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Hello,
My husband is currently here on a marriage visa. He is coming up to 3 years, but the visa expires before that. How can he go about applying for citizenship? Does he need to renew his visa first? Should it be the same visa? It looks like he can apply for citizenship after being here for three years, but he needs to have been granted an indefinite leave to remain, is this possible?
Thank you

Do you mean he's on a spouse settlement visa? A marriage visa is a short stay visa which is just for you to get married and then return to your home country.

For citizenship, your husband first requires ILR, which normally means at least 5 years residence on a spouse settlement visa. If he is not yet at 5 years he will need to extend his current visa using FLR(M).

https://www.gov.uk/remain-in-uk-family/apply

The eligibility criteria for citizenship requires only 3 years residency for people married to British citizens, but most routes to settlement now take at least 5 years.

He is on a spouse settlement visa. So he would need to get another settlement visa, then after having lived here for 5 years (three years from now since he has been here for two), apply for ILR and then immediately following apply for citizenship? The gov websites says you can apply for citizenship with 3 years residence (https://www.gov.uk/becoming-a-british-c ... sh-citizen) if you have an ILR, how does that figure in to the 5 years?

Yes, he needs to extend his current visa so he can reach 5 years. Once he reaches 5 years, he will be eligible for ILR. He must apply for ILR and be granted it before he can apply for citizenship. Once he has been granted ILR, assuming he meets all other eligibility criteria for citizenship (English language, Life in the UK, absences etc) he can apply.

As I said the residency requirement for citizenship is calculated on a 3 year period for those married to British citizens. In the past, the spouse settlement route could lead to ILR in as little as 2 years, so it was possible to naturalise in 3 years. Nowadays, most settlement routes require at least 5 years (with the exception of some Tier 1 Investor routes) so the 3 year residency requirement for citizenship is somewhat defunct.

If you read the information on that link you gave, you'll notice one of the requirements for citizenship is that you’ve been granted indefinite leave to stay in the UK.

British citizenship requires an applicant to have first been granted ILR (or PR). Following the changes in July 2012, those on the spouse settlement route under the UK Immigration Rules need to complete 5 years of residence before qualifying for ILR.

Your husband will have to apply for a further 2.5 year FLR(M) extension. At the end of the 5 year period he will apply for ILR and once issued he will be able to apply for BC as the spouse of a British citizen.

In addition to the FLR(M) visa fee (£811 postal or £1311 in person at a PSC) your husband will also have to pay the £500 NHS surcharge.

FLR(M) applications submitted after 01 May 2017, will require A2 level English.

Edit: Beaten by ohara

It's worth noting that as stated above, the extension will be granted for 2.5 years, so make sure he's comfortably over the 2.5 year mark at least before you apply for it otherwise he won't reach 5 years before it expires

Thanks for all the info, really helpful. In terms of renewing the 2.5 settlement visa, is it legal to remain in the country before requesting the extension once the original visa has expired?

No, he must submit the FLR(M) application before his current visa expires

If he has any period of being in the UK without valid leave, it will give him a whole world of problems later on (including a 10 year ban on citizenship due to breach of immigration law).

So what is the best way to get the timing right without applying for a third settlement visa?

+1 ohara.

If your husband fails to submit an application for FLR(M) before the expiry date of his current visa, he risks having to leave the UK and start from scratch with an application for new spouse settlement visa.

Not a problem, just wondering what is meant by this comment below. How does he wait until he is over the 2.5 year mark before applying while remaining legally in the country?

ohara wrote:It's worth noting that as stated above, the extension will be granted for 2.5 years, so make sure he's comfortably over the 2.5 year mark at least before you apply for it otherwise he won't reach 5 years before it expires

s.k.f wrote:Not a problem, just wondering what is meant by this comment below. How does he wait until he is over the 2.5 year mark before applying while remaining legally in the country?

ohara wrote:It's worth noting that as stated above, the extension will be granted for 2.5 years, so make sure he's comfortably over the 2.5 year mark at least before you apply for it otherwise he won't reach 5 years before it expires

In other words, don't apply if he has only been resident for 2 years as this will create a shortfall later on and require a 3rd extension to cover a couple of months.

If his original visa was granted for 33 months, it will also depend on when he entered the UK on the spouse visa.