Spouse visa - Days outside the UK

[antfer]

My wife (who is also a doctor) first came to the UK on Tier-1 dependant visa in May 2010. Unfortunately the visa (Tier 1 dependant) did not allow her to work as a doctor in training. She had to apply for a independent Tier 2 visa in August 2011 to get the training job.

In Dec 2011, I got my ILR. An ILR dependant could work as a doctor in training. We thought getting citizenship for her will be easier and quicker if she becomes my dependant again. We finally applied for the visa in July 2012. We were extremely unfortunate that the rules got changed just the week before. Instead of getting ILR dependant visa for 2 years she was given visa for 2.5 years upto January 2015.

She applied again in January 2015 and got visa for another 2.5 years until July 2017.

I assume she will be eligible to apply for ILR in July 2017.

My question is-

- In the 5 years between July 2012 to July 2017, how many days can she safely be outside the UK?
She has already been to India in 2013 once for 65 days and again in 2015 for 31 days. Will it be ok for her to go to India for 3 months in February 2016 for 3 months? I don't want to take any risks with going over permissible number of days out the UK.

I did try to go through guidance but found it confusing. Any help and advice will be appreciated.

[CR001]

For ILR applications on form SET(M), only absences of 6 months or more have to be declared. Although generally, absences should be limited and for good reason, i.e. not living in home country and using spouse visa to just visit the UK for short periods.

Her absences appear fine.