Good evening all.

I have a few questions if you could be so kinda to lend some knowledge.

My Thai wife, married in Thailand is living in the UK with me now with a Spouse visa which is valid from 03.13 to 12/15. She Come here firstly with a tourist visa before returning to Thailand to get the Spouse visa.

Obviously the goal will be to get the UK passport to make things a lot easier all road.

Anybody know what the next steps are for us to achieve the above goal.

- Life in UK test and B1 is booked for next month.

I understand a little about ILR but not a lot. Any links for me to read some more would be great.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Have a read of UK settlement visa basics and British citizenship basics.

Her next step is FLR, she can apply for this once she has been resident in the UK for 30 months.

Her FLR will be valid for another 30 months and at the end of that she applies for ILR.

Once she has ILR she can apply for British citizenship; assuming the other requirements are met.

Thank you very much for your help 7by7 summed everything up very nicely. Kind regards

Hi 7by7, after explaining all the above to my wife she seems to think she has some sort of visa which allows her to apply for the ILR within 30 months. I understood it like you said above, FLR 30 months + ILR 30 months = Passport?

However reading the link what she says kind of makes sense? Copy and paste below.

Unless you have firm reasons for marrying in the UK, I would suggest the spouse route as this cuts out the FLR stage and so saves that fee.

Could you shed some light on that please mate.

Thanks again.

You applied under the new rules (They changed in July 2012) so indeed your wife needs to be in the UK for 5 years before she can apply for ILR, I.E you apply for your settlement visa and then after 30 months you apply for FLR after which you can apply for ILR remembering that you will need to meet the financial requirement at the FLR stage. Under the old rules you could apply for ILR after 2 years but unfortunately that will not apply to you.

You apply for your settlement visa and then after 30 months you apply for FLR after which you can apply for ILR remembering.

Thanks for your help MaprangHolmes.

So as i understand my wife would have been correct under the old rules, she was so insistent she was correct but unfortunately the rules have changed now so she is incorrect.

She keeps telling me about there are two different type of spouce visas and her one allows her still to apply after 2 years. As above this is incorrect?

I am assuming we have the spouce settlement visa now, so in 30months time we can apply for FLR then another 30 months time we can apply for ILR and apply for the passport if we meet the criteria.

The 30 month period is this form when the visa was issued or the day she arrived in the uk? I know were only talking about a 2 week period but would like to clear that up?

Also i assume you apply for the FLR before the 30 month period as her visa would run out otherwise?

Thanks again for all your help, slowly getting tot he bottom of this.

Kind regards,

For all family settlement visa applications, except children in certain circumstances, made on or after 19th July 2012:

Fiance/proposed civil partner visa

Visa valid for 6 months. Marry in UK within that 6 months and apply for FLR which is valid for 30 months. At the end of this apply for a second FLR valid for a further 30 months. At the end of that apply for ILR.

Spouse/civil partner/unmarried partner/child

Visa valid for 33 months. After 30 months in the UK apply for FLR. At the end of this apply for ILR.

The 30 month residential period to qualify for the first FLR application starts on the day she first entered the UK with her spouse visa. The visa is actually valid for 33 months to give people time to settle their affairs in their home country and move to the UK and still be able to meet this 30 month requirement.

Under the old rules applicable to applications made before 19th July 2012 then your wife is correct; spouse etc. visas were valid for 27 months and after 24 months in the UK the holder could apply for ILR.

Fiance visas were valid for 6 months, as now, and after the marriage the holder applied for FLR valid for 24 months and after that applied for ILR.

There are, of course, still people who come under the old rules and have not yet received ILR. This may be what is confusing your wife; especially if she has been talking to someone in this group.

Hope that clears things up.