Impact of Poor Choices on Obtaining a Dependent Student Visa

I know that I'm going to get a lot of negative response from this, but here it goes... My husband did something wrong before we were married; he overstayed his visa in the U.S. Yes, it was a big mistake. Although I am a U.S. citizen, he was removed from my country for no other violation than a visa overstay and has a ten-year bar against entry. If I were a U.K. citizen, my spouse would be allowed in the country, but the U.S. laws are different. We have been married two years now.

Well, one can only imagine how his history with U.S. immigration will be perceived by the U.K. We have no intention of overstaying our visa and have visited the country twice leaving on time. I am very interested in pursuing a postgraduate program at one of the good business schools. Any suggestions on how to improve our odds of getting him in as my dependent? I want to have my spouse living with me during my studies!

I am currently applying for my Prospective Student Visa. Would you suggest that he apply for his dependent prospective visa or wait until I firm my plans up with a school and get an actual dependent student visa? I'm just hesitant to place large non-refundable deposits on a program and then have his application rejected! Thus, it would be nicer to know if he has entry clearance with the prospective visa before taking to the point where I can possibly lose thousands of dollars.

Note that we do want to do things the right way by the laws of the U.K.

Well previous refusals or denials have to be delcared on the form, so there's no way avioding that.

Also I'm not sure if there is a Prospective Student Dependant Visa, and if there is it's not possible to work on it and will be expensive to switch in country.

Remeber the maintanenace requirements are quite high and uni fees expensive.