Indefinite Leave to Remain
Book your Fast Track Indefinite Leave to Remain appointment at no extra cost – Your leave to remain processed within 24 hours
The right to remain in the UK is called Indefinite Leave to Remain and comes with no time limit on your visa conditions. It’s also known as Permanent Residence by some. Once you have been granted leave, you can stay in the UK without any restrictions on employment and are entitled to benefits.
This will often represent a milestone in a person’s stay in the UK when they obtain Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). This application could be made on the basis of marriage, employment, or long residence. However, it is important to understand that Indefinite Leave to Remain will not be granted unless all the qualifying UK Immigration criteria are met.
Most Indefinite Leave to Remain applications also require you to show sufficient knowledge and proficiency in English through the Life in the UK Test or ESOL English Language Test with Citizenship Material for those with low English Language ability.
If you would like us to manage your Indefinite Leave to Remain application on your behalf, you should seek professional advice at an early stage, to ensure that the application is fully prepared and any relevant timing or immigration issues addressed.
There are several ways a person can qualify. Each case will need to be fully assessed on its own specific circumstances:
Indefinite Leave to Remain - Spouses and Partners
You can qualify as the spouse, civil partner (same sex) or unmarried partner of a British citizen or someone who is settled here, following the completion of your initial two year probationary period. If you applied for your visa on or after the 9th of July 2012 then your probationary period for ILR is 5 years.
Indefinite Leave to Remain – Five years continuous employment
For those who have been living in the UK in one of the following categories for the past five years:
- Tier 1 of the points-based system (excluding Tier 1 PSW)
- Tier 2 of the points-based system
- Work permit holder
- Tier 1 Entrepreneur/Investor
- Representative of an overseas newspaper, news agency or broadcasting organisation
- Private servant in a diplomatic household/ Domestic worker in a private household
- Overseas government employee
- UK ancestry
- Highly skilled migrant under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) – but if you applied to the HSMP before 3 April 2006 and came to the UK on the basis of that application, you can apply after you have been in the UK for only four years.
- Spouse/partner Dependents of PBS migrants will get ILR after 2 years in the UK if they haven’t extended on or after 9th July 2012, otherwise all applicants who obtained entry clearance orextension after 9th July 2012 will require 5 years completed before they can apply for ILR. Contact us for further information.
