Hi,
My wife is from the USA and she has been in the UK for about 4 years. The visa she is on now is the so-called spouse visa which has a 2-year probationary period which ends in June 2011.
We could apply for indefinite leave to remain for her. She meets all the criteria. It costs £900.
I checked the naturalisation process on the UKBA's website and it only costs £780. She meets all the criteria except one: she is not free from immigration control (because she is on a visa which expires in June).
To overcome that hurdle, we could apply for ILR (£900) and then when it's granted, for naturalisation (£780), total £1680. It's a bit steep.
I have seen on the naturalisation pages that they can exercise discretion regarding the "free from immigration control" criterion. There are a whole bunch of reasons that are listed. See http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/briti ... trictions/
One of them is family reasons and compassionate reasons.
My wife is pregnant with our 1st child who is due on 29 July 2011. In my view, this should be a good enough reason to waive the requirement based on family and compassionate grounds.
I would like to ask you guys out there if you have been in a situation like this and if you think my argument can succeed.
Thanks
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