My Citizenship Journey

Having been through just the permanent resident status in the US and seeing my wife go through the UK version of it, I feel all the pain you are going through. Good luck Burnsey.

P.s. The fees really are a joke.
 
Ah this brings back memories, can't even remember how long it took for mine but did have to shell out a decent sum plus the test fees to see how British I was after sitting GCSEs and A-Levels in this country. Was actually a piece of cake but I gave the book a quick read just in case.

I was naturalised so not sure if it's different but I also had to go to my local council for one of their ceremonies where you sing the anthem and have the mayor read a lot of boring nonsense. Best memory of that was sitting next to a South African lady telling me how awesome Cape Town is.

They didn't even throw a passport in with all that money that you pay so had to also have a first adult passport interview with the local office afterwards.
 
So ive got a question on immigration not 100% on the dates.


Friend of mine came here from the philapines on a student visa in i think 2009, in 2012or 2013 she married a guy all was well lived together for years.


Seoerated last Thursday after he threatened her and her friend and its cone to light theres been months (if not more) of abuse at his hands.

Police are involved and since thw break up hea peovided more than enough evidence against himself (over the weekend alone over a 1000 messages to her, all her friends, family etc beging out all hes the hurt one why has she left him painting her as the bad guy to full on violent threats, threats to send the usual "couple"explicit pictures to family/friends the internet etc. Polife have been informed iirc hes going to be detained so she can get all her things from the flat)

She works earns good koney etc.
But shes worried now what happens to her status as ahe was here on a spousal visa.
 
There is a "loophole" for want of a better word when it comes to getting a IRL status for wives who have been subject to abuse.

I joked with my wife about giving her a good slap to save us from having to jump through all the hoops involved (bad taste i know). The rules changed not long after my wife arrived in the UK in 2011 so those dates could be very important.

When my wife arrived here residence required around 3 years on a spouse visa, now its gone up to 5 i beleive, after that you can get ILR (indefinite leave to remain), then after that citizenship but the time periods have all changed.

Plus you have to prove a number of things (speaking English, that god awful Life in the UK test, income, if your still married that its a "true relationship").

Like I said hoops lots of hoops.
 
House said:
There is a "loophole" for want of a better word when it comes to getting a IRL status for wives who have been subject to abuse.

I joked with my wife about giving her a good slap to save us from having to jump through all the hoops involved (bad taste i know). The rules changed not long after my wife arrived in the UK in 2011 so those dates could be very important.

When my wife arrived here residence required around 3 years on a spouse visa, now its gone up to 5 i beleive, after that you can get ILR (indefinite leave to remain), then after that citizenship but the time periods have all changed.

Plus you have to prove a number of things (speaking English, that god awful Life in the UK test, income, if your still married that its a "true relationship").

Like I said hoops lots of hoops.
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Cheers, she'll be getting a solicitor to look into it (along with a lot of other issue that need sorting).

Thing is i cant wrap my head around how all this happened and how much she kept secret about what hed been doing.

I dont think she'll struggle with any tests, speaks english fine, is a fully qualified nurse (Philippines too so way more than the normal uk nurses degree) also got a degree in some form of engineering csnt remember what, and philosophy.


I have to say though over just the last few days its been great to see how shes changed. But also really a wtf moment about how never noticed the signs. Like he'd always if she wanted something (say milk) go an get it and you think "wow decent guy does things for her"till you look back on it and realise that she never left the house without him .

He would always make sure he went out not her, and if she had to go out hed be with her.
 
I got a solicitor to deal with my wife's paperwork in the end, he said everything I had done was perfect, in fact he said it was one of the most organised applications he'd ever seen and almost felt bad for charging me (didn't stop him mind you).
The reason i went to him is the application is allot of money that you dont get back is you get anything wrong and I wanted the safety of a professional checking it because if i messed it up then my wife would have had to leave the country.

Unfortunately abuse its pretty common with people married to south east asians.
My wife is Indonesian and has obviously made allot of friends with other south east asians who have moved over to the UK with their partners, a number of them have had relationships fail and some of them involving abusive partners.

It however isn't a UK specific problem, I meet my wife while working in Korea the first time after she split from her abusive Korean first husband. It took a long time for my wife to open up on what had happened in her past, people who have lived though abusive relationships carry it with them for a long time.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Next letter from the Home Office:
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"Biometric enrolment"

That's certainly new!

Wife's passport application interview was last Thursday, she received a text message that the passport with her in the next 10 days. Passport arrived yesterday (Monday).

She really cannot fault the Home Office. Neither can I. Been a dream to deal with.
 
Biometric enrollment complete. Only took about 5 mins and cost ~£20.

There are exactly zero Post Office branches in Southampton that offer the service though (according to the website), so a bit of travelling to sort in the end.
 
My running commentary on getting my wife to the country would be more interesting, it involves me getting a criminal record trying to escape to Finland from Russia, my finger prints being taken and going to court, getting the maximum fine and then sneaking my wife (8 months pregnant) on a plane to Britain :cool: I wonder if I can get another Russian visa when I apply this month? :D
 
I'm sort of in the opposite situation - British but living in Ireland.

Mind you, in the event of "Brexit" I doubt the Irish government would do anything brash given the amount of British expats living over here.

If it wasn't €1000 then I might have been interested to go dual nationality.

Only dual nationality mind - they'll have to prise my British passport out of my cold, dead hands :p:D
 
I dont see why it should be an issue but theory and practise can differ :p I expect a vote to stick with europe as mostly people cant discern between the effect of EU laws and the people/trade/etc and I think the majority of uk doesnt want to put up a wall as such

Im currently thinking about US citizenship since i live over here now. It would make things easier being a dual national.
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US citizenship is expensive to revoke and its the only country in the world to levy taxes on expatriates. So you get the passport but move to asia for 50 years, they would want tax for that period or a large sum of money to hand in the passport
 
Gayjin said:
I'm sort of in the opposite situation - British but living in Ireland.

Mind you, in the event of "Brexit" I doubt the Irish government would do anything brash given the amount of British expats living over here.

If it wasn't €1000 then I might have been interested to go dual nationality.

Only dual nationality mind - they'll have to prise my British passport out of my cold, dead hands :p:D
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Ireland and Britain have a different treaty separate from the EU.
 
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