Chinese Spouses ILR Failed: What do I do now?

I am a British and Irish dual citizen and have lived in the UK all my life. My wife is Chinese and we married in Dec 2004.

She was here in the UK on a student visa at that time doing a masters degree. She then received a 2 year limited Leave to Remain (LLR) as my spouse which expires in March 2007. She applied for Indefinite Leave to remain in Feb 2007 but has just been refused.

The reasons given were as follows:-

1: They said out marriage is not subsistent.
2: They said we are not going to live together permanently.

Because my wife has business interests in China she had to go back regularly to see to that and also her Mother has been very unwell with diabetes. During the 2 year period she was in the UK only for 4-5 months as she came and went 5 times in total between the UK and China.

To say our marriage is not subsistent (ie. does not exist) is a HUGE INSULT to me and her! Ours is a genuine marriage and we intend to live together in the longer term and start a family. We only seek financial security for the future and so work very hard to achieve this. For the last 5 months I have been working away from my UK home in the South of England.

What should we do now? Appeal, ask them to re-consider or apply for another limited leave to remain.

I live in the UK but have dual Irish/British citizenship. Is there any way I can use my irish citizenship to enable my wife to stay in the UK/EU with me.

Thanks very much for any advice offered!

Lets keep the discussion all in one place ... here.

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