My fiance is a dual national of Pakistan & United Kingdom. He recently got his citizenship of Britain. For those of you, who have been through the process or know about it..please can you tell me:
For a citizen of UK, how long does it take for his spouse’s visa to be processed?
AFter how many years can she get the citizenship?
What benefits does this dual nationality bring to him?
I am getting married in december 2011 insha allah, so when should we get our nikkah for the processing of my papers & visa be complete.? I want to leave with him right away and not stay alone here at all.
it takes about 3 months for the visa process my husband came in jan and his visa proccess took 11 weeks.
first u will be granted IRL you will have to do a test for this, wen u have passed it u will get IRL then 5 years later u will get citzenship so all in all itwill take u bout 7 years.
bear in mind that laws r changing and i think its people that are coming after july 2011 the rules will be slightly different for them.
i dont know what you mean by dual nationality, if he got citzenship of britian surely he is only british?
By dual nationality i mean he has Pakistani nationality as well as British too. I thought processing for a citizen's dependents/spouse would be faster. 4 months is quite a lot of time i think. I am not ready for a nikkah just now.
Visa processing times depends on the accuracy of the spouse visa form you will complete and the complexity of the the case. After the nikkah, when you come to complete the form, your fiance will need to provide rigorous evidence to show that he can support you both, evidence for satisfactory accommodation etc.
Typical waiting time for the spouse visa is 3-6 months. My husband was lucky, he was granted his after 2 days and was notified after 1 week. But it was a straightforward case with all required documentation.
Once a spouse visa has been granted, you need to travel to the UK within 28 days to validate it. You can delay this but then you will need to get the immigration officer to change the date.
You must then complete the length of the spouse visa (2 years) in the U.K. You cannot remain out of the country for more than 3 months, or you will need to apply for "Further Leave to Remain" to make up the time.
Once the 2 years living in the U.K have been completed, you need to apply for "Indefinite Leave to Remain". For this you need to provide your own evidence that you are living and settled in the U.K and you have funds to support yourself. You also need to take the "Life in the UK test" and submit the certificate. This visa currently is taking minimun 14 weeks to be granted.
For the spouse of a British Citizen, you can apply for nationality after 3 years of living in the U.K - 2 years on the spouse visa and 1 year on IRL.
Hey stopit - thanks! long time. How have you been?
Thanks for the information. If its taking almost 3 months - 4 months for most of the people, i should get my nikkah as soon as possible then although i am not ready for it now.
I think it depends on the paper work submitted. My husband is a British citizen, and when I applied for my visa, I got it in less than one week.
So make sure that all the documentations is very accurate. Its better to provide excess information than be rejected/delayed due to lack of it.
Stoppit - You mentioned that in the 2 years of spouse visa (i just finished one yr yesterday!).. you cant be out of the country for more than 3 months.. does that mean u cant leave the country for 3 months at a stretch?... or 3 months in total over the 2 year period?
I will await your response (as im planning a holiday lol)