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General Citizenship Advice for Spouse of UK Citizen

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2023 1:01 pm
by ssbib
Hello,

I hope you are all well. I hope this is the last time to post requesting advice on this forum. Everyone has been truly helpful and we cannot thank you enough for that.

My wife got her ILR in December 2022 and after a bit of a break we are ready to apply for her citizenship. I want to just make a post making sure I understand the process and how to go forward with it etc. My understanding is we will need to satisfy the following:

Meet the continuous residence in the UK requirements - this will be evidence by her current ILR status which shows 5 years continuous residence plus through her passports etc. No need for us to submit bank statements and letters etc during this period.

Pass Life in the UK Test - this was completed as part of the ILR application so we can re-submit that reference to satisfy this requirement.

Satisfy the English Language requirement - we used an IELTS B1 certificate for the entirety of the spouse application and plan on using this again here.

Provide 2 referees who can prove my wifes identity - we have 2 friends willing to do this. One is a teacher at a high school and the other works in parliament and has an OBE. What do our friends have to do as part of this process? Am I right in thinking there is a form they have to print out, complete and sign?

Satisfy the "good character" requirement - this is one part I am unsure of. How do we satisfy this requirement? My wife has no criminal history or any such thing so is this satisficed by answering questions on the form? Any advice on this would be appreciated.

So, that's it as far as I am aware. Quite straight forward compared to some of the other steps in the process. If I have missed anything please let me know or give your thumbs up if you think I have the understanding of this correct.

Lastly, could someone please link me to the correct page for application? This way I know I am in the right place, haha.

Thanks once again everyone and take care.

Re: General Citizenship Advice for Spouse of UK Citizen

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2023 2:14 pm
by AmazonianX
ssbib wrote:
Sat Aug 05, 2023 1:01 pm
Hello,

I hope you are all well. I hope this is the last time to post requesting advice on this forum. Everyone has been truly helpful and we cannot thank you enough for that.

My wife got her ILR in December 2022 and after a bit of a break we are ready to apply for her citizenship. I want to just make a post making sure I understand the process and how to go forward with it etc. My understanding is we will need to satisfy the following:

Meet the continuous residence in the UK requirements - this will be evidence by her current ILR status which shows 5 years continuous residence plus through her passports etc. No need for us to submit bank statements and letters etc during this period. Correct

Pass Life in the UK Test - this was completed as part of the ILR application so we can re-submit that reference to satisfy this requirement. Correct

Satisfy the English Language requirement - we used an IELTS B1 certificate for the entirety of the spouse application and plan on using this again here. Yes

Provide 2 referees who can prove my wifes identity - we have 2 friends willing to do this. One is a teacher at a high school and the other works in parliament and has an OBE. What do our friends have to do as part of this process? Am I right in thinking there is a form they have to print out, complete and sign? Yes, fill and sign the form

Satisfy the "good character" requirement - this is one part I am unsure of. How do we satisfy this requirement? My wife has no criminal history or any such thing so is this satisficed by answering questions on the form? Correct Any advice on this would be appreciated.

So, that's it as far as I am aware. Quite straight forward compared to some of the other steps in the process. If I have missed anything please let me know or give your thumbs up if you think I have the understanding of this correct.

Lastly, could someone please link me to the correct page for application? This way I know I am in the right place, haha.

Thanks once again everyone and take care.

Re: General Citizenship Advice for Spouse of UK Citizen

Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2023 2:50 pm
by ssbib
AmazonianX wrote:
Sat Aug 05, 2023 2:14 pm
ssbib wrote:
Sat Aug 05, 2023 1:01 pm
Hello,

I hope you are all well. I hope this is the last time to post requesting advice on this forum. Everyone has been truly helpful and we cannot thank you enough for that.

My wife got her ILR in December 2022 and after a bit of a break we are ready to apply for her citizenship. I want to just make a post making sure I understand the process and how to go forward with it etc. My understanding is we will need to satisfy the following:

Meet the continuous residence in the UK requirements - this will be evidence by her current ILR status which shows 5 years continuous residence plus through her passports etc. No need for us to submit bank statements and letters etc during this period. Correct

Pass Life in the UK Test - this was completed as part of the ILR application so we can re-submit that reference to satisfy this requirement. Correct

Satisfy the English Language requirement - we used an IELTS B1 certificate for the entirety of the spouse application and plan on using this again here. Yes

Provide 2 referees who can prove my wifes identity - we have 2 friends willing to do this. One is a teacher at a high school and the other works in parliament and has an OBE. What do our friends have to do as part of this process? Am I right in thinking there is a form they have to print out, complete and sign? Yes, fill and sign the form

Satisfy the "good character" requirement - this is one part I am unsure of. How do we satisfy this requirement? My wife has no criminal history or any such thing so is this satisficed by answering questions on the form? Correct Any advice on this would be appreciated.

So, that's it as far as I am aware. Quite straight forward compared to some of the other steps in the process. If I have missed anything please let me know or give your thumbs up if you think I have the understanding of this correct.

Lastly, could someone please link me to the correct page for application? This way I know I am in the right place, haha.

Thanks once again everyone and take care.
Thanks AmazonianX ☺️

Re: General Citizenship Advice for Spouse of UK Citizen

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:14 pm
by ssbib
Hello again,

My wife and I are in the process of completing the application. We are just gathering the documents at present and it says we need to submit the passports as proof she has been in the UK for the 3 year period.

It says “ANY PASSPORTS SUBMITTED MUST BE ORIGINALS”. So does this mean you’ll hand the passports in when the biometrics are taken, or do we still scan and submit all pages along with the English language requirements etc?

Thanks

Re: General Citizenship Advice for Spouse of UK Citizen

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:18 pm
by alterhase58
ssbib wrote:
Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:14 pm
Hello again,

My wife and I are in the process of completing the application. We are just gathering the documents at present and it says we need to submit the passports as proof she has been in the UK for the 3 year period.

It says “ANY PASSPORTS SUBMITTED MUST BE ORIGINALS”. So does this mean you’ll hand the passports in when the biometrics are taken, or do we still scan and submit all pages along with the English language requirements etc?

Thanks
No - this wording is outdated - no original documents are submitted - you just scan and upload with the online application - you just show original passport for ID purposes - it's not retained.

Re: General Citizenship Advice for Spouse of UK Citizen

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 11:26 pm
by ssbib
Thanks for confirming. It’s stupid they haven’t updated the wording if that’s the case. Looks like I have a weekend of scanning documents ahead of me again *sigh* but at least the end of this path is now in front of us.

Re: General Citizenship Advice for Spouse of UK Citizen

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 3:14 am
by CR001
Minimal documents are required, it honestly shouldn't take long to scan and upload or photograph with phone and upload.

Re: General Citizenship Advice for Spouse of UK Citizen

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 6:56 am
by ssbib
Yeah it’s not too bad, but the problem is having to scan all the passport pages. Doing that with my phone makes the file sizes too big so I have to borrow my dads old printer/scanner and it just takes forever because it’s so slow. I’ll put some music on and make an afternoon of it. I had ear marked this weekend for lying around in my underpants and playing The Legend of Zelda but this will take priority 😂