Help with my wife's naturalization?

Jamesthenurse

I hope this is the right forum, please suggest an alternative and my apologies if not.

My wife, who was born outside the EU in eastern europe, just passed her "Britishness" test. We now have to apply for her naturalization.

Apparently the government has just jacked up the cost of application to £655. Thankyou Daily Mail for that one.

We both live on my meagre income of about 11K a year from a small business I operate. I'm already 20K in debt, of which I could pay back about 40% if the creditors called in my debts tomorrow. So, I really can't afford this, especially if the initial application is refused and we have to go through the whole business again.

This strikes me as rather unfair. I've already handed over thousands arranging for her residency here.
My wife played it by the book since she arrived here, unlike so many other immigrants who chose the easier non-legal path. She's been exploited by a succession of scummy employers doing soul-destroying menial jobs no sane Brit would touch for the last five years, even though she is highly academically qualified. We've never claimed benefits even though we are both entitled to them. Fortunately my parents have a nice house and provided us with accomodation, but as they are both approaching their seventies this can't go on for much longer. I am seriously worried about ending up bankrupt and homeless. This may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

What bothers me most is I am unable to hide my dismay at having to fork out for this, even though my wife is a wonderful woman. This upsets her in turn. To cap it all her Mother recently died in tragic circumstances. I feel useless about griping about this in that context. She grew up during hard times during the pre and post-collapse period of the Soviet Union, and I desperately want to give her the life she deserves.

Is there some kind of loophole, or way to claim these fees back? Any advice, even of the "nothing you can do" variety gratefully received with thanks.

Emmzi

Nothing you can do. But if you are entitled to benefits for pity's sake claim them!

meluca

We now have to apply for her naturalization.

You do not HAVE to apply for her naturalisation, she could just carry on being a resident. If you can't afford it you just can't afford it !

We both live on my meagre income of about 11K a year. We've never claimed benefits even though we are both entitled to them

If your entitled to benefits then why on god's green earth haven't you claimed them

I've already handed over thousands arranging for her residency here

Out of curiosity why has her residency cost you over thousands? In total myself and DH have paid approx £600 for his.

devils_advocate

My wife has a non-eu passport (and doesn't want to give it up!).

She has 'indefinite leave to remain') which doesn't present any practical problems in living in the UK. ( One of the minor benefits is that she gets to come through the 'British passport' channel when coming back to the UK.

What will your wife get with naturalisation that she doesn't already have?

snowmaid

If your wife has ILR she can indeed claim benefits i.e. working tax credits etc. If you don't have the money to naturalise now then leave it for a while.

Your wife can still carry on living here and can claim benefits if needs be. Any children born here will be British.

Leigh-Anne_60

As others have said - she doesnt have to have it. We mainly got my hubbies due to it being able to travel easier on a British passport

The one thing that i would be concerned with by putting it off is that the HO may decide to put further obsticles within the application ie when we did it there was no 'Britishness' test & but they had just put in the requirement of proof of English language - God knows what else they may come up with in the future iykwim

Another thing is i wouldnt be worried about getting turned down - Assuming you have all the correct paperwork this really is the easiest process ( out of tourist visa/Fiance visa/ILR etc). Though from memory it was the longest - from memory we had to wait just over 6 months

Good luck whatever you decide

x

BernadetteN

Naturalisation could be cheaper eventually, simply because the cost of paying for visas and cost of renewal of non British passport can add up to more than the cost of naturalisation.

Even transfer of UK's ILR (permanent residency) from one passport to another is somewhere over the £600 and some day, we will all have to carry ID cards and I would guess that ID cards for residents could be as much as transfer of ILR from passport to passport (that's just my guess, not anything official).

I know a lady who has a Russian passport and her child has a Russian passport too. They have ILR. To renew their Russian passports in London would cost over £600. Last Summer, she tried to get new passports when she was in Russia and the bribe she was asked to pay was even more than the official costs of passports in London - trying to take advantage of the fact that she has ILR in the UK and so they think she must be stinking rich.

Jennie_2

devils_advocate wrote: »

My wife has a non-eu passport (and doesn't want to give it up!).

She has 'indefinite leave to remain') which doesn't present any practical problems in living in the UK. ( One of the minor benefits is that she gets to come through the 'British passport' channel when coming back to the UK.

Exactly the same as my husband!

The only thing we have struggled with in the past (but not now because we are money wise) is that he is not on the electoral register and therefore if we wanted credit he didn't score well. Bizarrely we once bought a brand new car - my husband had a well paid job, I had just had our DD. He was refused the car finance and I got it, even though I had no job.

Have a look more closely at the "benefits" of the route you are proposing. We have been absolutely fine for the last 15 years.

Good luck!!!

amani_2

My hubby had no problems they should'nt turn your wife down if you send all the relivant paper work. One thing though there is a masive back log at the moment a friend of ours has already been waiting 11 months, only took my hubby 4 months. My hubby did not have to take the 'britishness' test but had to prove he could speak fluent english.

AMANI XXX

maveli

Check this site. It got all useful info you need

http://www.immigrationboards.com

devils_advocate

BernadetteN wrote: »

Naturalisation could be cheaper eventually, simply because the cost of paying for visas and cost of renewal of non British passport can add up to more than the cost of naturalisation.

In my wife's case, her passport is far cheaper than mine!

Even transfer of UK's ILR (permanent residency) from one passport to another is somewhere over the £600 and some day, we will all have to carry ID cards and I would guess that ID cards for residents could be as much as transfer of ILR from passport to passport (that's just my guess, not anything official).

You don't need to transfer from one passport to another. Simply carry the old passport with the ILR sticker, and a current passport. Also, I cant rcall how much it was for the ILR application, but it was tens of pounds, not hundreds!