ILR After Armed Forces Visa

Hello!

I am coming up on 5 years in June and starting to get ducks in order for ILR.

My husband was in the RAF until Sept 2023 and I think my original spouse visa was an armed forces visa, as it was valid for five years. I have looked through all of my paperwork and nothing actually tells me it's an armed forces visa. I just know they exist because of this forum and am assuming that's what I have since it was valid for five years.

If I do have an armed forces visa, do I still apply for regular spouse ILR? It looks like the armed forces ILR is only for people who served and applying for their own ILR and not for partners of UKC who served. But honestly I'm a bit confused by the whole thing and don't want to spend £2900 on the wrong visa.

Anyone in the know or know who I can contact to get a definitive answer?

I am coming up on 5 years in June and starting to get ducks in order for ILR.

My husband was in the RAF until Sept 2023 and I think my original spouse visa was an armed forces visa, as it was valid for five years. I have looked through all of my paperwork and nothing actually tells me it's an armed forces visa. I just know they exist because of this forum and am assuming that's what I have since it was valid for five years.

The two things granted to a foreign spouse of somebody who was serving in the Armed Forces, was a five year visa (which meant they didn't have to pay for another visa fee) and no Immigration Health Surcharge to pay. If you had those given to you, then your permission to be in the UK is because your spouse is in the armed forces.

If I do have an armed forces visa, do I still apply for regular spouse ILR? It looks like the armed forces ILR is only for people who served and applying for their own ILR and not for partners of UKC who served. But honestly I'm a bit confused by the whole thing and don't want to spend £2900 on the wrong visa.

Anyone in the know or know who I can contact to get a definitive answer?

I don't recall ILR being given for free/reduced rate in the legislation for the partner of a serving AF member: just the above two reductions in fees (one visa fee to pay and no IHS to pay).

AFAIK; having just had a quick look; there is only one ILR for those on UK visas. You will still need to pass the Life in the UK test and (unless @ksand24  knows anything) are required to pay the full ILR fee if you want to live in the UK.

The Armed Forces Federation don't seem to have anything on their site about a reduced fee for ILR for the spouse, but you could contact them and ask?
https://aff.org.uk/advice/foreign-commonwealth/citizenship/

Or did you think that you might not have to be granted ILR before applying to become a British Citizen? You do -

02   Main requirements for spouses and soldiers

1. Indefinite Leave/settlement or Exempt Stamp

Soldiers

During Service, soldiers are exempt from immigration control under section 8(4)(a) of the Immigration Act 1971. This exemption means that you can apply for Citizenship without first requiring indefinite leave/settlement. However, as soon you discharge, you are no longer exempt and will need to apply for ILR before you can apply for Citizenship.

Spouses

Spouses will need indefinite leave (or settlement under the EU settlement scheme) in all cases before you can apply for Citizenship.

DO NOT make an application for Citizenship if you don’t have ILR/settlement as the application will be refused and you could become an overstayer.

https://aff.org.uk/advice/foreign-commonwealth/citizenship/

Thank you, that is all really helpful! I am definitely here via the armed forces then.

I've already passed the Life in the UK test and am expecting to pay for ILR (although I certainly wouldn't complain if somehow that fee was waved  ) before going for citizenship.

I am getting confused because there's a section on the government website about ILR armed forces (https://www.gov.uk/apply-indefinite-leave-to-remain-armed-forces/family-members). I am not sure if I would need to apply via that method instead of the regular family method if my first visa was based on the armed forces. And I'm afraid of spending almost £3k on an application just to find out I've done the wrong one. But the aff resource you sent is fabulous, so I'll probably give them a shout and see if they can just confirm for me and set my mind at rest.

I am getting confused because there's a section on the government website about ILR armed forces (https://www.gov.uk/apply-indefinite-leave-to-remain-armed-forces/family-members). I am not sure if I would need to apply via that method instead of the regular family method if my first visa was based on the armed forces. And I'm afraid of spending almost £3k on an application just to find out I've done the wrong one.

Or worse, become an overstayer because you applied for the wrong one and your visa expired. That link to SET(AF) seems to be for dependants of a foreign national who gained settlement via being in the AF?

Was your husband born a British citizen? Who sponsored you (his spouse) to the UK, but was just in the AF when he sponsered you and therefore you got a 5 year visa and no IHS to pay?

But the aff resource you sent is fabulous, so I'll probably give them a shout and see if they can just confirm for me and set my mind at rest.

There are some on here who got ILR through a British citizen who was in the AF. If they aren't around; and nobody else knows; AFF should be able to guide you.

Or worse, become an overstayer because you applied for the wrong one and your visa expired. That link to SET(AF) seems to be for dependants of a foreign national who gained settlement via being in the AF?

Was your husband born a British citizen? Who sponsored you (his spouse) to the UK, but was just in the AF when he sponsered you and therefore you got a 5 year visa and no IHS to pay?

There are some on here who got ILR through a British citizen who was in the AF. If they aren't around; and nobody else knows; AFF should be able to guide you.

I didn't think of the becoming an over stayer option, but I would also like to avoid that!

That is correct that my husband is a UKC who sponsored me and happened to be in the RAF. He also finished his 12 years and left in September, which also adds a layer of confusion. But I will send AFF an email in the week, luckily there is still a few months to get everything sorted. Thank you very much for your help!

Thank you very much for your help!

 I haven't helped.

I think you have to be on the same route for 5 years to get ILR under that same route. Looking back on your first posts, you were on a spouse visa? Which I think will mean Set(M): BUT I am not sure. It will be interesting to see what AFF say.

Hello, I'm back!

If anyone is reading this in the future and looking at a military visa, aff are absolutely amazing. They have an excellent FAQ section (https://aff.org.uk/advice/foreign-commonwealth/visafaqs/#:~:text=To%20apply%20to%20remain%20within,and%20the%20English%20language%20requirement.) and if you email them are actually able to give you useful advice and were even able to specifically look up my BRP and confirm that I am in fact on a military visa.

I do have a few mundane questions I was hoping some lovely folks here could help with:

We're using my husband's income and he started a job within the last six months, so we're submitting 12 months of payslips. Is it correct that we only need an employment letter from his current employer? Or do we need to also get one from his previous employer?

Is it correct that if my husband owns the house and we're submitting a mortgage statement that we don't also need a letter from someone confirming we live together? I didn't think we did, but the application says to upload one.

Sorry for the double post! To any future military spouses, this is the more useful link than the one I posted above: https://aff.org.uk/advice/foreign-commonwealth/visas/

Also, good information to know is that apparently military spouses don't have the same limitations on how long they are allowed to leave the UK while on their first visa:

"The Armed Forces immigration rules do not have a residence requirement, therefore there is no expectation that the whole 60 months is to have been spent in the UK. Time on an accompanied overseas assignment will count. It is also possible to count time spent outside the UK for other purposes, for example, if you chose to return to your home country whilst the soldier was on deployment. There is no set allowance."

Just posting an update for anyone looking at this in the future:

We've just received an email from UKVI requesting:

Your spouse’s certificate of service confirming the dates they enlisted and were discharged from HM forces.

So if you're applying Armed Forces, might want to find that and add it to your checklist to just send with everything else

And another update for future armed forces/military people who will hopefully find thiws helpful:

We were approved on 19 July! Standard application as we were never given the option to apply super priority, approval came four days after they emailed us asking for the additional information I mentioned in my last post. Seems much shorter than the other standard application timelines, so I don't know if the AF ones are processed differently and that's why we never saw a super priority option appear? No idea, but not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Onwards to citizenship!