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My friend obtained ILR in the UK. She is now in Kenya on her first visit home since obtaining ILR. The trip will be two months in total. She renewed her Kenyan passport before leaving the UK so she is carrying the old passport containing ILR and the new passport.

The UK Embassy in Nairobi has told her that she must pay £380 for a visa to re-enter the UK. Is this correct? I thought that ILR allowed entry and exit for holidays such as this with no more visas required.

Should she just ignore what the UK Embassy told her (I'm not actually sure why she went there) and try coming back without a visa?

Any replies would be much appreciated.

If she has obtained ILR, then she can re-enter the UK as & when she pleases so long as she has not broken her residency (2 years). There is no requirement to obtain a visa. She must however carry the passport which contains her ILR stamp while travelling. I presume here that her ILR was issued prior to the time when BRP's were introduced.

Many thanks for your fast reply.

She first came to the UK in December 2009. This is her first trip outside the UK since then. She obtained ILR in June 2011.

She has no BRP.

The UK Embassy in Nairobi said that she needs a "returning resident visa".