I wonder if anyone can help me? I am thinking of returning to the UK in the near future. The plan is for me to go first, and for my wife (Thai nationality) and two children (Thai/UK nationality) to follow later. As my wife and I have been together for more than 4 years, I am assuming that she can enter the UK using the ILE route. I have read all the 'read before posting' stuff, and I think I understand the general procedure. My question is this: since she has never done a LitUK test, (this will have to be done after she gets to the UK), does she need to do an English language test here in Thailand as part of her application procedure? Bear in mind that she is a graduate of a Thai university, (although her course was conducted in the Thai language) and has already entered the UK successfully twice before on 'family visit' visas.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/britishcitizenship/eligibility/naturalisation/spouseorcivilpartnerofcitizen/

The above link takes you to a page on naturalisation; not a lot of use yet as she will need to have been living in the UK for at least 3 years before she qualifies for that!

To answer your question; yes, she does need to satisfy the initial English requirement. All settlement applicants as a spouse, partner or fiance do, unless they are nationals of a majority English speaking country or are otherwise exempt, e.g. due to age or disability. She didn't need it before as these were visit applications, not settlement.

See English language requirement

Thanks for that. After re-reading all the UKBA stuff, it does seem like we'll have to go through this hurdle. The next question, I suppose, is how and where we can do the test. The test itself is not a problem (my wife actually speaks, reads and writes quite good English) but we live in Chiang Mai and would prefer not to do multiple trips down to Bangkok. According to Mr Google there is a company called BULATS that does these tests, but apparently only down in BKK.