US Visa worries, please help!

[Sookeh]

Apologies in advance for how confusing this is. I feel totally overwhelmed.

Basically, DH has been offered a job near NYC. We all want to go and I am assuming this will mean we're put on L1B and L2 visas. My issue with this is that I am a Canadian citizen with ILR to remain in the UK (currently without a passport or a ILR stamp, erk). I've lived here my whole life but have, as of yet, not applied for citizenship.

What issues would living overseas for a few years have on my ILR and would this change once DH and I are officially married?

It's all so confusing! I am also wondering whether my mental health history (I was on a 72 hour section for post natal depression last year) would make it difficult to get a visa.

I'd so appreciate any advice at all because we have no idea what we're doing

Don't put off your app for citizenship you will be stuck when the L visas are over and you have no UK to move back to. That would just be foolish.
Can you apply for your Citizenship and Canadian passport simultaneously?
If not, get a rush om the PP followed by the citizenship, you can always fly back to UK for the actual ceremony.
But don't leave for the US without either having the citizenship started or some sort of extension allowing you to live in US.
Should the company want to keep your Dh and offers green cards you may well be out of UK for too long and jeopardize your ability to move back. Sorting out other stuff later is not a great idea, you have to know all the rules and ins and outs before taking any chances. Immigration can be brutal, both in UK and US. and you are a citizen of neither.

Residency intentions are no longer relaxed for spouses of UK citizens especially seeing the OP is a non EU spouse, the new rules have got really tough.
There are UK citizens in non EU countries wanting to move back to UK with non EU spouses having a really difficult time. They are complaining about it over on the British Expats site. It's not as simple as it used to be.

That's not what it says on the UKBA website.

Thats strange knowsabit it seems that all the ones complaining and trying to sort it out are going by the new rules that came in in July. Makes me wonder if they aren't trying to fine tune it.
I really hope they do change the rules again, they don't seem very fair at all for UK citizens who want to move back with UK kids and non EU wife (or husband)

Naturalisation procedures don't really have anything to do with moving back with a non-UK spouse.

The spousal visa rules have always been that you need to have some kind of income in the UK and somewhere to live. What has changed?

www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/2012/july/15-family-mig

What has changed is the level of income you need to show and the evidence you need to show it. The new rules are fiendishly complicated, but with a few exceptions it basically requires that if a non-UK national is applying for leave to enter or remain in the UK, the UK spouse has to show that they have been earning at least £18,000 per annum for the previous 6 months. A confirmed job offer for the non-UK spouse at a salary of this level or higher is not sufficient.

It means, for example in the OP's situation, that if (heaven forfend) her DP were to have an accident and be unable to work, and they were to decide that after a couple of months they would have to return to the UK so that the OP could become the primary breadwinner with the grandparents proving childcare, they would not be permitted to do so even if the OP were to have a job offer with a salary of £180,000.

It's not about financial maintenance anymore, but about reducing immigration at any cost.

Difficult to imagine that scenario when the couple are anticipating an expatriate assignment.

In these situations, the employee is already very well paid and the company provides repatriation assurances. Although an L visa is dual intent, the primary intent is that the beneficiary and dependents will return to their home country. The sponsor will need to underwrite this.

My well be difficult to imagine, but shit happens, men drop dead, or get debilitating illnesses (my own Dh nearly died at the grand old age of 48 and managed to recover slowly but it took a year and a half). It would be wise to cross all the t's and dot all the i's before moving just to be safe.

OP's ILR is most probably NOT based on her current partner, but it would be if she returned to the UK after several years of absence without naturalising, it would then be based on the income of a British husband.

It's really so confusing. I may need to pay for a solicitor to help me with it all.

My ILR was based on my mum coming over married to a British serviceman in 1988 so I've definitely lived here long enough to apply for citizenship.

I have no idea how I'm going to even get a passport with my lack of ID .

Is your dad British?

Where we're you born?

It's not that confusing.

People are just telling you to do too much and piling on scenarios, that may or may not apply to you. It's typical Mumsnet.

You have to do one thing at a time.

Look at the application for a Canadian passport and start collecting the documents you need. It is fairly easy to order birth certificates without ID. If you need help finding the web pages, just ask.

Once you have done that, apply for your passport.

You need to have a birth certificate and passport before you can even think about naturalisation and US visas.

Basically my dad is British but isn't the man we came over with as my biological dad died before I was born. He's not on my birth certificate.

I have my birth certificate, NI number, medical card and loads of old student cards and library cards but that's all.

Also as I lost my original passport years ago (I did report it but lost the police number as well I think ) I have no original passport to send or a police number either.

I'm never leaving the country am I?

There is a small possibility tht you are already a British citizen. A lot depends on crucial dates and specific status of your parents as nationality law changed in the 1980s. This will all come out if and when you pursue naturalisation.

Meanwhile, apply for your Canadian passport. You have your birth certificate - what is stopping you?

I don't think birth certificates count as I'D for passports though I've just looked and medical cards do (the White cards you get with purple writing from your GP I'm assuming?)

My mum hasn't really helped us a lot with regard to all of this and due to some conflict refuses to give me and advice or information I need so sorry if I sound totally clueless.

You need to make a lost passport declaration:

www.ppt.gc.ca/form/pdfs/pptc203_eng.pdf

The form looks intimidating, but just answer each question truthfully.

And this this is the passport form.

If your original passport was lost more than five years ago, I don't think you need to declare it. I'm not reading the small print though, but you need to do this.

The form does say you need some form of ID other than your BC. Your NHS card or NI card may be fine, as they are government issued. Do you have a driving license? If in doubt, check with the High Commission.

As a Canadian citizen, you have rights. You will be able to get a passport, even without the help of your mother. It might be a little bit harder than for others, but you will get there.

Look at the passport application I linked to and fill out as much of it as you can. Don't assume it will be a problem. If there is a problem lurking, cross that bridge when you come to it.

Applying for British citizenship can be speedy. I applied in Feb 09 & had my ceremony in Apr 09. Passport took a further two months and I had to attend an interview.

If you got started now, you old have it sorted by the time you're ready to go the US.

could not old. Oops

Ooh I don't think I need to fill in the lost form as it all happened way more than five years ago. I apparently already reported it to the embassy (DH remembered ) so that should make it a tiny bit easier.

I agree that it is pretty quick to get British citizenship - if documentation is in order. I think it took my DH 2 months from start to finish (including getting his passport). He used out local authority checking service, so was never without his foreign passport. He received confirmation of the approval of his application after about 10 days.

The OP should check out the documentation requirements on the UKBA website.

One of the first places where ID is required is for the Life in the UK test - they require photo ID. A provisional driving license is fine for this, which is quick and easy to get. They also require proof of address, such as via a bank statement or utility bill.

For the naturalisation process, she will need proof of residency in the UK. In the absence of stamps in a passport, she will need to provide other records, such as pay slips, school records, her own children's records.

You are sounding more positive, Sookeh :)