ustraveler

Hi all,

I'm British and I'm currently married to an American. I waiting for my visa interview, hopefully sometime this summer.

I'd just like to know what are the procedures of making her a British Citizen. We may move back to the UK after 10 years or so.

Apologises if I've posted in the wrong forum.

dewdrop

She will need a visa to live/work in the uk.

my husband in CND, i'm british...so he needs a visa, i need a valid british passport.

Your visa is for USA? you don't need one for the UK, just your brit/passport.

ustraveler

I mean i'm waiting for the visa interview for USA. I'm currently moving there and we are moving back to England in about 10 years.

I want to her to have british passport as well. How do i go about doing it?

FlyergirlUK

Now there's forward thinking!

Currently she'd need to be married to a UK citizen, residing in the UK and have Indefinite Leave to Remain, (permanent residency).

Things will likely change, who knows how dramatically, in ten years' time...

ustraveler

Yup. I'm a british citizen (born here) and i've been leaving here all my life. So how do i start the process? We've been married for one year.

dewdrop

As far as i know...Once you apply for a Visa, you have to go b4 it expirys, there are requirements, etc how long it is b4 it expires i don't know? ..as we havent' yet applied...I will only apply once our house is sold!

so i would think IF NOT til 10yrs do it a few months b4 you leave? As far as I know you can't do it b4 and still live in the USA. LIKE someone else said, rules will probably change in 10yrs time.

FlyergirlUK

Have a look here.

Rebster

Based upon what you are saying, I take it that she is currently in the UK on a Limited Leave to Remain?? If you were staying in the UK she could apply for an Indefinite Leave to Remain after two years. Then after a further year in the Uk she would be eligible to apply for UK citizenship (and take the Life in the UK test.)

However, once she moves out of the UK she loses her Leave To Remain status and no longer is on the path to citizenship. To move back she will have to reapply for a LTR and wait to apply for citizenship when she has met the criteria.

A bonus though is the fact that if you have been married for more than 4 years and return to the UK, she can apply directly for the ILTR (skipping the LLTR) and then only have to wait 1 year to apply for citizenship. Since you are not planning on returning within the next couple of years this will probably be the path you take.

The Home Office website has more details.

JAJ

How long has she been in the United Kingdom and what is her current immigration status. Things will depend on that.

ustraveler

She's not here at the moment. She lives in the U.S.A. The initial intention is for me to move to U.S. But i want to return in back to the UK in next ten years and i want my wife to be citizen by then so she doesn't have any problems when we get her.

Immigration laws change year by year so i wanna make it easy for both of us.

dewdrop

from what i understand she is still in the USA. and you are british, right? so you can only pass your descent on thru to your children IF you have any??? not your wife of one year.

You/she have to be in the UK living for 2yrs, then you can apply for citizenship, this is why we haven't yet applied for his spousal VISA.(IF it was only that easy) would have done that months ago..LOL... as we don't want it to VISA to expire b4 we sell up here in Canada.

Read all the links you got...you HAVE TO BE IN THE UK, to get citizenship...she can't get it from the USA. unless of course she has ancestry from the UK, then she can apply for an ancestry VISA..then thats a whole different ball-game!!!

FlyergirlUK

Then she cannot, at this moment, apply for British citizenship.

Check in again after you and she have moved back to the UK to live permanently.

JAJ

It's not possible to apply for British citizenship by marriage alone. Used to be (for wives only) but that changed in 1983.

She will have to look to get British citizenship in pretty much the same way you will look for American citizenship.