Immigrating to the UK (living in, legally, moving to)

[jambo101]

My daughter who just spent the summer in the UK says immigration over there is basically on hold, My daughter who is a British citizen by decent and myself who was born there wouldnt have a problem in a relocation from Canada but i'm wondering what difficulties my Canadian born wife might run into if she were to apply for UK citizenship.
The idea came up when my daughter says she's moving to England fulltime next year and as i'm retired and the wife is about to retire the concept of moving from Canada to somewhere in the UK came up..
Thanks for any info.

[Brontosaurus]

What your wife needs to apply for is a spouse visa or possibly an ancestry visa if she has a UK grandparent. She cannot apply for citizenship until she has been living legally in the UK for 5 years. Immigration is not on hold - it is proceeding as usual except for a few special cases.

[jambo101]

Thanks Brontosaurus
Citizenship was the wrong term, fulltime residency is what she would need or landed immigrant status.. She has no past family from the UK as she is 7th generation Quebecker.

[Ameriscot]

As a spouse she only has to wait 3 years after living here to apply for citizenship.

[dba07]

Originally Posted by Ameriscot

As a spouse she only has to wait 3 years after living here to apply for citizenship.

This has changed. A spouse visa is for 2.5 years, renewable for another 2.5 years, then settlement may be granted.

[UKDriven]

No, there are other similarly pressing reasons why those wanting to move in the following few years may need to act sooner instead of later.

[PA2UK]

Originally Posted by jambo101

Thanks Brontosaurus
Citizenship was the wrong term, fulltime residency is what she would need or landed immigrant status.. She has no past family from the UK as she is 7th generation Quebecker.

She can not apply for permanent residency (or "indefinite leave to remain") until she has been living there under the temporary spousal visa (currently being called "partner of a settled person" visa I believe) for a certain amount of years, if that is what you mean by "fulltime residency". So step one for you guys would be to apply for a spousal visa for her.

This is the details of Indefinite Leave to Remain:

https://www.gov.uk/settle-in-the-uk/...rk-visa/tier-1

Eligibility
You need to have been living in the UK with a ‘partner of a settled person’ visa for:

2 years if you applied for your visa before 9 July 2012
5 years or 10 years if you applied for your visa on or after 9 July 2012

As you can see, she needs to have been living in the UK for at least 5 years before she can get indefinite leave to remain. So what you need now is what they mention as the "partner of a settled person" visa, or in layman's terms a "spousal visa":

https://www.gov.uk/remain-in-uk-family

[FBF]

Ewwwww....the UK requires spouses to wait that long?

It is not Denmark, but still.....

[Mac15]

Originally Posted by jambo101

My daughter who just spent the summer in the UK says immigration over there is basically on hold, My daughter who is a British citizen by decent and myself who was born there wouldnt have a problem in a relocation from Canada but i'm wondering what difficulties my Canadian born wife might run into if she were to apply for UK citizenship.
The idea came up when my daughter says she's moving to England fulltime next year and as i'm retired and the wife is about to retire the concept of moving from Canada to somewhere in the UK came up..
Thanks for any info.

Why on undergod would anyone retire to England to be honest?

And immigration is on overboard not hold..

[theunbrainwashed]

Originally Posted by Mac15

Why on undergod would anyone retire to England to be honest?

And immigration is on overboard not hold..

Lots of your fellow countrymen retire in England, can't be that bad if that's the case