can i work in the UK if i am married to a UK citizen

Iroquois · Post by **Iroquois** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:31 pm

Hi i am a mauritian citizen, i have been studying and working here for the past 13 years out of which 5 years have been working fulltime on a work permit my workpermit currently ends in 2014. i got made redundant in february and got married a couple of months ago to my girlfriend who is a UK
citizen.
i am now looking to become a freelancer/ sole trader but have not applied for the spouse visa yet due to financial difficulty.

my question is can i register myself and start working or i have to get this spouse visa first?

do i have to go back to mauritius to apply for this spouse visa?
even though i have been here all those years 9 years of which has been consecutive.
what if i cannot afford to go back to mauritius at the moment due to credit crunch ?
i would aprreciate your help
and i thank you in advance.
thank you.

Post by **PaperPusher** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:38 pm

You have to get the spouse visa first.

Iroquois · Post by **Iroquois** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 9:50 pm

PaperPusher wrote:You have to get the spouse visa first.

thanks for replying !
would you happen to know if i have to go back to mauritius to apply or i can apply from here.

thanks

f2k · Post by **f2k** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 4:10 pm

i know of people who have 'switched' from WP to spouse visa incountry before. I am not sure if it is still possible though. The other thing is you have been out of work for the last 5 or so months so am not sure what your status is.

You have been here 13years, so you could probably have applied for ILR 3years ago under 10year stay, is there any reason why you didnt. also you say you have been on WP for 5years again you could have applied for ILR based on 5years stay.

IMMIGRATION LAWYER · Post by **IMMIGRATION LAWYER** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 5:29 pm

If the Home Office was notified about your premature end of employment and it was now more then 28 days, you will not be able to switch into a UK spouse visa.

So it is likley that you will have to return to your home country and apply for entry clearance. Certainly much more expensive than switching into a spouse visa when you were eligible.

Iroquois · Post by **Iroquois** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 6:23 pm

f2k wrote:i know of people who have 'switched' from WP to spouse visa incountry before. I am not sure if it is still possible though. The other thing is you have been out of work for the last 5 or so months so am not sure what your status is.

You have been here 13years, so you could probably have applied for ILR 3years ago under 10year stay, is there any reason why you didnt. also you say you have been on WP for 5years again you could have applied for ILR based on 5years stay.

i dont think the ILR based on 5 years stay exist anymore?? im not sure could you point me in the right direction where i can get such information., the reason why i couldnt have applied for 10 years one is that i am only able to do that if i have been here 10 years consecutive which will take me to 2010 as i went back home for a year in 1999.

f2k · Post by **f2k** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 9:48 pm

ILR based on employment (WP, Tier1, HSMP etc) is still very much around.

Set O

you say you have been on WP for 5years

5 years have been working fulltime on a work permit my workpermit currently ends in 2014

. Is this correct, have you recently renewed or applied for a new wp this year? What visa stamp do you have in your passport?[/url]

Iroquois · Post by **Iroquois** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 3:51 pm

f2k wrote:ILR based on employment (WP, Tier1, HSMP etc) is still very much around.

Set O

you say you have been on WP for 5years
5 years have been working fulltime on a work permit my workpermit currently ends in 2014
. Is this correct, have you recently renewed or applied for a new wp this year? What visa stamp do you have in your passport?[/url]

i recently applied for a work permit in november last year, which takes me up to 2014, unfortunately got made redundant beginning of the year.

my visa stamp says able to work but no recourse to public fund.

f2k · Post by **f2k** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 5:26 pm

Sorry got confused when you said you have been in UK for 13years with 5years working full time on WP. so unless you have had another wp, are you saying you were working full time on another visa e.g student?

unfortunately because you didnt change your status soon after being made redundant your case is probably now very complicated.

As Immigration lawyer, if company you were working for has reported that you are no longer working for them then you could be in big trouble somewhere along the line. If not you could still be trouble. The reason is your visa basically became invalid when the you stopped working for the company in question made you redundant. There is a a grace period to sort out your stay but i doubt it is as long as 5months and counting. So in short you could be staying illegally which makes switching to spouse visa from incountry practically impossible.

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can i work in the UK if i am married to a UK citizen

can i work in the UK if i am married to a UK citizen