I'm no great shakes at the Immigration Rules, but it seems to me that you came to this country using your rights as an EU national, and from a legal point of view the fact that you are married to a British citizen is simply irrelevant - you could have done exactly what you're doing without being married to a British citizen. Taking the "EU route" rather than the "spouse route" means that you did not have to make an entry clearance application, no fees were involved, and it takes 5 years to get ILR.

If you had chosen to, you could have come to UK by virtue of the fact that you are married to a British citizen (ie without using your EU rights). This would have involved your applying for entry clearance as the spouse of a British citizen - and paying the fee for that. And meeting the Immigration Rules' various requirements on accommodation, sufficient funds without claiming funds from the state, genuineness of the marriage, etc. Then you would have been admitted for two years. At the end of that two years, if the marriage was still ongoing, you would have been granted ILR - after making an application and paying another fee. Then one year later, you would have been eligible to apply for naturalisation as a British citizen.

I can see that you're cross - in fact we can all see that you're cross - but the requirement for ILR has been in place for over 23 years, and has always appeared in the guidance notes associated with the naturalisation application form. I am not sure who is to blame for the fact that - as you put it - you had assumed you had ILR, when you didn't have it.

Neither can I see why you cancelled your test - I assume you have been preparing for it, and given that the test certificate doesn't expire, you could have avoided having to do the preparation again for next time.

I had booked my test for Monday 7th August and thought I'd fill in my application form so that once I passed I could go straight on to submitting the application. Question 1 on the application form however asked me the date I was granted Indefinitely Leave to Remain. Since I am an EU citizen, I had assumed I had this, but after reading page 6 of the guidance this didn't seem the case and it suggested I apply for an Application form to obtain it.

So, I rang the number to get the Application Form for the Indefinite Leave to remain and was told that I couldn't apply yet, since I had not been in the UK for 5 years yet. I told them that all the information I have been given by the Home Office contradicted this. As I was married to a British citizen I was assured over and over again that I could apply after 3 years of being in the UK.

Well, apparently that only goes for you British Citizenship Application NOT your Indefinitely Leave to Remain application. And the Home Office website was wrong (!!) and he would ask them to change it, so not more people would get confused.

So, I had to cancel my test... as it was no use me taking it for another year.

What outrages me is that people who are not working in the UK, DO NOT have to apply for Indefinite Leave to remain. So just because I am a good resident, paying taxes and contributing to the British community, I have to be here for 5 years before I can apply. But if I hadn't been working I could get it now!???

AND I am an EU citizen (as I said) and as such I am entitled to everything a Brit is, EXCEPT to vote in National Elections and to have a British passport. Everything else is the same!! Sorry, but to me this does NOT make sense AT ALL!!! I am entitled to everything, including staying as long as I d*mn well please... BUT I can not get a little note from the Government to confirm this, until I have been here for at least 5 years! That, if you ask me, is just STUPID!

Can anyone explain to me the logic in this rule??

I am an EU citizen (Italy) and have been living in the UK since 1998, and I am having the test this thursday. I also was concerned about the 5 years and the 12 months of ILR and the ILR certicate you needed in order to be able to apply. But as the UK government has implemented an EU directive last April, EU citizens get automatically the Indefinte Leave after 5 years of legal residence, no need to apply for a certificate. The only point is that you need 12 months of ILR in the UK before yuou can apply now, that means 6 years of residence.

This is the information I have received from the Immigration directorate:

A new set of regulations came in on the 30th April 2006, where EC nationals having been living and working in the UK continuously for 5 years, do not need to apply for indefinite leave to remain(ILR) in the UK.  Up until this date all EC nationals needed to apply for ILR before applying for British citizenship, even though they could live and work freely within the UK.  As stated above this has now changed and the rules for applying for British citizenship as an EC national are as follows:

 

·         As a person not married to a British citizen and have been exercising EEA free movement rights in the UK for a continuous period of 5 years will be regarded as settled for nationality purposes.  However they will also need to be settled for a full 12 months.  This means that you will need to have been living in the UK for 6 years before you can apply for British citizenship

·         For a person married to a British citizen they only need to be exercising free movement rights as an EEA national for 5 years

·         To support this application you need to send the following documents.  Letters from your employers covering the appropriate residency period, or information from your local tax office if you don?t have letters from employers covering the residency period.

But they have not updated the website, nor the Guidelines, page 6 whichy is written in a completely confusing way, by the way, nor the Application Form to download, that are still from August 2005.

Hope this helps.

Ed