How to Get a UK Residence Permit

If you’ve been in the UK a while, you’re going to want to try and get a residence permit. When you have a residence permit can get access to a ton of social services and gain the right to study in certain cases.

It’s pretty great. So, how can you get a UK residence permit and what different kinds of permits are there? Let’s dive in and find out more!

UK Biometric Residence Permit (BRP)

First up, we have the UK Biometric Residence Permit, or BRP for short. This basically proves that you can legally live, work, or study in the UK. There are a few ways to be eligible for a BRP:

  • If you’ve applied to stay in the UK for longer than six months
  • You want to extend your visa for longer than six months
  • You want to apply to settle in the UK
  • Need to transfer your visa to a new passport
  • Or want to apply for a selection of Home Office travel documents.

So, there are a few reasons why you might need to apply for a Biometric Residence Permit. It’s pretty much the first step to being allowed to stay in the UK, so it’s top of a lot of people’s move-abroad checklists. 

With that in mind, let’s get into the practical aspects of applying for a BRP, and how long they’re likely to last.

How do I apply for a Biometric Residence Permit?

Realistically, it’s pretty easy to apply for a Biometric Residence Permit in the UK. If you’re applying for a UK visa, getting a BRP is actually part of that process. So, you don’t need to try and apply for a Biometric Residence Permit separately when you’re applying for a UK visa. 

British passport

When you go to sort out your visa, you’ll need to book an appointment with the UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services. With all your documentation in hand, the meeting only actually takes 5-10 minutes and once everything is approved, you’ll be able to pick up your BRP when you’re in the UK. 

How long is a Biometric Residence Permit valid?

So, this is where it gets a little tricky. Technically, a Biometric Residence Permit lasts 10 years, unless you were granted Indefinite Leave to Remain in the last few years. If this is the case, your BRP might run out on the 31st of December, 2024, but more about Indefinite Leave to Remain further down.

How long can it take to get a Biometric Residence Permit?

Once you’ve been approved to stay in the UK, it’s actually a pretty quick lead time for getting your Biometric Residence Permit. After you get your letter saying you can stay, your new BRP should arrive within 10 days. Of course, if you’re on the Isle of Man, Channel Islands, or in the Highlands of Scotland, this might take a bit longer. 

EU Settlement Scheme

So, the EU Settlement Scheme was designed to help EU citizens live, work, and study in the UK after Brexit. Although the deadline for applying for the EU Settlement Scheme was the 30th of June 2021, there are some exceptions for late applications.

These include if you or your family members were living in the UK on or before the 31st of December 2020, and if you’re from the EU, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, or Iceland. But, you do have to have a valid reason why you didn’t apply for the settlement scheme but the end of June 2021.  

What is Pre-Settled Status?

Essentially, Pre-Settled Status is the term given to people from the EU, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, or Iceland who started living in the UK before the 31st of December 2020 but haven’t lived in the UK for five years yet. 

Once you’ve applied for Pre-Settled Status, you’ll be able to stay in the UK for up to five years. You can leave the UK for up to two years and not lose this status, but this will negatively affect your ability to apply for Settled Status later down the line. 

One of the best things about this status is that you don’t need to pay a fee to apply for it and it can be processed in as little as five days.

What do I need for Pre-Settled Status?

There are a few different criteria that you need to hit to be eligible for Pre-Settled Status and apply successfully. Here is a list of all the people who can apply for this scheme. 

  • EEA citizens
  • Family members of an EEA citizen
  • A family who has the right of residence as a result of a relationship with an EEA citizen
  • Have a derivative right to reside
  • Have a Zambrano right to reside
  • Started to live in the UK on 31 December 2020, and
  • Are not eligible for settled status because you haven’t stayed for five years yet.

What is Settled Status?

Once you’ve successfully lived in the UK for five years as someone with Pre-Settled Status, you’ll be granted Settled Status, which is now more commonly known as Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).

The Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)

So, simply put, Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) is essentially a permanent residency permit. Once you’ve been granted ILR status, you can live, work, and study in the UK without any restrictions and be granted access to social services. 

After you’ve secured your Indefinite Leave to Remain, you won’t need to keep renewing your visas or your Biometric Residence Permit. That being said, BRP cards are really useful as a form of ID and proofing your immigration status if you’re applying for jobs. After you’ve been granted Indefinite Leave to Remain, you should also have proof of this in your passport, so that will also become a source of immigration proof moving forward. 

What do you need to do to get Indefinite Leave to Remain?

This is the tricky bit. In order to be eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain you need to have stayed in the UK for a specific amount of time. The problem is that each visa or situation has a different length of time that you need to stay to be eligible, so it’s unnecessarily confusing. 

