vanfan39

The right to family life under Article 8 of the ECHR is a qualified right; the law, including immigration law, of a signatory state takes precedence.

This means that if someone did not apply for ILR, for any reason, or was refused then they would have to leave the UK; if they didn't then they would be in the UK illegally.

The fee charged for ILR and most other visa and leave to remain applications is way above the actual cost of processing them; according to the governments own figures. This is because the last Labour government decided that the UKBA should pay for itself, so these fees have to cover the cost of immigration officers at ports of entry and other UKBA activities which cannot be charged for. Despite vociferous objections from both the Tories and the LibDems when Labour introduced these fees, they have not only kept them but continued with Labour's policy of regularly increasing them by amounts well above inflation.

ILR fees for SET(M) are currently:

• Main applicant: £972 by post, £1350 in person.
• Each child under 18 included in application: £486 by post, £675 in person.

See Completing application form SET(M) .

Remember that to be included in their parents application the child must

• Be under 18
• Have a settlement visa or leave to remain which expires at the same time as the parent's.

The applicant must be free from immigration time restrictions on the day they make their application for naturalisation. So she will need to obtain ILR.

Have a read of

http://www.ukba.home...rtnerofcitizen/