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Hello

I am currently on a Tier 1 Highly Skilled visa that will expire in June 2015 (at which time I will be eligible to apply for ILR – having held my Tier 1 visa, and lived in London for the past 5 years). My question is, that I have since married a British Citizen… so potentially I don’t need to apply for my ILR under my existing conditions? Can I apply to naturalise on the basis that I have been living in the UK for over 3 years, and am now married to a British Citizen? Or do I first need to apply for ILR (either as a spouse, or in my own right), and then apply for citizenship?

From my understanding, it will be much cheaper to apply as my partners spouse for ILR (rather than by myself). But I dont know if I need to apply for ILR at all...?

Kind regards

Wira

I don't think you can, since you are not on the Spouse visa route.

You must have ILR.

You will have to apply for ILR.

I believe that after you get ILR, you will immediately be able to apply for citizenship as the spouse of a British citizen. But you will need to go through ILR in any case.

Hi,
If a person become ILR and after 1 year Naturalized, at that time his dependent was as a PBS dependent (Tier 1 General Dependent) visa and stayed 3 years in UK and less than 270 days absences and spent no more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months. In this case the dependent can go for naturalization with out ILR.

Is my assumption was correct or she need to get ILR before she naturalized ? I don't see anywhere in the guidence in If your spouse is a British citizen


Regards,
suresh

Your spouse must have ILR.

haiksuresh wrote:Hi,
If a person become ILR and after 1 year Naturalized, at that time his dependent was as a PBS dependent (Tier 1 General Dependent) visa and stayed 3 years in UK and less than 270 days absences and spent no more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months. In this case the dependent can go for naturalization with out ILR.

Is my assumption was correct or she need to get ILR before she naturalized ? I don't see anywhere in the guidence in If your spouse is a British citizen


Regards,
suresh

There is a bullet point in the link you gave:

• you’ve been granted indefinite leave to stay in the UK (or permanent residence if you’re an EEA national) - this means there’s no specific date that you have to leave.

For non-EEA citizen (non EU-EEA treaty members citizen) which your wife is as I am guessing by your name (Indian?) she has to have ILR. And for EEA citizen (EU-EEA treaty members citizen) its called PR.

To the best of my knowledge, ILR for non-EEA citizens/PR for EEA citizens is a requirement for all naturalisation (as opposed to registration) applications.

If a spouse of a British citizen, the applicant can apply for naturalisation immediately after getting ILR. But they will need to be two separate applications, and they will need to be applied consecutively, not concurrently.

EEA applicants can apply directly for naturalisation as PR accrues automatically after five years of exercising treaty rights. However, that is under EEA rules, not UK immigration rules. They would need to apply after five years (if the spouse of a British citizen) or six years (if not the spouse of a British citizen).

Both groups of applicants also need to meet the physical presence requirement of having been physically present in the UK on the same day exactly five year ago (if not the spouse of a British citizen) or three years ago (if a spouse of a British citizen).