Dependant out of the country for 1-2 years-risk for ILR?

Dear members of the forum, please advise:

I am on WP and will be applying for ILR next January.
My wife, who is my dependant, spent one year outside of the UK, being in India - she had a dental surgery.
Now she needs to go back to her native country to stay with her mother who is in critical condition. She may spend there another 11 months.
I know that there are no restrictions for dependants to be out of the country however in my case HO may suspect that our marriage is not genuine.
Would you suggest that we are applying for ILR jointly and then take this risk or it is better that I will apply on my own and then she will get her extension and ILR later?

Your help is appreciated.

I don't think that a dependent has to give details of his / her stay outside the UK. Only the main applicant has to do so.

Technically she could qualify for settlement (Para. 195 Immigration Rules) if she marries you a day before you apply for settlement even if she only becomes resident in the UK on that day. All that is based on the following assumptions: that she entered the UK with an entry clearance as a "Work Permit" dependent (though the Home Office does not usually insist on that point being satisified) that her immigration status is "Work Permit dependent" prior to her being included in your settlement application, that she has not had recourse to public finds and does not intend to do so, that she passes the Life in the UK test (for applications post 2/4/07), that she is included in your application as a dependent and provided of course that you (the main applicant) qualify for settlement.

Having said that, she may have problems naturalising as at that stage she will need to satisfy the residence requirements on her own (i.e being resident in the UK in the period starting 5 years before the naturalisation application and ending on the date of the application so that total stay abroad <450 in that 5 year period and < 90 in the last year of the period).

dear tvt, many thanks indeed. it`s clear now.