ILR- What's next?

HI All,

Applying for ILR as my 18 year old daughter has yet to pass her test which I'm hoping happens this week. I have passed so just waiting for her to apply. Once this is done, what's next? I plan on staying here however my daughter is thinking of attending college in the states and wants to visit family etc. Am I right in thinking I have to check in every now and again? I possibly want citizenship just to avoid hassle but what is next? How difficult is citizenship?

Tia,
Elsa

Your ILRs will remain valid as long as you and your daughter continue to live in the UK. If either of you leave for more than 2 years, your ILR will become invalid and if you want to move back to the UK, you will have to start over from scratch with 5 years of visas again (but as your daughter is over 18, she would not qualify as a dependant anymore and would have to qualify for visa in her own right, such as a work or student visa, but a student visa does not lead to ILR).

So, your best option, in order to give you both the freedom to live either in the UK or US in the future, is to apply for UK citizenship before she leaves the UK, as once you have that, you won't need to worry about ILR expiring in the future.

Citizenship is easy - much easier than qualifying for the spousal/FLR/ILR visas . You barely have to provide any documents at all.

If you are married to a UK citizen, you just have to show:
- you have passed the Life in the UK test
- you hold ILR
- you have lived in the UK for at least 3 years (you must have been physically in the UK on the date exactly 3 years prior to your citizenship application date
- you have not been outside the UK for more than 270 days in the last 3 years, and no more than 90 of those days can have been in the final 12 months before applying (the day you left and returned to the UK on each trip is not counted).

If you are not married to a UK citizen, you must:
- have passed the Life in the UK test
- have held ILR for at least 12 months
- you have lived in the UK for at least 5 years (you must have been physically in the UK on the date exactly 5 years prior to your citizenship application date
- you have not been outside the UK for more than 450 days in the last 5 years, and no more than 90 of those days can have been in the final 12 months before applying (the day you left and returned to the UK on each trip is not counted).

I think your daughter may be able to apply for citizenship at the same time as you, but as she is over 18, I'm not completely sure... so you'd have to check that.

Because of the residency requirement, I think she would need to get her UK citizenship before going to the US for college, because otherwise she might not meet the 'days outside the UK' requirement if applying at a later date.

If cost is an issue (and I'm sure it is, as I know there are a few of  you), do whatever you can to get your daughter citizenship before she leaves, just as ksand said.  Otherwise, unless she only stays in the US for less than 2 years, she won't be able to live in the UK again.  Getting her citizenship needs to be a top priority.  Like TOP priority.

I possibly want citizenship just to avoid hassle but what is next? How difficult is citizenship?

For me, Citizenship was a piece of cake. I just got my approval from my May application (so even though it says "up to 6 months", it's taken me just under 2 for processing/approval). It's almost all the same info required for the form for citizenship but with less actual evidence required. Compared to all the visa applications, i found this one straightforward and the easiest one I've had to do and very worth it as it gives me options for the future without risking having to go BACK through the visa process again. I can only speak for myself and my experience, but I'd definitely recommend doing it (as long as you can afford it).

I would also recommend your daughter doing it as well because it means she can go back to the US for school and not worry about how long she's been out of the country vs. when she's on ILR, if she's out of the country for too long, she will lose ILR status and she will now be too old to qualify as your dependent (from my understanding), so will be far more difficult for her to return to the UK to stay with you if she wants to/needs to. If she just gets her naturalisation out of the way, she will have twice the options with what to do in her future (she's still so young so she may change her mind many times over and it'll be nice and easier for her to just have the options for minimal additional hassle). It will just come down to whether or not you can spend the additional cost (maybe if you had to prioritise, do hers first as she's the one who's looking at leaving the country first?)

ETA Didn't read the other responses before I posted mine, but agree with everything said above.