Indefinite Leave to Remain

As a holder of ILR, you should not spend more than 2 years outside of the UK. If you more than 2 years outside of the UK, you will lose your ILR status.

If you would like to apply for British citizenship after being granted ILR, than you should not be absent from the UK  for more than 270 days in the qualifying period AN should not be absent from the UK for more than 90 days in the immediate 12 months before the naturalisation application.

Do get in touch with our team for more info on the services we offer, which include applications for British citizenship, the EU settlement scheme, Indefinite Leave to Remain, UK Spouse Visa applicants, Fiancee visa , Permanent residence for EU nationals, UK residence cards, Document checking service, UK visitor visa, Unmarried partner visas, and many more.

Once you are granted ILR, you are issued with a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP), which is a card that confirms your status in the UK. You should travel with this  BRP and your national passport together.

If you are in the UK as a spouse of a settled person (i.e. a British citizen or someone with permanent residence status), and you meet the financial requirements, you can apply for ILR after 5 years.

However, if you do not meet financial requirements, you will be eligible to apply for ILR after 10 years of continuous stay in the UK.

At the moment, the threshold to meet the financial requirement is that your settled spouse  should be earning at least £18,600. Please note that this financial threshold increases as the number of dependents in your application increases.

For a detailed assessment of making an ILR application, contact our office and meet with an expert immigration lawyer.

For postal applications, the timeframe for a decision is between  3 – 6 months.

There is an option to make an appointment for a same-day decision in some specific instances.

You Indefinite Leave to Remain status can be revoked under certain circumstances, they include;

• Reasons bordering on national security – This affects people who have been found guilty of serious criminal offences which may lead to deportation.
• Absence – this affects individuals who were absent from the UK for two years or more. For this category of people, there is room for re-application.
• Home Office prerogative  – The home office has the right to revoke your Indefinite Leave to Remain if they have cause to believe that you have no intention of living in the United Kingdom.

This is largely dependent on the British immigration category an applicant is in. In explanation, applicants who are holders of ancestry visa will become eligible for an ILR after living in the UK for five years (fewer than 28 days). In the same vein, individuals who hold Tier 2 General visa gains eligibility for ILR after five years period. On the contrary, holders of  Tier 1 Investor, Tier 1 Entrepreneur, Tier 1 Exceptional Talent visa routes become eligible for an Indefinite Leave to Remain within a period less than five years. However, this can only be possible when they meet expedite criteria for an ILR. Upon meeting all the requirements, the applicant will be exposed to a plethora of application processes; least of which is a same day service.

The UK ILR or Indefinite Leave to Remain Can also be called permanent settlement or residence – it is simply a status granted to immigrants who have gone through the application process and have been granted the necessary permission for leave to remain in Britain which entails the right to live, study and hold paid employment without the fear of any time restrictions.

Citizens of non-EEA countries who have met the necessary requirements for ILR eligibility are qualified to submit applications for the status. What this means in the general sense is that any individual wishing to process an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain must have completed five years within the borders of the United Kingdom and with legitimate status without undue absence from the country. When an individual is granted an ILR, he or she has access to an indefinite stay in the UK, but then, there are circumstances that can lead to the revocation of an ILR

Obtaining an ILR might turn out to be your initial step towards the acquisition of a UK citizenship and eligibility demands that extensive relevant documentations on your current status be submitted as well as meeting outlined specific requirements. Because of the complications inherent the application process, many applicants have been known to employ the services of Immigration lawyers as their wealth of experience and expert guidance becomes really useful when you are in the process of packaging your application. Besides, the process of applying for an ILR is a time sensitive one, thus, expert guidance becomes a necessity.

The conditions an immigrant needs to meet in order to qualify for an ILR are several; there is a specific financial requirement which you must meet in terms of minimum earnings that will serve as an indication that you are self-sufficient. In addition, you will be required to meet several residential as well as personal requirements. Once you have been granted an ILR and has acquired an additional eligibility period of residence in the United Kingdom, you will be qualified to submit applications for British citizenship

Where a person is absent from the UK for more than 2 years, their indefinite leave will automatically lapse. A person may nevertheless be admitted as a returning resident if they can demonstrate strong ties to the UK. Any applications for readmission following a 2-year absence, must be made at a UK visa application centre.

FACTORS FOR CONSIDERATION

• their strength of ties to the UK including:

– the nature of those ties (family, property, business);

– the extent to which those ties have been maintained during the applicant’s absence;

• the length of their original residence in the UK;

• the length of time the applicant has been outside the UK;

• the circumstances in which they left the UK and their reasons for remaining absent;

• their reasons for now wishing to return;

• whether, if they were to be readmitted, they would continue to live in the UK;

• any other compelling or compassionate factors.

