My 2.5 years extension spouse visa will be expiring in January (5 year route) and my wife and I are starting to panic now.
I admit that it could be bad planning on our behalf but it's too late to point blame fingers now so we're just looking for a viable contingency plan.
My wife is a British citizen and she does earn enough income to provide the required financial demands of my ILR, the problem however is that she is a director at her father's company, which I think means that all documents in Paragraph 9.2(b) of Appendix-FM-SE needs to be submitted, in time for my application, which is easier said than done due to the current complications at the business.
I work for a company that has a questionable moral compass to say the least, and my non salaried earnings are just shy of £16,000 a year. Which according to my calculations required approximately £19,000 of savings to be combined, had we known we'll have to take that route, we wouldn't have started house renovation nor paid a large deposit for a new vehicle, not bad planning, we're just a normal couple trying to get on with our lives!
As things stand at the moment, the documents required at Paragraph 9.2(b) are proving to be difficult to produce, in time, and the savings' scenario combined with my poor income is not applicable any more.
I suggested that my wife might have to resign as a director, which will have serious negative implications on both her job duties and my father in law's business, but it is an option and left to be last resort.
As a contingency plan, I am considering using the FLR(FP) instead of the SET(M) but not sure what will that mean for our future. In fact, I’m not even sure if my situation allows me to use FLR(FP), if I can, will that divert me to the 10 year route? My wife refuses to let that happen because she has had enough of the uncertainty surrounding our life because of my immigration status, we are a genuine couple and it's really unfair for both of us to be under this amount of immense pressure constantly, the fact that we're overwhelmed by my visa application instead of trying to finish renovating the house and planning our Christmas and trying to get my wife and in laws nice gifts for Christmas alone is getting to me already, we just want to live and grow old together.
Ranting over, sorry.
My questions are:
1- I think we know the documents required as financial evidence for my wife’s income which needs to submitted, but that's based on the guidance from previous application FLR(M), I have started the SET(M) application online and there's no real guidance in there (Or none that I could find), if anyone could please clarify the list of financial evidence for a director of a family business that would be greatly appreciated, my wife is only getting monthly salary, no dividends or shares held by her.
2- If my wife resigns as a director, say a few days before we apply, does that solve the issue? By solve the issue I mean the basic 6 month payslips and bank statements, a letter from employer would be sufficient? Bearing in mind that she only gets her salary from her employment. If not, could you please explain why.
3- If I use FLR(FP) because we have the income but can't provide the evidence required, what will that mean, am I automatically thrown into the 10 year route? Could we regroup and rebuild our savings and reapply for the ILR when ready?
4- Overstaying my visa is not an option, we applied by post last time so have no experience with same/next day decision application, how soon do you usually get an appointment? I understand there has been changes to both service providers and locations but any advice would be greatly appreciated as this will help us decide how long to wait for the delayed documents to be produced, or, alternatively, decide when to resign as a director if everything fails, and if it is still an option.
5- If we get the documents and the appointment shortly before my visa expires (We're worried about holiday season delays), and end up missing a document resulting in an instant refusal, what would be the safest course of action? Quickly apply for FLR(FP)? Volunteer to leave? Appeal? Or is it wiser to apply by post on the hope that we'd be contacted for any missing documents while the application is being considered.
These are the possible scenarios that I could think of, I have no idea how the UK Visa system works, if there's other legal viable solutions for my situation that I'm not aware of haven’t thought about then please let me know, any ideas are welcome.
Thank you in advance
