Rights & Duties of an ILR Holder

[chetkav]

Can anyone tell:-
1) What are the Rights & Duties of ILR holder.
2) How is it different from Citizenship.

[Rogerio]

Simple...

1. rights

a. to take up any employment you wish without the need for previous authorisation from anyone
b. apply for benefits,
c. permanent residency (if not away for more than 2 years), and the UK is your main home.
d. children born here are UK citizens.
e. no need to be registered with the Police (some nationals on WPs, or some students are required to register with the Police, and notify them any change of address or circumstances). ILR holders aren't.

2. restrictions

a. you cannot be away from the UK for more than 2 years, otherwise you will lose your ILR.
b. no voting rights (unless you're from the Commonwealth)
c. if abroad and in trouble, the UK government won't help you (they will only help British citizens)
d. no free movement in the EU (only UK citizens can)
e. no visa free travel to the US (unless your country has the VWP agreement with the US)


3. Difference to citizenship ....

a. There will be none of the restrictions on item (2) !
b. The very personal (in my case at least!) "sense of belonging" to your adopted nation.
c. Being able to apply for a British Passport
d. not so much a difference, but an advantage for some people - If your country allows for multiple nationalities, you can keep your existing nationality and be British too, which is my case.... I guess from your previous posts you're an Indian national, and I believe that should you wish to naturalise British, you'd have to give up your full Indian citizenship and become a Overseas Indian Citizen (OIC).




I'm sure other posters will think of more...

Rogerio

[smalldog]

ILR holders can be deported for various reasons (especially during a media witchhunt), citizens can't.

[mhunjn]

Citizens with dual nationality can be deported as well.

[Dawie]

ILR holders can be deported for various reasons (especially during a media witchhunt), citizens can't.

A commonwealth citizen who has been resident in the UK for 5 years or more cannot be deported under current regulations.

Citizens with dual nationality can be deported as well.

This does not make sense unless it is combined with the revoking of that persons UK citizenship which can only occur under very special circumstances. It's about as useless as trying to deport EU nationals, which is itself an exercise in futility as there is nothing stopping an EU national from coming straight back to the UK after deportation. Likewise there is nothing stopping a UK citizen with dual nationality from returning straight back to the UK after deportation.

In any case a dual national cannot be deprived of their UK citizenship if they renounce their other citizenship as this will leave them stateless.

[ppron747]

....A commonwealth citizen who has been resident in the UK for 5 years or more cannot be deported under current regulations.

I'm not doubting you, dawie, but can you give a reference for this?

Citizens with dual nationality can be deported as well.

This does not make sense unless it is combined with the revoking of that persons UK citizenship which can only occur under very special circumstances. It's about as useless as trying to deport EU nationals, which is itself an exercise in futility as there is nothing stopping an EU national from coming straight back to the UK after deportation. Likewise there is nothing stopping a UK citizen with dual nationality from returning straight back to the UK after deportation.

In any case a dual national cannot be deprived of their UK citizenship if they renounce their other citizenship as this will leave them stateless.

The Immigration Asylum & Nationality Act 2006 - passed by Parliament, but not yet in force - will make deprivation a bit easier, I think. It also gives the Home Secretary power to deprive people of the right of abode, if they have it as (eg) a Commonwealth citizen with a UK-born mother...

I'm not so sure that you're right on the point about the pointlessness of deporting EU nationals, though. Surely (a) machine-readable passports are generally scanned on arrival these days, which means they'd be likely to be intercepted, and (b) if they did get in, they'd be breaching whatever order got rid of them in the first place, and rendering themselves liable for whatever penalties that offence attracts - which I assume would be more than just being put back on a plane again...

[RobinLondon]

See section 12.3 for restrictions on deporting resident Commonwealth citizens:

Chapter 12 - Persons liable to deportation

[ppron747]

Thanks for that link, RobinLondon - it's quite interesting!

Leaving aside the exemptions for people with right of abode, and diplomats, etc, the part that specifically refers to Commonwealth citizens says

under section 7 of the 1971 Act, Irish and Commonwealth citizens who have been ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom and Islands for the last 5 years at the date of any decision to deport;

which I assume is where dawie's statement that "....A commonwealth citizen who has been resident in the UK for 5 years or more cannot be deported under current regulations" came from.

I wonder if, when they're trawling through the list of people who are supposed to be considered for deportation, IND will just go by this paragraph in their "bible", or whether they'll look at the Act itself?

Section 7 of the Immigration Act 1971 (which seems still to be in force, unamended) makes it clear that the exemption from deportation applies only when the individual is

...a Commonwealth citizen or citizen of the Republic of Ireland who was such a citizen at the coming into force of this Act {1st January 1973} and was then ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom....

I don't know about you, but I think the instructions are misleading. Commonwealth citizens who didn't arrive in UK until after 1.1.73 - or who weren't Commonwealth citizens until after that date (eg citizens of South Africa, Pakistan, Mozambique, Cameroon & Namibia) are not exempt from deportation, whether they've lived here for five years or not. (Unless section 7 has been amended, and I've just failed to find it...!)