ILR/NATURALISATION- DEPENDANT APPLICATION

[ajani]

Need help from members of the Board concerning my query. I want my 16year old to attend UNI in Nigeria starting september 2007. I am not too happy about the friends he 'hangs out' with in the UK.

I am in the UK under the HSMP programme, following the 4 to 5year rule, i hope to apply for Indefinite leave if the jucidial review succeeds in December 2007 or March 31 2008 if it fails.

My question is this, if he travels to Nigeria in September 2007 and returns to UK in December 2007 or March 2008 what effect would this have on his ILR/NATURALISATION appliaction.

[VictoriaS]

The problem may be that he may be considered as independent from you by spending this time overseas.

Can you not wait until he gets his ILR before doing this?


Victoria

[ajani]

Victoria.Thank you for your response. I prefer to do it now if it would not affect his ILR application. Going through the Set(0) form, i noticed that time out of UK is only considered for the main applicants and not the dependants.
Furthermore, i am planning that if he leaves the UK in September 2007, he can come back by Dec 2007. If the Judicial review succeeds and we apply for ILR by Dec/Jan, he would have been away for about 90days prior to filling the ILR application.
In the worst case scenario, if we applied for ILR in March 2008, i can still advise him to travel back to UK before Christmas, return to Nigeria in January and be back in UK before the application is submitted in March 2008.

[VictoriaS]

The problem won't be time spent out of the UK, the problem will be that by the time he comes back he will be 18 and will have been living apart from you for three years, and therefore his application may not be considered that of a minor dependent.

Victoria

[ajani]

He wont be 18years until 2009. Like i said we intend to apply for ILR either by December 2007 or March 2008. He would have stayed few months out of UK and not three years.

[VictoriaS]

Okay, Uni courses are usually three years, hence my concern.

How many months out? Who would he be living with?

Victoria

[sakura]

The other thing to take into consideration is naturalisation, which might be affected if he spends so long outside the UK. He might not be able to apply for naturalisation in 2008/2009 (i.e. the same time as you), because he has spent far too much time outside the UK (studying, obviously means at least 6 -8 months at uni). Even if he qualifies for ILR with you, if he is studying outside the UK for more than 2 years, it might mean he loses ILR and cannot return or will have to apply for something else.

VictoriaS - am I right that this might be a future concern?

e.g. you apply for ILR in Dec 2007 and he is granted it, then he returns to university back home - he'd have been out of the UK far too long to apply for naturalisation in Dec 2008. Same problem if you apply in Mar 2008. The only long period he spends in the UK would be if he returned for the summer, but otherwise he'll be out of the UK for a good 8 months at least? I doubt he would qualify for naturalisation. Then, he would have to wait another year, but if he is outside the UK again for a long period, it might actually jeopardise his ILR status.

I didn't know universities in Nigeria started from aged 16?

[ajani]

Victoria/Sakura.
Thank you for your post above. Your advise is well taken. I will give this a very serious thought before making a final decision.

Sakura,
Most Universities in Nigeria will accept students with good GCE o Level grades, but unlike in the UK, they will study for 4years.