Any visa possibilities for mother of British child?

[jake the peg]

I am British and my wife is Chinese, we have a 3 year old son with a British Passport. Currently my wife is visiting UK on a family visit visa which is about to expire. I also have a startup company in UK which although isn't making enough money to sponsor my wife for a settlement visa at the moment (as we've only been back in UK 6 months), is generating profits and growing quite quickly, so has the potential to make enough profit within the next couple of years to allow me to sponsor her.

We had been planning on moving to Ireland for 6 months where I could claim treaty rights, and use the Surinder Singh route to return to UK. The idea being that it would be close enough for me to return to UK for a few days each month to attend to any urgent issues with the business.

After seeing all the difficulties people have been having using Surinder Singh since the new rules came into effect on 1st Jan, I'm anticipating that it may take a lot longer than 6 months living in Ireland to successfully accomplish this (1+ years). Also, I'm seeing that under the new guidelines frequent journeys back to UK are seen as bad marks in the new "centre of life" policy, which means to do this route I'd essentially need to let my UK company fall apart in my absence.

My question is are there any other ways we could all stay together in UK as a family?

I remember reading somewhere that if my wife overstays, she wouldn't be allowed to be deported from UK if she has a dependent British child here. Is this true? And if so, what would the long term effects/consequences of this be? I'm guessing she wouldn't be allowed to travel to China to visit family otherwise she would not be allowed back into UK, but how long would this last? Would she eventually be entitled to a visa?

Something else I read was that she could easily get a visa to stay in UK as the mother of a dependent British child if we were divorced. Is this true? If so, what would the long term effects of this be? And exactly what kind of proof would be needed to show we weren't in a relationship anymore?

Apologies for the length of this post, but I wanted to give as much information as I could in hope that someone would have a magic answer.

[odat]

There’s no financial requirement if you applied for your partner visa on the 10-year route.

you can found what you need on the HO website
https://www.gov.uk/remain-in-uk-family

[jake the peg]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I've looked at that before, but it says:
"You can apply to extend or switch in any of these routes if you’re eligible, except if you have permission to be in the UK:
as a visitor
for less than 6 months – unless you got your visa to get married or become civil partners or you got your visa to wait for the outcome of a family court or divorce
on temporary admission or release (you don’t have a visa) – unless you apply in a 10-year route"

My wife is currently in UK on a 6 month family visitor visa, which makes me think she wouldn't be eligible... although according to the last line she can do the 10 year route if she has no visa? Would that include overstaying?

[Wanderer]

10 year route is 10 years legal stay.

My suggestion is to not run the visa gauntlet with HRA apps and hoping for this and hanging on for that, it's years of worry and uncertainty. Best way is for you to fulfill the requirements of the visa somehow, work three jobs, use savings, do it somehow.

Manufacturing a divorce is a certain way to be tarred with the deception brush and would wreck any visa hopes so just do it honestly and normally, tick all the boxes and save yourself a lot of grief!

[jake the peg]

10 year route is 10 years legal stay.

My suggestion is to not run the visa gauntlet with HRA apps and hoping for this and hanging on for that, it's years of worry and uncertainty. Best way is for you to fulfill the requirements of the visa somehow, work three jobs, use savings, do it somehow.

Manufacturing a divorce is a certain way to be tarred with the deception brush and would wreck any visa hopes so just do it honestly and normally, tick all the boxes and save yourself a lot of grief!

Thanks for the reply.

You're probably right about the manufactured divorce. I really am grasping at straws.

There will be no problem in fulfilling the financial requirements for the visa for the 2014-2015 tax year if I stay in UK, but my earnings for the 2013-2014 tax year won't meet the requirement as I've only been back in UK and working for 6 months of the year. However, if my wife needs to return to China for a year my earnings will drop significantly as I'll need to be taking care of my son rather than working the 60 or 70 hours a week I currently do.

There is no way my son will go back to China with my wife, the area in China where we used to live really isn't the best place for a child to be raised, plus there would be no way he could go to school (unless paying £10k per year for an international school), as we had to renounce his Chinese citizenship and all Chinese rights at birth to appease the local officials enough so they wouldn't forcefully sterilise my wife (Chinese countryside officials are a nightmare).

Also, we're trying to do everything we can to stay together for the next few years (hence moving to Ireland if necessary), as these years are the most crucial in a child's upbringing in regards to developing good/bad habits, personality traits, etc., so the idea of opting to separate the family now in order to reunite later seems very wrong considering the permanent effects it may have on our son.

So I guess if there are no options to stay in UK, the only answer is to move to Ireland and try to start and build a business over there from scratch with no contacts/connections, and close the company here which is beginning to do well. It all seems very backwards, but I guess thats the way the HO wants it to be.

[MPH80]

In truth it sounds like you're priority order right now is:

1) Run my business
2) Be with wife and child
3) Be in UK.

I'd, humbly, suggest the first two are the wrong way around.

(To explain that impression - you don't even consider taking a salaried job in Ireland - it has to be 'build a new business from scratch' apparently).

The simple solution to this is to take a salaried job, or two, or three, or whatever it takes to get over the threshold, be apart for 6-9 months, and have her come back here under a normal spouse visa. Your child is of pre-school age, not school, so you're going to paying for full time pre-school anyway in the UK (although, of course, you get your 15 hours free). I do appreciate the desire to be with your wife and child (I have a son of the same age) - but you have to play the long term game on this.

But your alternative is the Singh route. The truth of this is that, right now, we don't REALLY know what the qualifying criteria are. So you might have to plan on being in Ireland for a longer haul than being separated from your wife might be.

I will echo what Wanderer has said about avoiding HRA applications - they are a nightmare and a path to waiting every evening for a knock on the door from UKBA rather than being able to live your wife.