A person who has been absent from the UK for less than 2 continuous years will retain their indefinite leave. It is usually possible to check absences from the UK through entry and (old) embarkation stamps (endorsed by Immigration Officers).

SEEKING ENTRY FOR THE PURPOSES OF SETTLEMENT

A person must show that they are seeking entry for the purposes of settlement. Whilst in most cases a person would be returning to settle at the point of entry, there may be other circumstances where a person is in work or study for long periods overseas, but still intends to ultimately settle in the UK on completion of the employment/study. This will not disqualify a person from admission as a returning resident, provided:

• they are normally resident in the UK (for example, a person has property or family or other interests in the UK which are being closely maintained through regular contact);

• at the time of their entry, they consider the UK to be their permanent home;

• they have not been away from the UK for more than 2 years and intend to return to the UK for settlement in the future.

The person will be readmitted for settlement provided that they:

• had indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK when they last left;

• has not been away from the United Kingdom for more than 2 years;

• did not receive assistance from public funds towards the cost of leaving the UK;

• now seeks admission for the purpose of settlement.

To prove one’s settled status in the UK it is required to provide the following:

• indefinite leave to enter (ILE) endorsement or BRP;

• indefinite leave to remain (ILR) endorsement or BRP;

• no time limit endorsement or BRP;

• returning resident visas;

• open date stamps in passport after ILE/ILR has been granted.

If such evidence cannot be provided, a person’s settled status may still be confirmed through:

• records on databases, such as central reference system (CRS) or case information database (CID), or paper files that show indefinite leave has been granted;
• other proof the applicant was settled in the UK on or before 1 January 1973 and this status has not been lost or revoked.

The short answer is YES. Everyone, who has been absent from the UK for more than 2 consecutive years, will automatically lose their indefinite leave as a matter of law.

A person who has been absent for more than 2 years must apply for entry clearance as a returning resident and will be assessed by Entry Clearance Officers.

There are some exceptions which prevent a person’s leave from lapsing. Any period spent outside the UK will not count towards the calculation of the 2 year period for the following people:

• partner or child accompanying a member of HM Forces overseas;

• partner or child accompanying a permanent member of the British Council, Department for International Development, Home Office, or Foreign and Commonwealth Office overseas.

There are some circumstances where your ILR status can be revoked. The reasons for revoking ILR status includes:

For reasons of national security- for example you have committed a serious criminal offence that leads to your deportation.

If you leave the UK for a period of 2 years or more. In this situation, you may be allowed to reapply.

The Home Office may revoke your ILR if there is a reason to believe that you do not intend to reside in the UK.

As a holder of ILR, you should not spend more than 2 years outside of the UK otherwise you will lose your ILR status.

If you would like to apply for British citizenship after being granted ILR, then you should not be absent from the UK for more than 450 or 270 days (spouse of a British citizen) in the qualifying period and for more than 90 days in the immediate 12 months before the naturalisation application.

If you are applying as a spouse or a British citizen, you can apply for naturalisation immediately after receiving ILR status. Otherwise, you will be eligible to apply for naturalisation after 12 months of holding ILR status.

A migrant  who is granted indefinite leave to remain status in the UK will hold this status indefinitely, without a specified time limit. If you are granted with indefinite leave to remain in the UK, you will be provided with a Biometric Residence Permit (‘BRP’) which confirms your status.

This card has an expiry date of 10 years and this can leave many people confused about limitation of their ILR status. The date on the BRP card is only regarding the expiration of the card itself and not regarding your ILR status. This means the card will need to be renewed after 10 years.  It is similar to the expiry date on a passport; the passport will need to be renewed but the actual citizenship status remains the same.

The cost of immigration applications are amended on a regular basis. The Home Office fee’s were recently amended the application fee’s this year. At present, the application fee for indefinite leave to remain when applying from inside the UK is £2,389. The fee is higher for applications with dependents and increases with the more dependents included in the application.

If you are making an application for settlement as a dependent relative, the current fee is £3,250, and again is more depending on number of dependents included in the application.

Once you are granted ILR, you are issued with a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP), which is a card that confirms your status in the UK. You should travel with this BRP and your national passport together.

You may be able to send a new application. You will not be refunded for this application. Therefore due care should be taken to ensure the application form is completed correctly and that you meet the eligibility and suitability criteria.

Before making another application, you should identify the reasons that your application was refused and understand if these are matters that can be corrected in your future applications.

For example, you may meet the criteria for ILR, but did not provided adequate documentary evidence, in which case you should ensure that for the next application the correct documents are provided. Another example is that you may have completed an incorrect section of the application form. In this case you should ensure that only the appropriate sections which apply to you should be completed and should be completed correctly.