Spouse Visa - Various Queries/help Please

[ukthesis]

I have a wife living outside the European Union. She would normally, to visit me in the UK, have to apply for either the UK visitor visa route or the UK family visitor route (both now in the Standard Visitor Visa).

As I understand it, if she thinks she only needs to come here for under 6 months, she applies for the Family visa. She applies for the family of a settled person visa for 6 months residence and more.

However, she puts to me the case where she needs from the country she lives in to join me in the UK on compassionate grounds. The situation would apply if I am ill in a hospital in the UK and she needs to be by my side to comfort me.

In this "emergency" situation, is there any sort of flexibility built into the family visa system, so that her visa application is fast tracked through the system? Or would she be stuck in her country until her visa application goes through the ordinary application route, depending on how long it usually takes, no longer or shorter than this?

[Casa]

I have a wife living outside the European Union. She would normally, to visit me in the UK, have to apply for either the UK visitor visa route or the UK family visitor route (both now in the Standard Visitor Visa).

As I understand it, if she thinks she only needs to come here for under 6 months, she applies for the Family visa. She applies for the family of a settled person visa for 6 months residence and more.

However, she puts to me the case where she needs from the country she lives in to join me in the UK on compassionate grounds. The situation would apply if I am ill in a hospital in the UK and she needs to be by my side to comfort me.

In this "emergency" situation, is there any sort of flexibility built into the family visa system, so that her visa application is fast tracked through the system? Or would she be stuck in her country until her visa application goes through the ordinary application route, depending on how long it usually takes, no longer or shorter than this?

We seem to be going around in circles with your situation. In this thread the difference between a 6 month standard visitor visa and a 'join family in the UK' settlement visa was explained in great detail...several times over.
http://www.immigrationboards.com/immigr ... l#p1257736

I suggest you click the clink I've posted you to previous thread and you read through it again to ensure you fully understand it. I really don't think we can go through it all again.
There is no 'fast track' application for compassionate circumstances...should you find yourself unwell and you want your wife to 'comfort' you. The Home Office don't decide applications on compassion...they make decisions based on the Immigration rules.

[ukthesis]

OK, the new point being there is not such thing as her getting her visa processed more quickly under "compassionate" grounds, which do not exist.

[Casa]

OK, the new point being there is not such thing as her getting her visa processed more quickly under "compassionate" grounds, which do not exist.

No there isn't. Hopefully you are in good health.

[secret.simon]

The Home Office don't decide applications on compassion...they make decisions based on the Immigration rules.

Well-put, Casa.

Thankfully, the UK still has the rule of law and not the rule of arbitrary authority ruling by emotions, either compassionate or otherwise.

[ukthesis]

Ok understood and thanks.

If she decides at a later stage to go for UK residence (not Citizenship) I know that the fixed UK residency rules do not apply.

However, reading the "Immigration Directorate Instruction Family Migration:Appendix FM Section, Family Life, 5-Year Routes" document, she would still have to show a commitment to living as a resident in the UK until she gets ILR. How she shows this commitment is more of an open issue, though I was advised that unless she returns to Moldova for let's say 5 or 6 months in a year, there should be no problem.

But for this 5 years, each time she left the UK to return to Moldova, would she have to apply for a new visa to return to the UK to join me back here? (Presumably, the join a family member visa.)

And even if she gets IRL after 5 years, without a UK passport (for which she needs UK citizenship) would she also need to apply for a new UK visa to return here from Moldova each time?

Thanks in advance.

[Casa]

Ok understood and thanks.

If she decides at a later stage to go for UK residence (not Citizenship) I know that the fixed UK residency rules do not apply.

However, reading the "Immigration Directorate Instruction Family Migration:Appendix FM Section, Family Life, 5-Year Routes" document, she would still have to show a commitment to living as a resident in the UK until she gets ILR. How she shows this commitment is more of an open issue, though I was advised that unless she returns to Moldova for let's say 5 or 6 months in a year, there should be no problem.

But for this 5 years, each time she left the UK to return to Moldova, would she have to apply for a new visa to return to the UK to join me back here? (Presumably, the join a family member visa.) NO

And even if she gets IRL after 5 years, without a UK passport (for which she needs UK citizenship) would she also need to apply for a new UK visa to return here from Moldova each time? NO

Thanks in advance.

[CR001]

However, reading the "Immigration Directorate Instruction Family Migration:Appendix FM Section, Family Life, 5-Year Routes" document, she would still have to show a commitment to living as a resident in the UK until she gets ILR. How she shows this commitment is more of an open issue, though I was advised that unless she returns to Moldova for let's say 5 or 6 months in a year, there should be no problem. Documentary evidence of cohabitation is usually required.

But for this 5 years, each time she left the UK to return to Moldova, would she have to apply for a new visa to return to the UK to join me back here? (Presumably, the join a family member visa.) No, she does not. If she does the spouse visa, it is valid for 2.5 years or 33 months for the first one. Before the first visa expires, she applies for an extension, meeting all the requirements again and this visa will be granted for 2.5 years. This point was made very clear in your other thread.

And even if she gets IRL after 5 years, without a UK passport (for which she needs UK citizenship) would she also need to apply for a new UK visa to return here from Moldova each time? No because she has ILR, however, she should note that ILR is lost if not resident in the UK for 2 or more years. Brief visits do not maintain ILR.

Thanks in advance.

[ukthesis]

Thanks again guys.

[ukthesis]

To try to clarify. So once she gets ILR she can more or less come and go to and from the UK? However, there is a limit to this ability. The situation was noted of her being outside the UK for 2 or more years and thus the potential loss of her IRL. Presumably, this 2+ years absence from the UK is within a total time frame of let's say 5 years? Or is it 2+ years absence out of some other time frame?

[secret.simon]

The grant of ILR is supposed to indicate that the "center of her life" is in the UK (I am borrowing language from the EEA Regulations and the Surinder Singh route, but it expresses the idea quite well).

Once she has got ILR, she can travel as she pleases. But if the Immigration officer at the airport gets a suspicion that she is not really "settled" in the UK (ILR means "settled" status), s/he can cancel the ILR and either downgrade it to a visitor visa or send the person back on the return flight straightway.

Short trips do not retain ILR. So, for instance, if your wife were to live in the UK and travel to her home country every two months, she should be fine. But if she were to live in her home country and return to the UK every six months, stay a week and fly back, there is a good chance that her ILR will be cancelled.

In such a case, it would be better if she meets the requirements for citizenship and naturalises. Naturalisation can not be lost by staying in another country.

The two year period to lose ILR is any two years that she stays out of the UK after getting ILR. Short visits to the UK do not count.

[ukthesis]

On the topic of the Financial Requirement. Depending on circumstances in 2016, my wife is hoping to join me (a UK citizen) from outside the EU. Now I understand that before she can get the "join a family member" visa for temporary residence in the UK, I have to have (as her sponsor) about £62,500 in savings. I do not qualify by my income but I have this and a bit more in savings (and have for over several years).

So far as I recall, the amount I need to show is reduced by every year of the 5 years before she gets IRL. But can someone tell me by how much? Assuming the worst case scenario where she has no income of her own to offset this when she is in the UK, and assuming my own situation remains the same in the full 5 year period.

I do remember there is some sort of way of calculating this on the govt document on the Requirement, but at the time it seemed very complicated to work out just to answer a simple question.

Thank you.