Work permit/PBS dependant and the 9 July rule changes

[e30touring]

Dear all

My wife's leave as work permit dependant was issued on 2 August 2007 expires 1 August 2012.

My own Tier 1 visa expired on 30 June and I applied for an extension in early May. I will become eligible for ILR on 2 August 2012 after qualifying for the 5 year period and therefore have not extended my wife's visa at the same time as I would like to include her on the PBS extension.

However, given the delays that postal applications are experiencing, I might need to do a PBS extension for her after all. My question is this: if I do a PBS extension after 9 July (because my application has not been returned on time) does she then fall under the new rules ie that we must then wait another 2 years for her to do ILR?

I have read the guidance by xyz123 here http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=79378 but am a little confused.

Please help

[geriatrix]

My wife's leave as work permit dependant was issued on 2 August 2007 expires 1 August 2012.

My own Tier 1 visa expired on 30 June and I applied for an extension in early May.

If you are a PBS migrant then how come your wife is a work permit dependant?

[e30touring]

Dear SushD

I changed my visa from work permit to Tier 1 in June 2009 to take advantage of a job opportunity. My wife was visiting home at that time so I did not present her papers.

She travelled back in July 2009 and at the airport we asked the immigration officer who was checking our papers if she needed to change her visa status as I was not certain she needed to and were advised that it was fine until expiry since i was working anyway. That's how we have incongruent visas.

We have travelled abroad twice with our leave in this way. I hope this is not a cause for problems but I am feeling it's unusual from your question. If it is, I would appreciate suggestions for rectification.

Thank you.

[geriatrix]

You were fortunate that none of the IOs that you came across at immigration control used 321A(1) with regards to your wife's leave as a WP dependant.

As for settlement, one of the requirement is:

(c) The applicant must have, or have last been granted, leave as the Partner of the Relevant Points Based System Migrant who is being granted indefinite leave to remain.

Technically, she still holds non-PBS leave and on that basis cannot be included as a dependant in your settlement application as a PBS migrant.

[e30touring]

Thanks SushD. I will submit a PBS application immediately and hope that resolves the cut-off date issue as well as the incongruent visas. I shall report back how I get on.

Thank you.