Visas and Immigration#

I'm Planning to Get Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) — How to Prepare?#

You can apply for ILR after 5 years of living in the UK. And after another year, you can apply for citizenship.

You must save letters from banks, utilities, council, and other official organizations. When applying for ILR, you'll be asked to provide evidence that you lived in the UK for 5 years (previously they only asked for proof for 2 years, but rules often change).

You also need to add your spouse to bills to have their proof too. This can often be done online (e.g., on Thames Water's website), or you can write a letter requesting it.

You also can't leave the country for long. The current limit is 180 days per year, but this may change. Working from another country is probably also inadvisable unless required for your job duties.

How to Get Citizenship?#

There are several paths to British citizenship. If you weren't born to British parents, the most suitable is naturalization. It's better to find out in advance which path suits you best and start preparing early. This section only covers getting citizenship when you already have ILR.

If you already have ILR, you can apply one year after obtaining it. But for citizenship, you need to have lived in the country for at least 5 years. That is, for citizenship you need to have lived in the UK:

• 6 years if you have a Skilled Worker visa (5 years until ILR + 1 year until citizenship),
• 5 years if Global Talent (3 years until ILR, but you need to have lived at least 5 years).

For citizenship you'll need:

• Pass the Life in the UK test (you probably passed it when getting ILR).
• Confirm English proficiency (also not needed if you already have ILR).
• Two referees who have known you for at least 3 years:
  • one with British citizenship and either a professional (representative of a respected profession: engineer, teacher, journalist, etc.) or over 25,
  • one professional with any citizenship (but some documents say British citizenship is also needed).

No active action is required from the referee, but you'll need to provide in the application:

• name and surname,
• email,
• profession,
• British passport number,
• date of birth,
• addresses for the last three years,
• how you're connected.

That's quite a lot of personal data, so it's better to befriend a British person in advance.

Referees cannot be relatives to you or each other.

More details about requirements can be found in the official guidance.