About to Apply for ILR Few Questions!

[BrettDixon]

Hi All,

My wife is about to apply for ILR. She came here on a marriage visa, which we married on and she was then granted Further to Remain.

Now this expires at the end of may and we are just about to post in all the forms and a load of paperwork for the ILR.

We have bank statements, council tax bills, payslips and alsorts of things but how many should i send? if i sent 2 years worth they would need a JCB to lift it!

Also, on the form it says i cant send it in before 28 days before the visa expires, but i read somewhere the processing time is around 4 weeks. What if they take longer than 4 weeks and her FLR expires?

What happens then?

Ill be glad a when its all over, we are a giant bag of nerves!

Any other pointers?

[Rover8098]

Hi, you should definitely send documents covering the past 2 years (on the assumption that she is applying for her ILR at the end of her 2 year qualifying stay as the spouse of a British citizen/permanent resident of the UK - i.e. you). Not saying you send all the documents for the past 2 years, but if you look at the home office web site, they clearly list the documents that you need to submit (I think it's a total of 10 different things you need - ideally in your joint names plus evidence of your finances such as bank and savings account statements, payslips, P60 etc.)

As for the 4 wk thing, as long as your wife sends her application to the HO BEFORE her FLR expires, she will be fine even if her actual visa expires and she will not be in breach of any immigration rules regardless of whether the application takes more than 28 days to process by the HO.

Have you considered lodging an application in person at a PEO (Personal Enquiry Office) in either Croydon or Birmingham? It's costly (around £900 I think), but well worth it as the application is dealt with within a few hours (assuming a straight forward application).

[Rover8098]

For all the information you need for your wife's ILR application, see the guidance notes for Form SET (M);

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/6353/1 ... il2007.pdf

Hope this helps.

[John]

on the form it says i cant send it in before 28 days before the visa expires, but i read somewhere the processing time is around 4 weeks. What if they take longer than 4 weeks and her FLR expires?

Because of legislation known as "Section 3C", as long as the new visa is applied for prior to the expiry of the old visa, should it be the case that the application is not dealt with prior to the stated expiry date on the old visa, that old visa is "treated as continuing", until at least the application is dealt with, and should the application be rejected, until the time for appealing against that rejection has expired.

Other pointers? Question ... has your wife passed the Citizenship Test, or alternatively got a completion certificate from a combined ESOL/Citizenship course?