Indefinate leave to remain 5YO living outside UK?

[CharlieRight]

Looking on advice for the best visa to allow DS to travel back and forth to UK.

I (UK national) live abroad with DW who is a local and DS who has also taken the local nationality (dual not an option) for convenience (schools, medical etc much easier for a local)

When he was 6 months old we applied for a visa to take him to UK and ended up getting an ILR visa because the .gov website said that if an applicant was eligible for it no other visa would be granted. We used it to visit UK twice; once just before COVID and once last year. It is about to expire and I am looking into applying again but now it seems to have changed a bit and i am not sure if it is the best option for us;

1. its bloody expensive for something we're not going to use more than a few weeks a year
2. after the application is done a temporary visa is issued and we have to get over to the UK and collect a residency card from a post office within a limited time (the old one was just a sticker in his PP) which is potentially a pain in the neck
3. the residency card will expire/cancel if no entry for 2 years, which is an unlikely but not impossible circumstance

Has anyone else dealt with similar recently, know whether I have to apply for ILR again or if there are other options?

Just going a little bit off from your main question, but is it the case that the country you are in actually bans dual nationality or just that it doesn't recognise dual nationality?

There's a big difference between those two positions.

Another option, and here you may wish to speak to a lawyer, there is something called a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode.

If your child is entitled to British nationality then this certificate can be placed in their Chinese or, whatever other country, passport for travel to the UK from whatever country you're in.

This costs £550.

How to apply for a certificate:

https://www.gov.uk/right-of-abode/apply-for-a-certificate-of-entitlement

Some information on dealing with the Chinese system (it will be different in different countries):

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-in-china/nationality-in-china-accessible

@Another2Cats
thank you for your reply. You guessed correctly that we are in China. So it’s a case of not recognizing, but I think it’s very awkward to travel in and out with two passports.
I will take some time to read the links in detail. Thanks again

@CharlieRight

Your DS doesn't need to have two passports. In fact if he also has a British passport then he is not allowed to get this certificate.

This certificate is meant for those people, like your son, who have British citizenship but do not have a British passport.

It goes into his Chinese passport and the rules very specifically say that you cannot get one if you also have a British passport.

Yes exactly if he had 2 passports neither country would issue a visa and I’m not sure how it would go at Chinese airline check in and passport control where they check for both local and destination visas. Probably badly.