apply for spouse visa or wait for ILR ?

[Atmiya]

Hi,

I am a British Citizen married to an Indian. We were married outside UK and have never been to UK together. We are currently in Australia on work visa's and husband has just lost job and we have 28 days to leave the country. I am trying to work out whether to go ahead to UK and leave him here for a few months on a tourist visa, or try and enter together.
We were married in March 2006 in India.... if I apply now for a spouse visa, being that it will be just shy of 4 years of marriage which would get him ILR, would they definitely only give spouse visa and require proof of relationship after a further 2 yrs in the country? It will be difficult for us to remain apart, and very expensive.... do you think it's better to wait. We need to vacate an expensive rental we live in and it would be very hard to find temporary accommodation for him until he could come to UK. Not working and worrying about money would also be tough. I haven't worked for 4 years as I am a housewife (no kids) and not confident I want to go back into fulltime work.

Another thing is that I don't have any accommodation set up ahead of arrival. I would probably stay with a friend initially. At a push I could arrange something, but doesn't accom have to be inspected these days before you get spouse visa granted?

Any advice very very welcome... many thanks!

[Casa]

If you leave your husband in Australia, return to the UK and wait for the 4 years to be completed, you won't be able to apply for ILE as the regulations state that you must have lived together for the whole of the 4 years outside of the UK. Even if he qualified, he would only be granted ILR once he had passed the Life in the UK test (KOL) after arriving in the UK.
Most importantly, how will you show that you can support yourselves financially when you settle here?

[Atmiya]

If you leave your husband in Australia, return to the UK and wait for the 4 years to be completed, you won't be able to apply for ILE as the regulations state that you must have lived together for the whole of the 4 years outside of the UK. Even if he qualified, he would only be granted ILR once he had passed the Life in the UK test (KOL) after arriving in the UK.
Most importantly, how will you show that you can support yourselves financially when you settle here?

Thanks for your response. So you only get it if you have lived consistently together for four years? I thought it was about having been married for four years at the time of application. I'd really appreciate it if you could direct me to the source of those rules that makes you think this please? We have lived consistently together apart from when I returned to England for 5 months in the first year of our marriage as we wanted to settle there. I got a job and was a month away from being able to apply for the visa when my health failed and the doctor wrote me off work and I reluctantly returned to India. We ended up coming to Austalia after that. We have about $25K in savings and wondered if significant savings would be seen as sufficient for the financial aspect. But if it's that I need to come back and get a job before we apply and show that, that is what I need to know. Pls advise. At this point we need to book flights to be in line with the 28 day rule of leaving Australia and don't know whether to book my husband for India or UK.

[Casa]

The savings should strengthen the application as far as finances go.
You'll need to have adequate accomodation available on your husband's arrival. This can be with friends and family as long as you can show there will be no overcrowding.
You could apply for ILE (KOL) required, and hope that the ECO doesn't comply with the 4 year living together outside of the UK regulation. You may get lucky...it does happen. However, your husband will have to pass the Life in the UK test (KOL) after he arrives in the UK and then he can immediately apply for ILR, instead of waiting for the standard 2 years.
If you're not granted ILE, he should be issued with a 2 year spouse visa.
Apply on form VAF4a.
If you want to read up on the 4 years regs, have a look on the UKBA website.
However...and it is a big 'however'. Spouse applications submitted in Australia are taking around 12 weeks to process.

[vinny]

I'd really appreciate it if you could direct me to the source of those rules

281(i)(b)