Originally Posted by
alvinlwh
How can your friend have ILR but no photo ID at all? I had gone through the WP, T2, FLR, ILR and finally BC route and every single step of the way will require a passport. My wife is currently a ILR (LTE, FLR, ILR) and she too has to use a passport to apply for all of these.
One can have to send the photo ID away for various things - since the UK government decided to turn every lender, bank, rental agent, university, etc, into border control agents the non-British have to send their passports away a fair bit. For example, if one is applying for university funding and one has ILR, then one has to send away one's passport for "some weeks".