What is the difference between an “Indefinite Leave to Remain” visa and an “Indefinite Leave to Enter” visa?
Is the latter type just as good as full residency/citizenship?
I think that the former is a prelude to gaining citizenship with a qualifying period of residency in the UK.
I believe the latter gives every right of citizenship apart from voting rights. ( Hell if voting made a frigging difference it wouldn’t be allowed)
Any UK immigration knowledgeable types here?
They grant the same rights (ie can stay, work etc indefinitely with a view to citizenship) but the former is granted to people who are actually already in the UK, and the latter to people who are currently outside the UK. The latter is used for non-UK-resident family members/partners of people who have right of abode in the UK. The only difference is that the ILE stamp has an expiry date - if you enter before that date then you are de-facto ILR. If you miss the expiry date, then you have to apply again.
I’ll have a look for the official guidelines when I’m not on my phone, but this is basically the answer as far as I recall
With the ILR I think you need to stay in the UK for a certain period ( 2 years?)
With the ILE can you come and go as you please?
Do residents of other EU countries, say Germany, need visas to enter and live in the UK? I’m a US citizen and when I visited in 1980 and 1986 I didn’t need a visa, but they did stamp my passport as I recall.
No. One of the key principles of the Common Market is free movement of people. Also free movement of goods, services, and capital.
That means that someone from Germany is fully entitled to travel to Britain, remain there as long as they wish, and engage in employment or other economic activity there. (Provided of course that they comply with applicable law in the host country.)
Okay a little more disclosure here.
Here in Philippines an ex girlfriend of mine married a mate and they had a child, at this time they remained in the Phils. After four years together, and seeing as that from birth the little fella was registered as his son and was given a Brit passport, he decided that it would be a good move to gain a visa for his wife to take herself and the child back to the UK.
( International schools here being expensive)
Last year she gained an “indefinite leave to remain” visa. This meant that they would BOTH have to go to the UK and settle and start her process of getting her citizenship.
This was a bit odd as they thought that they had all the requisites to get the “indefinite leave to enter” visa ( she had successfully completed her “Life in the UK Test” on a previous visit there). They decided not to move off to the UK at that time
Although he wants his son in the UK education system I can see, the obvious elephant in the room, he himself doesn’t want to go back to the UK. And I personally, would prefer him to stay and help manage some business ventures we are jointly carrying out here in Asia. - I can’t afford just now to buy him out of our property ventures.
My question is I suppose if his wife has now been given an indefinite leave to enter visa, and he doesn’t need to relocate to the UK with her. How long is it before she will be given a UK passport? Does she have to remain in the UK for some qualifying period?
It’s three years before she can apply for naturalisation. It’s not automatic either, there’s a fee, an exam and a language proficiency test.
Although, technically speaking, the right to remain as long as they wish is tied to their economic activity - the right to residency in another EU country isn’t established immediately, and if that German shows up in Britain, never gets a job and isn’t economically self-sufficient or have some derivative right to remain (e.g. by marriage to an EU citizen), they can be removed, though this is rare in practice.