Spouse visa - Length of absence allowed before applying ILR

[Asgard]

Firstly the good news is my wife has got her 27 month spouse visa. It starts the end of this month.

We are aware that in order to be eligible for ILR there is a 2 year residency requirement and the visa holder must arrive in the UK within the first 3 months of the visa to be eligible to apply for ILR rather than FLR.

My wife will visit within the first 3 months of the visa, but wishes to return to her home country as she wishes to save up more money for our future and to buy a house here.

She has a very good job there and she can make enough if she stays a few more months to make sure we can have a house and have some savings too.

She would like to stay until February of next year before coming to live permanently here. On arrival we will look for a house together and buy one for cash. This also hopefully means we can rent out a room if necessary if she has trouble finding a job here in case the labour market proves uncooperative.

She intends to live and work here permanently from then (apart from short visits now and then to see her family overseas). Buying a house we hope will help put the seal on showing she and myself are deadly serious about making a life here together and we hope will help satisfy the UKBA that her being overseas an extra while is reasonable and worthwhile planning for our secure future here when it comes to the ILR application stage.

Our question is that we would like to clarify how long she can stay overseas in that 27 month period of her visa especially as the UKBA website is vague about the number of days/months/time allowed. To quote the site:

"The Immigration Rules do not say that you must have been in the UK for the entire 2 years of your visa or permission to remain. Your application to settle here will be judged on its merits, taking into account your reasons for travel, the length of your absences, and whether you and your partner travelled and lived together while you were outside the UK. If you have spent a limited time abroad in connection with your job, for example, this should not count against you."

I will not be living with her overseas until she arrives in Feb given my health issues. I will be staying here. I am settled in the UK having been born here.

If Feb is an issue, then how long would likely be acceptable?

Any help to pin down if and how this affects us would be appreciated.


Asgard

[Casa]

Just how long is your wife intending to 'visit' here when she first enters on her spouse visa?

[Asgard]

Just how long is your wife intending to 'visit' here when she first enters on her spouse visa?

No more than two weeks, possibly less. She has eleven working days off work to play with. She doesn't have much holiday left to use from work for this year.


Asgard

[batleykhan]

If you knew this is what was going to happen before your application, why didn't you simply delay your initial application to coincide with when your wife finishes her work?

Technically your wife can come to the UK at any time as long as the visa in her passport is valid, however this will have implications on the next stage of application.....the ILR.

She can apply for FLR to make up the time she is short in her two yrs probationary period, but the reasons will be carefully scrutinized before ILR is granted.

Personally speaking I don't think you will have any problem, but you have to show good reasons to indicate that both of you are going to make UK your main residence for teh foreseeable future

[Asgard]

If you knew this is what was going to happen before your application, why didn't you simply delay your initial application to coincide with when your wife finishes her work?

Technically your wife can come to the UK at any time as long as the visa in her passport is valid, however this will have implications on the next stage of application.....the ILR.

She can apply for FLR to make up the time she is short in her two yrs probationary period, but the reasons will be carefully scrutinized before ILR is granted.

Personally speaking I don't think you will have any problem, but you have to show good reasons to indicate that both of you are going to make UK your main residence for teh foreseeable future

Thanks very much for the reply, it's very appreciated.

To answer your first question. We were worried the law was going to change this year and my income is below the 18,600 they will require in a few days time. As we didn't know how the law would wind up being, we didn't want to take any chances and put the application in as soon as we could especially as they were talking about figures much higher than that earlier in the year.

We weren't really ready to buy a house here until next year which was our original plan. That was why we moved things up application wise, the original plan was to apply next year when we were ready financially. Maybe most people on these fora won't be surprised we've been very worried about that particular aspect of things given all the changes in immigration laws which have been going down recently and felt we need to at least move quickly on that score lest she be not able to enter under the new criteria.

We are aware there might be issues with ILR and that's why I'm querying the extract from the UKBA website above as it seems pretty vague. It's sensible to find out where we stand after all and not being experts in immigration law and all its twists and tuns we thought we'd better find out.

Well, as for showing good reason for making the UK our home for a long time to come, surely putting nearly all our money into a house here would be pretty solid evidence of that? It does tie ourselves and nearly all our assets down here after all in a pretty major way? But maybe even this isn't enough? Most of the money going into the house is hers too as I don't have that much in savings, so that would show her willingness and serious intention to make a life here too I would have thought.

I'm not sure what else could show more decisive reasonable cause for her staying some extra time away in her good job as that would be for the purpose of ensuring we can do this as part of our plan to make a long term future here and be secure. It would be pretty daft to go through all the effort and expense of buying a house, paying for surveyors and so on if we weren't thinking of making a life here together!

As it is, because of my health issues which they were made fully aware of in the application with doctor's letters and other evidence, it would be very hard to me go and live overseas as the medical costs would be pretty high given my treatments aren't covered by the basic healthcare offered where she is. So in short for living together the UK is the only feasible choice.

So from what you say it seems there could be a bit of risk involved even if we show them the deeds of a house and explain her absence as being down to being prudent planning for our future by having enough money for it without worrying about a mortgage? In addition we'd have a bit of savings too which most people we hope would see as a thoroughly sensible thing to do and taking our future seriously. We might see it as reasonable, but maybe the UKBA may not see it that way?

Maybe we should write to them now and set out stuff in fine detail so that when it comes to ILR they can look back in our case file and see it's something we are aiming for?


Asgard

[Casa]

The UKBA won't 'look back' when your wife applies for ILR at a letter you submit now, they will simply check the documents you submit with form SET(M). 5 months away is likely to be considered as too long a gap in the 2 years required for permanent residency, (especially at the start of the qualifying period) so your wife may have to apply for Further Leave to Remain (FLR) to make up the difference. You won't for example have documented evidence that you are living at the same address covering the missing months....as your wife will be residing outside of the UK.
Most importantly with only an extremely brief visit to the UK to 'activate' her spouse visa, you should ensure that you have a detailed record of contact between you during all periods of time spent apart.

[Asgard]

The UKBA won't 'look back' when your wife applies for ILR at a letter you submit now, they will simply check the documents you submit with form SET(M). 5 months away is likely to be considered as too long a gap in the 2 years required for permanent residency, (especially at the start of the qualifying period) so your wife may have to apply for Further Leave to Remain (FLR) to make up the difference. You won't for example have documented evidence that you are living at the same address covering the missing months....as your wife will be residing outside of the UK.
Most importantly with only an extremely brief visit to the UK to 'activate' her spouse visa, you should ensure that you have a detailed record of contact between you during all periods of time spent apart.

Thank you for the advice Casa. It's good to know where we stand even if it's a bit disappointing they work that way.

I guess she could come in December but those lost 2 months could cost up to 10k in lost salary from her employment and that's still 3 months which may still cause issues in the application anyway.

It looks like it'll have to be FLR first then. Hopefully at least that will go OK but you just never know I guess.

We're already keeping records of things since as you say that's a good idea. We are insanely thorough, perhaps too much. The visa office in fact weren't happy as they felt she had brought too much evidence for the spouse visa when she turned up with a trolleybag full of our original documents as well as copies of everything. They were even calling her up after the visa decision arrived by email to remove all the documents that had arrived back as they were taking up space!

Well, the website did ask for documents covering the whole period of relationship and that's a long time! Our combined telephone bills alone must have been a few lbs.


Asgard