Travelling abroad during ILR processing

Hi everyone,

I hope that one of you clever people out there can help point me in the right direction. Im an American having lived in the UK for just over 5 years. I was on Tier 1 General and on June 25th submitted my application for ILR. I understand 95% of cases are reviewed within 6 months.

Today is the 2nd of Nov and I still have no news (apart from the confirmation of application receipt). I have a very important trip to South Africa planned for 8th Dec and am wondering what the rules are around travelling abroad during ILR processing should i not get it back by then.

I know that the US embassy could issue me an emergency passport, but does that negate my passport that I submitted with my ILR application?

I don't want to invalidate my application by leaving the country, but it's really important I go on this trip in Dec.

Any thoughts or advice out there?

Thanks so much
Jenn

I'm pretty sure that travelling out of the country while your application is in process invalidates the application.  I wouldn't risk it.  You can withdraw a passport, but that also invalidates the application.  Here's an older thread with a long discussion of it:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=51299.0

I was afraid that was going to be the answer. Thanks for the link. Fingers crossed they process it within the next 5 weeks!