Let’s break down the different eligibility lengths for each visa so that you can figure out how long you need to stay before you can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Visa or Permit CategoryQualifying ILR Stay Length
Spouse or civil partner of a British Citizen or person settled in the UKAfter five years
Unmarried partner of a British Citizen or person settled in the UKAfter five years
EEA Family PermitAfter five years
UK Ancestry visaAfter five years
Investor visaAfter two, three, or five years depending on the level of investment
Entrepreneur visaAfter three or five years depending on the business activity
Exceptional Talent visaAfter three years
International Sportsperson or Skilled Worker visaAfter five years
Scale Up visaAfter five years
Innovator visaAfter three years
Global Talent visaAfter three or five years
PBS visa dependantsAfter five years
Representative of overseas business visaAfter five years
Retired Person visaAfter five years
Discretionary Leave to RemainAfter six years
Long residenceAfter ten continuous years
Returning residentIf you were settled in the UK before leaving and returned to the UK within three years of leaving, you might be able to apply immediately on return.
Turkish worker or businesspersonAfter five years

Once you’ve stayed in the UK for the designated period, you’ll need to also hit the below requirements:

  • For any of the 12-month periods in your qualifying length, you haven’t left the UK for more than 180 days.
  • You can pass an English proficiency test.
  • You’ve passed a Life in the UK test.
  • Bring proof that your application meets the General Grounds for Refusal.

If you hit all these requirements and have lived in the UK for the designated amount of time for your visa, then congratulations, you can finally apply for permanent residency in the UK. It’s a long road, but you’ve made it – no more annoying visa paperwork sessions for you!

How long does Indefinite Leave to Remain last?

So, despite the name, Indefinite Leave to Remain doesn’t always last forever. It’s supposed to last indefinitely, but if you leave the UK for two years or more, then your ILR can expire. It doesn’t matter if your BRP or passport stamp lasts for longer than that, if you leave for two years, your ILR can expire and you’ll have to go through the returning resident process. 

However, if you stay in the UK and don’t take a two-year break from living there, your Indefinite Leave to Remain should last indefinitely! 

How to get a UK Residence Permit for Commonwealth Citizens

Are you from a Commonwealth country? You might be in luck if you want to become a UK resident. There are specific UK Residence Permit tracks for Commonwealth citizens that you can follow, which might make it easier, thanks to the “special relationship” that the UK has with these nations (the UK’s way of framing colonialism…)

British Hanged Flags Beside Building

So, there are three key tracks for getting a UK Residence Permit for Commonwealth citizens which I’ll go into in more detail below. 

They are:

  • A UK Ancestry Visa
  • Entitlement for Right for Abode in the UK
  • The Windrush Scheme

UK Ancestry Visa

Got a grandparent that was born in the UK? Then you might be eligible for the UK Ancestry Visa which lasts for five years, bringing you to the length to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain. You have to want to work in the UK to be able to apply for this visa and hit a whole host of other criteria. 

These basically come in two sections: criteria that your grandparents would’ve had to hit, and criteria that you personally have to hit. So, here are the two-fold requirements for being eligible for a UK Ancestry Visa. 

Firstly, you need to prove that your grandparent was born in the UK using a birth certificate that shows the following:

  • That they were born In the UK, the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man.
  • That they were born before the 31st of March 1922 in what is known now as Ireland.
  • Or, they were born on a UK-registered ship or aircraft.

Secondly, you personally need to hit these criteria:

  • Are 17 or older, 
  • Can prove you can financially support yourself and any dependents without using social services or public funds,
  • Show that you can work in the UK and plan to do so.

Certificate of Entitlement for the Right of Abode

If you’re a Commonwealth Citizen, you can apply for a certificate that goes in your passport. This small symbol in your passport indicates that you’re entitled to the Right of Abode in the UK. This is something that comes as standard for Commonwealth citizens, or if you’re a female who is married to a Commonwealth citizen. 

The Windrush Scheme

If you’ve read any immigration news surrounding the UK in recent years, you’ll have probably heard all about the Windrush Generation. This was a group of people from Commonwealth nations, predominantly from the Caribbean, who were granted access to live and work in the UK after the war to help rebuild the UK. 

However, with newer, harsher, immigration restrictions and a loss of paperwork by the government over time, many of the Windrush generation and their family members have been unlawfully deported back to countries, that many of them haven’t lived in for around 50 years, if ever. 

On the back of all this, the Windrush Scheme has been formalized to protect the right to remain for the Windrush Generation and their family members since then. To be eligible for this scheme if:

  • You came to the UK from a Commonwealth country before 1973, 
  • Your parents came to the UK from a Commonwealth country before 1973
  • You came to the UK before the 31st of December 1988 from any country and now live in the UK.

Summary

So, there are a few different ways to get a UK residence permit, with some routes being a lot easier than others. If you’re coming from an EEA nation or a Commonwealth country, it seems to be a lot easier to get Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), which is the UK version of a permanent residence permit.

However, there are a lot of different ways to build you’re eligibility to apply for ILR, depending on what kind of visa you’re using to live, work, or study within the UK.

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