How early can you apply for a spousal visa?

[Dave_Was]

Hello All,

My wife and I live in the US. My wife is an Indian national and I am a UK national, I was born in the UK.

At some point in the next couple of years we would like to move back to the UK, but haven't decided exactly yet.

I believe I read somewhere that you couldn't apply for the spousal visa until 6 months before your intended move date. Is my recollection correct?

Also if we applied and then subsequently didn't move back and then wanted to reapply in a years time, would it be detrimental to our application?

Thanks.

[vinny]

She may apply for a spouse visa whenever she likes. However, if she does not qualify for ILE, then to avoid an unnecessary FLR(M) extension before applying for SET(M), she should travel no later than 28 days (4 weeks) from her visa's effective date.

[Dave_Was]

She may apply for a spouse visa whenever she likes. However, if she does not qualify for ILE, then to avoid an unnecessary FLR(M) extension before applying for SET(M), she should travel no later than 28 days (4 weeks) from her visa's effective date.

Thanks for the post Vinny. It's much appreciated.

One question if I may. Looking at one of the links that you supplied. I believe it was on the one about visa effiective date, it says that entry can be deferred up to 3 months after this date. I think that this might be the issue. Let say I applied at the beginning of Feb and the visa had an effective date from the beginning of May. The visa entry clearence would run out three months later on 1st August. So in effect I should only apply for the spousal visa about 4 months before the date I would specify in the application as the date of entry in the UK.

I was hoping that I could get all this paperwork done and then hold it in reserve till my wife and I wanted to move back to the UK. But this doesn't seem like an option. Moving back to the UK will be a big, stressful and emotional decision for us, so I wanted to have this out of the way.

I suppose I could literally make a packet and have it ready for submission but it's just that you would still need the dates on the packet to be close to the application date.

Is my understanding correct?

Thanks.