Post
by Dawie » Fri Dec 22, 2006 11:04 am
The facts:
You can only receive ILR after 2 years of being with a British person if you have spent those 2 years either on a spouse visa or an unmarried partner visa.
Before you can apply for an unmarried partner visa however, you would have had to been living together with your partner for 2 years previously.
As it stands at the moment, you have another 4 more years to go before you get ILR if you carry on with an HSMP visa. (the 1 year you spent on a working holiday visa does not count towards ILR as this is not a settlement-type visa, and it takes 5 years to get ILR with an HSMP visa).
Although the 2 years you have previously spent with your British girlfriend do not entitle you to apply for ILR at the moment, it DOES entitle you to apply for an unmarried partner visa. After 2 years if being on this type of visa you will be able to apply for ILR.
Alternatively you could marry your British girlfriend and switch to a spouse visa. After 2 years of being on this you can apply for ILR AND you can immediately apply for British citizenship after you get your ILR because you would have fulfilled the requirements for naturalisation by virtue of being the spouse of a British citizen (those being 3 years residence in the UK, the holding of ILR status and being married to a British citizen).
In summary, you could carry on as you are now and wait another 4 years for ILR, or you could wait 2 years for ILR by switching to an unmarried partner visa or by getting married and switching to a spouse visa.
A word of warning though....if your relationship with your girlfriend deteriorates, it will put your unmarried partner visa or spouse visa at risk and it might not be so easy to switch back to an HSMP visa again if you need a rescue plan to remain in the country.
In a few years time we'll look back on immigration control like we look back on American prohibition in the thirties - futile and counter-productive.
