your circumstances have changed after just a week trip out of the country. I'm wondering what it's going to be like if/when I actually do get citizenship. How many strange questions will I still get? Will my daughter, who was born with UK citizenship, get any of these questions?

Agree witth you but don't you think that what I have said above are all the facts?

IMHO ILR should be replaced with a direct grant of Citizenship and should do all the checks which are done at ILR plus Good character test in this one combined application so instead of ILR citizenship should be applied for by all those who are on routes to become permanent here, should just take one increased fee of around £1500 as to compensate the ILR stage ripoff as probably this whole concpet of ILR before Passport is a money making scam anyways.

UK ILR is embarrassingly worthless

Agree with you fully and this is what I tried to explain in my first post above.

[ouflak1]

IMHO ILR should be replaced with a direct grant of Citizenship ...

Not everybody wants citizenship. I certainly didn't when I first came here, and even after I got ILR. I'm still mulling it over seriously, but the fact that we now have children here that have UK citizenship has kind of tilted me in favor of the idea despite some of my built-in objections. In those cases where people don't want citizenship, you should still have something like permanent residence, but it simply has to be far more meaningful in relation to the rest of the world, most obviously our neighbors, the EU.

[navalaviator]

IMHO ILR should be replaced with a direct grant of Citizenship ...

Not everybody wants citizenship. I certainly didn't when I first came here, and even after I got ILR. I'm still mulling it over seriously, but the fact that we now have children here that have UK citizenship has kind of tilted me in favor of the idea despite some of my built-in objections. In those cases where people don't want citizenship, you should still have something like permanent residence, but it simply has to be far more meaningful in relation to the rest of the world, most obviously our neighbors, the EU.

Absolutely right and at least should have a right to move freely within the EU on ILR as being a Permanent resident of the UK, they should normally allow people to travel freely within the member states as you hold ILR.

Also they should remove this 2 year restriction as it just doesn't make sense as if you go and live in some other country for a while and then decide to comeback then its really unfair to find out at airport that you are no longer a resident and which kind of gives an idea that those who are on ILR are still not fully settled and have not been released from immigration control.