Renewing ILR via BRP (Long-term planning)

[Richard W]

As those working on ILR who don't intend to naturalise may have to obtain a BRP (if one does not already have one), I've been looking at the mechanism for renewing the BRP - it expires every 10 years (5 years for children). I'm wondering if my analysis is correct, so I'd welcome other people's thoughts.The planning is for my wife.

Looking at the BRP replacement form BRP(RC), it seems that one has to renew it in the three months following expiry. Is it legitimate to advance the expiry time by deliberately damaging it and replacing it on that basis?

If it expires while one is overseas, one has to get a BRP replacement visa. Would one have to apply within about three months of expiry so as to prevent one's ILR being revoked for not renewing? It's conceivable some significant fines could build up if the Home Office did not know one was abroad. A problem is that it seems that the visa obtained is only valid for one month, so one would need to have pretty firm travel plans. The whole business would be tricky if expiry occurred at the start of a 12 month absence. Letting a BRP evidencing ILR expire while overseas seems a bad idea.

The regulations are basically the Immigration (Biometric Registration) Regulations 2008 amended by the Immigration (Biometric Registration) (Amendment) Regulations 2012. Intermediate amendments seem to have changed very little and nothing of major significance for this query.