Help needed, please!

[jimbot91]

Hello,

My partner and I require urgent advice with regards to staying in the UK.

We are Australian citizens currently on 2-year working holiday visas. Our visas expire on May 1st, 2006, but we would like to stay on for at least another year.

I believe I will be eligible for the HSMP or for sponsorship through work. However, my partner would like to study here this year and would not be eligible for sponsorship or HSMP. Therefore, I believe that the options available to my partner would be to apply for (a) a student visa, or (b) defacto status through my HSMP.

The key questions we have are:

(1) If she applies for a defacto or student visa, must she apply for this within our country of origin, or can this be done within the UK, or indeed from another country (outside of the UK)

(2) If we leave the UK upon the expiry of our working holiday visas, when would be the soonest that we could re-enter the country (ie. to travel)?

(3) Are there any other options/avenues that we may not have considered?

Thank you in advance.