Choosing the right visa query

[Kyoshiro]

Hello,

I am a French citizen and I am looking to come to the UK to live with my wife. She has French British dual citizenship. We have lived together in France for 9+ years and have been married for about a year. We have both always lived in France. She is enrolled to do a PhD starting October 1rst 2022 in the UK. Her place is confirmed and fully funded by UKRI.
For now, her university is allowing her to carry her research remotely, but we would need to relocate to the UK as soon as possible, and wish to establish ourselves there permanently. We initially thought we'd have to apply for a spousal visa for me to join her, so we had started planning to apply for this type of visa. We've recently learned about the existence of the EU Settlement Scheme family permit to join family in the UK which seems to be a better option for us. Our only concern is that the we've past the 29th March 2022 deadline. I was a university student in a French institution until June 2022, and my wife only received official confirmation for her studentship in April 2022.
Would our situation allow us to apply for a family permit? And would our situation qualify us for reasonable grounds for a late application?

Thank you

[Ticktack]

Hello,

I am a French citizen and I am looking to come to the UK to live with my wife. She has French British dual citizenship. We have lived together in France for 9+ years and have been married for about a year. We have both always lived in France. She is enrolled to do a PhD starting October 1rst 2022 in the UK. Her place is confirmed and fully funded by UKRI.
For now, her university is allowing her to carry her research remotely, but we would need to relocate to the UK as soon as possible, and wish to establish ourselves there permanently. We initially thought we'd have to apply for a spousal visa for me to join her, so we had started planning to apply for this type of visa. We've recently learned about the existence of the EU Settlement Scheme family permit to join family in the UK which seems to be a better option for us. Our only concern is that the we've past the 29th March 2022 deadline. I was a university student in a French institution until June 2022, and my wife only received official confirmation for her studentship in April 2022.
Would our situation allow us to apply for a family permit? And would our situation qualify us for reasonable grounds for a late application?

Thank you

Your initial option was correct. Your only route to living here is the British Spousal/Partner visa.

[Kyoshiro]

Thank you for your response