If you are not married to a British citizen, you will need to have 12 full months of ILR on the date your Form AN application arrives with the Nationality Directorate. This means you'll need to wait till next year. (Sorry.) You will also need to have been living in the UK for 5 or more years altogether. (Note that you must have been physically present in the UK on the date 5 years before your make your application; therefore, if you were abroad for a week on holiday or business exactly 5 years before the date you apply, then you should wait a further week.)
Your spouse can apply for British citizenship at the same time, if ILR was granted at the same time. (Otherwise, a spouse can apply immediately once you take your citizenship oath, if s/he has lived in the UK for 3 years.) You will have to fill in separate Form AN applications, but there is a joint application fee for spouses applying together.
You might wish to check with the Home Office about the current rules for children. The children of British citizens are entitled to register as British citizens, rather than naturalise. (Registration is more automatic, and a matter of right; naturalisation is discretionary.) Not so long ago, there was room on the Form AN to include children whom you wished to register; this is no longer true. But it *may* be that you can submit Form MN-1 registration forms as a family-application together with your Form AN naturalisation forms. But please check with the Home Office about this first.
If your application itself is straightforward -- i.e., you have good referees, you fit all the rules about living in the country, you've paid your taxes, and you've not been living on benefit -- then you're probably just as well off contacting the Home Office, rather than visa advisors, becasue the former will give you the same advice for free. (But if you have any complications, visa advisors may be useful.)
If either of your children was born in the UK, s/he will be eligible to register as British now, using Form MN-1. British-born children of people with ILR are entitled to register as British after-the-fact (i.e., even if the parents did not have ILR when the child was born). Children born outside the UK to parents with ILR will have to register when the parents are made British citizens.
I hope this will help you.
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As a complete side note, I wonder what happened to all our old regulars, like Mrs. G and Waheed and P Pron? Where have you gone, guys?
Edited by user
8 years ago
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Reason: Not specified
