darkstone1975

two days reading up and now I feel like I'm going in circles.
Just working out the basics as the plan to move to uk is at least 12 months away.

British Citizen by birth currently married to Australian wife of 5 yrs now.Kids are British citizens except one.
She is my wife's elder child with an Australian father and is under the age of 16.

Now this is where I start getting lost..
I'm not sure if my wife can apply for ILR with out having been in uk to take the "Life test" and skip the spouse visa or are we still required to go the spouse route?

secondly can my wife's elder daughter be added to my wife's application or is it a must that we make an independent application for her even thought she is under the age of 16.

roaringmouse

She would need to pass the Life in the UK test before being granted ILR.

If settlement is granted, if you've been married & living outside the UK for 4 or more years (which you don't mention) then your wife would get temporary leave, however she can take the Life in the UK test after she arrives in the UK and apply for ILR straight away (i.e. before the 2 years is up).

Alternatively if she is visiting the UK any time before she applies for settlement, it's possible to take the test as a tourist.

darkstone1975

yes we been married 5 years and in Australia for that period.

so I follow this correctly I apply for ILR but its temp till I complete life test ?
or I apply for spouse then once in uk and completed life test i apply for ILR immediately..

I ask only because the fees involved are not cheap especially if I have to pay for both.

roaringmouse

2 separate applications, so 2 fees. Yes they are expensive!!

My wife will be applying at some point (possibly this year) but fortunately when we lived in the UK she took the test before we left (almost 4 years ago now) and they don't have an expiry - so hopefully she'll get ILR straight away. The fees have gone up big time in the last 5 years.

JAJ

As far as I understand, your spouse gets a spouse visa (if you've been together outside the UK for 4+ years) and can upgrade this immediately to ILR once she is in the UK and has done the so-called "Knowledge of Life" test, without waiting the normal 2 years.

She should do this as soon as possible after arrival. Not put it off..

16 year old daughter should be included on the spouse visa as a dependent and should apply for ILR at the same time as the mother. Things get harder when she turns 18, so hence time is of the essence.

Even with ILR, the child will need to wait 3 years before being eligible for tertiary education in the UK at home fees rates.

Also, as she will not be able to get British citizenship before age 18, she will need to wait the full standard 5 year residence period for British citizenship.

darkstone1975

Ta makes sense a lot more sense
When it comes to applying I assume from what you say that its 1 Form filled out but 2 fees
i.e 1 fee for child and 1 fee for spouse.

paulpur

no i dont believe its 2fee's with respects to wife and daughter...its 1 fee for the spouse application, on which the daughter is a dependant...
the second fee comes after you have arrived in the UK, your wife takes the knowledge of life test and then makes an application(this is the 2nd application mentioned) for ILR and pays the fee for that, which is where the 2nd fee comes in

simonjames

Can I add a quick question? I'm in a similar situation, I'm Australia and married to a UK citizen. We're hoping to move back to the UK from Australia once we've been married 4 years, but we will have only lived outside of the UK for 3 of those - do I still get ILR or will I have to get a temporary settlement first?

roaringmouse

No you wouldn't be able to get ILR, as the requirement is 4 years of both marriage & living outside the UK. In any case, the possibility of acquiring ILR in this manner is likely to be removed from next year - check this thread.

Squirrel

I thought the requirement was just to be married 4 years or more. I didn't think it mattered whether all 4 years had to be outside the UK?

roaringmouse

You thought wrong. You need to have been both living outside the UK and married (or be a civil partner) for at least 4 years at time of applying.

Squirrel

Oh, so if the foreign spouse lived 10 years in the UK and had ILR for many years (like my DH), then we moved to the US and wanted to come back to the UK after 3 years, he'd have to get Limited Leave to Remain and wait 2 years (or 5 years if that's what it is then) before he could get ILR again? Seems a bit crazy to me, surely the integrity of the marriage subsisting is proved wherever you live?

pennylessinindia

One fee for each person in AUS

paulpur

really? i thought it was 1 fee for the application...i stand corrected lol , sorry about the mis-information , at least i know the correct stuff now

DDL

That's been the case, but another poster mentioned that they recently tried to apply online from the US and that postcode verification is now needed. No one responded to this person's post, so I thought I'd check it out myself, so I went online and registered under a pseudonym and started ticking through the registration process, and sure enough, when it came to the requirement to enter your UK address, this is what it said:
So it appears that although you can still book the test online from outside the UK, you are going to need proof of a UK address when you show up at the test centre.

Of course, there is a chance that they might not even ask, but I certainly wouldn't risk it.

I took the test last December (we moved to the UK in August) and I honestly can't remember if the above wording was on the website at the time I booked my test or not.

Anyoldroad, this might be something people bear in mind from here on out.