Return to UK from USA
 

My wife is American and I am a UK Citizen. When we married, she was admitted with Indefinite Leave to Remain in 2006. In 2011, I retired and we moved to the USA to help look after our grandchildren.

We have decided that it would be best to live out our days in the UK, so we are looking for the correct procedures for reentering the UK to live.

My wife's IRTR visa is not Biometric, which seems to stump us every time we look at the form filling involved. If it is of any significance, we last entered the UK in May 2016, 15, 13.

We assume that a UK address will be needed to return, but does this have to be a rented property or can it be a relative's home? We know buying a house in the UK can a protracted process, but anyone who has done this recently may have some useful insight.

Re: Return to UK from USA
 

Your wife’s ILR would’ve normally expired once she had spent two years outside the UK. Was she stamped in as a resident or visitor in May 2016? If it was the former then you only have a couple of weeks left to safely return without having to apply for a new visa. If it is the latter then she will need to apply for a Returning Resident visa or start the spouse visa process from scratch.

Re: Return to UK from USA
 

You may also want to consider getting US citizenship before returning to the UK.