Spouse Visa

Hello

My wife's mother was born in England, does my wife qualify for dual citizenship?

If so does that qualify me to obtain a spouse visa?

Thank you.

Yes, your wife does qualify for British citizenship, as long as she was born after 1961.  And yes, once she obtains British citizenship, you will qualify for a spousal visa.

Great!
Once obtaining a spouse visa, I then will be qualified to legaly work in England?

Yes, a spousal visa allows you to work immediately upon arrival in the UK.

If you have been married for more than 4 years, you don't need a spousal, you can just get ILR directly.  But if you applied being married less than 4 years, even 3 years and 11 months, you will have to have the 2 year probationary spousal before you get ILR.

OH!  Your wife would become British by registration *if* your MIL qualifies, but just being born in the UK does not implicitly confer citizenship like it does in the US.  Smaller technicality, but worth bearing in mind.

Garry, do you have a link for that info (about not needing a spouse visa if you've been married more than 4 years)?  How does that work?

How does that work?

The Mother born in the UK needs to be a citizen by *other than* descent, for the daughter to be a citizen by descent - which is a *registered* status as opposed to a "naturalized" or by "birth status".    As to how it works, the finer points between registered and naturalized are so obscure to be not worth worrying about - so for practical purposes it works the same.

Sorry, I do understand the part about citizenship by descent or otherwise than by descent.  I meant specifically the part about me not neding a spousal visa because hubby and I have been married for 4 1/2 years.  I haven't heard this before and wonder where the info is so I can show hubby!

It looks like I answered the wrong question!  About the 4 year hurdle, here's the relevant text from the Entry Clearance Manual: 

A person holding an entry clearance as a spouse will normally be admitted to the United Kingdom for an initial period of 24 months. After satisfactory completion of this period, indefinite leave to remain may be granted. However, where an applicant has been married to a UK citizen and both have been living abroad for more than 4 years, Indefinite Leave to Enter may be granted.

ILE/R is senior to the spousal visa, and it means you can go for citizenship after 1 year.

If you and hubby have been married for 4 1/2 years with 4 years *offshore*, it means that you already have ILR or got ILE and didn't want to switch to ILR - because there's bugger-all difference between the two...