Urgent please: ILR set (M) spouse, my wife / sponsor outside UK due to coronavirus situation

[NassOM]

Dear experts,
 
I am the partner of a British citizen and I have been in the UK on a Spouse Visa since 2nd June 2016. As I am soon to complete 5 years under this visa, I plan to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in May 2021. I believe that one of the requirements is that the applicant and their partner, my wife, must be present physically in the UK when I apply for ILR. However, in August 2020 we traveled to my home country, to see my parents as my father, 91 years old, was in a very critical health condition. After being there for some time, I traveled back to the UK to look after my business and we decided that my wife will stay there for sometime to help my mother in taking care about my father while our three year old daughter, also a British citizen, could spend more time with her grandparents and the rest of the family as well as continuing to attend nursery in Oman and learning another language, Arabic, during COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. We were also hoping that coronavirus restrictions will get better in time.
 
Unlike what we had anticipated, the coronavirus situation became worse and the regulations in the UK are now requiring all travellers from mu country to be isolated in a designated hotel for ten days, as my country is one of the countries which was added later to the red list. Aside from this, currently there is a travel ban between my country and the UK, with no direct flights between the two countries. As a result, we believe that my family, my wife and my daughter, may not be able to return safely back to UK in time to fulfil the above requirement for my ILR application.
 
Considering the exceptional circumstances, we understand that the Home Office has put in place a range of temporary changes to the immigration rules as a result of the COVID pandemic. We also understand that it is almost impossible to set out changes that fit all applicants as every application has its own exceptional circumstances for which to be evaluated by.

Our options now are: either take the risk of submitting my application with a support letter that explain the situation (OR) book a flight for my wife to return to the uk through two airports and pay for a hotel quarantine just to fulfil this requirement!

we wrote to home office more than two weeks ago coronavirus team but have not received an answer.

Please advise us.

Thank you.

[manci]

You are correct, there is a requirement for both you and your sponsor (your wife) to be in the UK when you apply for ILR
R-ILRP.1.1. The requirements to be met for indefinite leave to remain as a partner are that-
(a) the applicant and their partner must be in the UK
,,,,,,,,,

There is no specific concession for the relaxation of this rule due to Covid. In any case, the current travel restrictions don't prevent your BC wife from returning to the UK albeit subject to the quarantine regime in force.

The only glimmer of hope I can see for the HO exercising discretion and not insisting on the application of R-ILRP 1.1(a) may be if you produced documentary evidence of the medical condition of your 91 year old father and also evidence that your wife is his carer. There is no guarantee that this approach would succeed though.

As to the current Covid immigration concessions see:
https://www.freemovement.org.uk/coronavirus/
and
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus ... -residents