Getting an ILR stamp when already a UK citizen

[DavidR98]

My wife will soon be eligible for UK citizenship (UK student visa at present). However, since her home country does not allow dual nationality and she wishes to keep her original citizenship, she will need to hold on to her old passport and ensure that it has a valid UK visa stamped in to it for any trips home she might make.

Will she need to make a formal ILR application (and pay the hefty fee) even when she is a UK citizen in order to get it stamped into her "foreign" passport? Or is there a simpler procedure?

[republique]

My wife will soon be eligible for UK citizenship (UK student visa at present). However, since her home country does not allow dual nationality and she wishes to keep her original citizenship, she will need to hold on to her old passport and ensure that it has a valid UK visa stamped in to it for any trips home she might make.

Will she need to make a formal ILR application (and pay the hefty fee) even when she is a UK citizen in order to get it stamped into her "foreign" passport? Or is there a simpler procedure?

She is not a UK citizen.
She needs to get ILR, before obtaining citizenship anyway so ante up.

[sakura]

As per the requirements, applicants for naturalisation as a British citizen should have ILR:

Immigration time restrictions

You must be free from immigration time restrictions when you make your naturalisation application.

There is no way to apply for naturalisation without first applying for and holding ILR. So, when she qualifies for this, she applies for ILR, which will be placed as a vignette in her passport. If she wishes to remain a citizen of her country of origin, she can use the ILR to leave and enter the UK as a returning resident.

If she wishes to naturalise as a British citizen, then although she would have the ILR vignette in her original passport, the fact that her country does not allow dual nationality means that it would be (I think) illegal for her to travel with the passport, as she would be legally no longer a citizen of the country and therefore not entitled to use the passport. So do read up on the laws surrounding renunciation of nationality in her country, if she does indeed plan on becoming a British citizen.

Which country is she from? Also, under what category will she qualify for ILR? If she is on a student visa, then I assume the 10 years Long Residency category? Are you a British citizen/ILR/PR holder?

[DavidR98]

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, I am a British citizen. I have read the linked page on requirements and it is clear that she will soon satisfy all of them, apart from the one quoted by Sakura, which I had not understood:
You must be free from immigration time restrictions when you make your naturalisation application.

Am I right in thinking that this sentence is another way of saying "you must have ILR when you make your naturalisation application".

[vinny]

Yes.

[sakura]

Could you also answer my other question - under what category will she qualify for ILR? Since you mention she is currently on a student visa. I just want to be sure that she does indeed qualify.

[DavidR98]

Could you also answer my other question - under what category will she qualify for ILR? Since you mention she is currently on a student visa. I just want to be sure that she does indeed qualify.

Thanks Sakura.

I believe that she qualifies as the spouse of a UK citizen (me): we got married in the UK in 2004 and have been living together continuously here since March 2006. Throughout the period of her residence she has been covered by her student visa, which expires in 2010.

[sakura]

Could you also answer my other question - under what category will she qualify for ILR? Since you mention she is currently on a student visa. I just want to be sure that she does indeed qualify.

Thanks Sakura.

I believe that she qualifies as the spouse of a UK citizen (me): we got married in the UK in 2004 and have been living together continuously here since March 2006. Throughout the period of her residence she has been covered by her student visa, which expires in 2010.

This is what I had feared! David, she does not qualify for ILR...why? Because she is not on a spouse visa!! Merely being married to a British citizen does not qualify her for ILR. She needed to apply for a spouse visa and, two years (less 28 days) on, she qualifies for ILR.

So....all this time she has been on a student visa, and you did not apply for a spouse visa? I think...you will have to now.

[vinny]

She should immediately switch to FLR(M) (285) and subsequently apply for SET(M) (288).

[sakura]

....Unless she has been in the UK since 1998? Although I somehow doubt that.

The requirement ask that (taken from the set(m) link in vinny's post):

You should use application form SET(M) if you:

already have temporary permission to stay in the United Kingdom (limited leave to remain) as the husband, wife, civil partner, or unmarried or same-sex partner of a permanent resident;
have lived here for two years in this category; and
are still married or in a civil partnership and plan to live together.

Which she does not fulfill.

[DavidR98]

She should immediately switch to FLR(M) (285) and subsequently apply for SET(M) (288).

Thank you: this raises an additional problem. Our family includes her daughter from a previous marriage, aged 16, who is currently here on a visa as a dependant of a student. Her (our) daughter could be included in an FLR(M) application, but after the two-year qualifying period she would be 18, and so too old to be included in an application made on SET(M). The website says that a dependant child aged 18 or older should apply on form SET(F), but only if s/he is a family member of someone who is already settled here, which apparently means already has ILR. By the time that ILR is granted to my wife, our daughter's FLR would have expired, and so she would either be here illegally or out of the UK, and either way could not apply using SET (F).

Or would I be regarded as a family member and so be eligible to sponsor her application?