Life in the UK test - Rochelyn passed

Today Rochelyn passed her "Life In The UK Test" in Leicester on the first attempt.
We will send off her form this week.

Do they put another stamp in her Filipino passport to show she has ILR?

Do she have to wait for two years before applying for her British passport?

Will she be entitled to benefits after the ILR or British passport?

Well done to Rochelyn firstly, thats great to pass first time. How did she find it? Leicester is only 20 or so minutes from me.

From what you've wrote does that mean she does not have her ILR yet? If not from what I gather if you're married you can apply for ILR after 3 years in the uk, otherwise its 5 years. I don't think you can be entitled to benifits at that point though but I maybe wrong (I've not looked it to that bit as it doesn't consern me and my missus). If you've already got ILR then she'll go to the local council for the swearing in ceromony as the next stage after the life in the uk test. What we're planning on doing then is apply for naturalisation to become a resident (think thats about £800 now!!). When that goes through she'll be a uk citizen. Get a uk passport (think this can be done as soon as the naturalisation paperwork goes through), then down to london to the phils embassy to swear allegence back to the phils, get a stamp in the uk passport and hey presto dual nationality.

Sincere congratulations to Rochelyn. Always good to hear success stories.

The FLR visa is normally issued for a validity of 27 months.
The qualifying period for ILR is 24 months living in UK
However, you are able to apply for ILR 28 days before the end of the qualifying period.

Just as an example if you began living in UK on 28 November 2010, then your 24 months qualifying period would be 28 November 2012.
The earliest that your ILR application is allowed to be made is 28 days before 28 November 2012. So that would be October 31 2012

I would also suggest a review of the requirements for ILR so that you can begin preparations for some of the documentations that are required.
Some of these documents need to cover the 2 year period leading up to the date of application.

Example of the form look here:-
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/settlement/formsetm0420091.pdf

Example of the ILR guidance look here:-
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/settlement/guidesetm0420091.pdf

The immigration journey for your wife is almost complete and now she is on the direct road to dual citizenship.
So I would guess that British Citizenship will be the next step.

For general requirements of British Citizenship look here:-
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/britishcitizenship

For detailed requirements as spouse or partner look here:-
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br...rtnerofcitizen

The Application Form and the Application Guide are here:-
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...nationality/an


The general residential requirements are:-

have been resident in the United Kingdom for at least three years (this is known as the residential qualifying period); and
have been present in the United Kingdom three years before the date of your application; and
have not spent more than 270 days outside the United Kingdom during the three-year period; and
have not spend more than 90 days outside the United Kingdom in the last 12 months of the three-year period; and
have not been in breach of the immigration rules at any stage during the three-year period

The reason I included details of Naturalisation is due to residential requirements. For ILR there are none BUT naturalisation requirements cover a 3 year perod for a spouse.


Concerning the entitlement to benefits, the granting of ILR DOES allow access to public funds. The wording "No recourse to public funds" is no longer written in ILR holders' visas.
As a result, your wife will be able to claim allowances and all other benefits which are usually available to UK citizens.

Well done to you both and good luck.

Hi Stu,

I have just read the ILR guidance notes http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/settlement/guidesetm0420091.pdf and she can now apply for the ILR as she has lived with me (her husband) in the UK for two years and has passed the "Life In The UK Test".

Rochelyn thought she was going to have to sit 65 tests and she was pleasantly suprised to only sit one test of 24 questions :vhappy:
I had told her it was only one test but this seemed to have been forgotten
She found it very easy but she had been studying for months and was regularly getting 23 out of 24 questions on the hiren web site. http://www.hiren.info/life-in-the-uk-test/

She will apply for the UK passport after getting the ILR, I don't know when she can do this (I think it is 2 years later)

The place to sit the "Life In The UK Test" in Leicester is:

Skills for Enterprise Learndirect Centre
2-4 Colton Street
Leicester
Tel: 0116 242 9481

I phoned around and it was possible to sit the test on a Saturday morning which was what we wanted.

Thanks for the wonderful, thorough reply Micawber

Thanks a lot yuna

Thanks for the information, i'll have a look at that website now.

From what your saying then in another 2 years your wife will be able to apply for her uk passport because she's passed her living in the uk test even though she's still got the ILR. I thought you had to go for naturalisation first before you can be considered for a uk passport.

Just for clarity. Only UK citizens can obtain a UK passport.
To apply for naturalisation (British Citizenship) the applicant must have been resident in UK for 3 years (qualifying period).
Usually means 12 months as a holder of ILR

Once you have a Naturalisation Certificate, you can then make an application for a UK passport. Well worth the cost and hassles of the immigration journey in my opinion.

Ah! Just one final step after UK naturalisation is that of a visit to the Philippines Embassy in London in order to re-establish Philippine Citizenship by Oath taking. (Dual Citizenship) also very well worth the effort.

Hi Micawber, (& Subseastu also)
I posted at the same time as you earlier and nipped off.

So, for clarification purposes, after my wife gets her ILR she will apply for naturalisation (British Citizenship) about a year later, then she can apply for a British passport, then after that she can get her Philippine Citizenship re-established in London?

What is the reason and what are the benefits of her re-establishing her Philippine citizenship? If she renews her Filipino passport (and holds both passports) wouldn't she always be Filipino? If she lets her Filipino passport expire in the future whilst still in the UK, she'd always be Filipino and be able to get a Filipino passport in the Philippines again if required, wouldn't she?

Cheers

aposhark, everything you mention is true. She can do whatever and still retain two passports. However, that is not legal. Once she is a naturalised UK citizen she automatically legally lost her Philippine Citizenship. In the future this may well come back to bite her and cause untold complicated issues. For such a small cost and a small effort I would question if it's wise to avoid doing the correct thing. Just think of all the form filling and data held on all of us.
I leave it to you to do some research.
BTW my wife is dual but still did not yet have any other passport apart from UK. Only her Certificate of Philippine Citizenship.

Some good info to be had from the Phils Embassy in London on this subject here, worth a glance:-
http://philembassy-uk.org/FAQa.html#consularDual

No offence intended sir.

From our point of view its just easier to travel if the missus gets a Uk passport (no need for visas). I'm not sure about the legal side of holding a passport from two countries but my way of thinking is if she gets a uk passport she's renounced her filipino citizenship and so lost her rights over there, can't buy land etc. If she goes down to the phils embassy with a uk passport and swears back to the phils she gets her rights back (they stamp her passport I believe). The other big thing is you've only got the one document to renew instead of possibly slipping up and letting one passport expire.

Regarding passports. Dual citizens can legally hold 2 passports. No problems, no issues.
Having a Phils passport or a Phils Citizenship certificate has another useful advantage. That of allowing accompanying spouses and children to have Balikbayan privileges (ie 1 yr stay)

So if my missus gets a uk passport and swears back to the philippines and gets it stamped in her passport for dual nationality does that mean I still get the balikbayan privileges or are they lost due to the uk passport?

Stu, balikbayan privileges are only available for Philippine citizens.
When your wife re-takes her oath taking at the Phils Embassy she will receive a Naturalisation Certificate immediately. This can be used at Immigration to be granted balikbayan 1 year stamp. It is not necessary to have a Phils passport. That's just a personal choice.

Presenting a UK passport at Phils immigration will not allow balikbayan privileges.

Ok cheers for that, so basically its situation normal as long as they have the philippines naturalisation cert in their passport.