UK Residence

Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK (ILR) and British Citizenship

After a suitable qualifying period of time has been spent in the UK you should be able to qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain.

This is also known as ILR, Permanent Residence or Settled Status, depending on the method of qualification.

Once you have held Indefinite Leave to Remain (Work Route) for 12 months you can apply for British Citizenship. For those married to a British Citizen you can usually apply immediately upon being granted Indefinite Leave to Remain in the Family Route.

What is Indefinite Leave to Remain

Indefinite Leave to Remain allows you to remain in the UK for an indefinite period of time. The key word is ‘remain’ – if you stay outside the UK for a continuous period of time greater than 2 years then you can lose your ILR status (a longer period can apply, depending on how you obtained ILR).

Indefinite Leave to Remain Requirements

This will depend on the visa category you hold and how long you have continuously held that visa status.

For those on a Skilled Worker Visa or a UK Spouse Visa, this would usually be 5 years, although it could be sooner under certain work categories, depending on your personal circumstances.

You might also qualify with a variety of visas after 10 years in the UK but you cannot combine work and family visas in the 5-years route to ILR.

You must meet the conditions of your current visa when you apply for ILR. A simple way to think of this is that you should be eligible for an extension of that visa in order to qualify for ILR, although it is not quite that simple in some visa categories.

Indefinite Leave to Remain and British Citizen have different requirements, including differences in the levels of permitted absences from the UK, discretion that can be applied, whether or not you can travel outside the UK while you wait for a decision, etc.

More detailed information can be found on the pages linked below.