This is my first time posting here, any help would be very much appreciated! Some background details:
Me - UK Citizen (born in Scotland, but living in London)
My partner - Turkish Citizen, living with me in London. He is in the UK on a Turkish Businessperson visa (Ankara Agreement) and does not have ILR yet. He'll have been here for 4 years in January 2020 and under the old scheme would have been able to apply for ILR then, but due to the recent rule change (and subsequent legal challenge which was lost) he will not be able to apply until January 2021.
Our situation: We have been in a relationship for two years, living together for one, and would like to get married and start a family with the intention of living permanently in the UK (most likely Scotland - not sure if this is relevant but including just in case). My understanding is that if we wish to marry we must either a) apply for the family visa, with me being his sponsor or b) not apply for a visa but register notice to marry which will be passed to the Home Office, who may wish to investigate/interview us.
My question is: which option is the better one in this scenario? If we were to apply for a spouse visa would this override the visa my partner is currently on? We don't want to risk him having to wait longer to apply for ILR than the two(ish) years he would currently have to. And if we gave notice to marry without this visa, would it be a risky/more difficult option? We are in a genuine relationship and proving this doesn't worry me, but I wouldn't want to make any mis-steps that would affect his current path to ILR.
Also - we have considered waiting until my partner has ILR to get married, but we're both getting on a bit now and we're keen to do it sooner than 2021!
Thank you in advance
