Married to French Lady but not residence card - RoR???

Please help! I know this might not be the right thread to post this but help! Hello there,
after reading other people`s cases, I have decided to post this for my best friend!
This is my first topic ever on this site, please help!
My best friend (JAMES) from (non EU or EEA) came into the UK in 2014 on a student visa to expire in 2016 with 20 hours per week which got curtailed to October 2015 and then lost his 20 hours after his school was revoked. He got married in his home country(Non EU) to a French lady on Vals day 2015 and then came back to the UK and did not apply for any more visas before his student visa expired. He loves this french lady so much. The french lady refused to help him to apply for visa during the past years saying he is legal to work and stay in the country as long as James is still married to him! So James is working with his N.I he got with his first student visa and paying tax, and his wife is working as well. Recently James and his wife started having problems and the wife threatening to runaway from him. So I advised James as a friend to put in his application to the HO since his marriage is genuine and they have so much documents together but James is more concerned about losing his french wife than his visa application. Now my question is 1. If James should put in a spouse application, would HO call for interview given the wife would likely not turn up because of misunderstanding they are having at the moment?
2. Is it advisable for James to put in an application now or should he wait for 3 years of genuine marriage and then put in an application for retained rights?
3.Any advise on what documents James needs providing to proof his marriage to this french lady is genuine?
Please any advise is appreciated. James is a very good man with kind heart.
Thanks everyone! I would appreciate your responses!

Obdani
You are right that this topic does not belong in this thread. However, it does highlight one of the reason that why many of us on this thread are suffering with delays and the tough job home office has to to do to weed out sham marriages vs genuine(where spouses are willing to support the application and couples have genuine intentions to live together).
Yourself or your friend James need to consult a lawyer and explore all the options or contact a marriage counselor. Otherwise without spouse(EEA national) support and cooperation, at least EEA route does not seem like an option
Can I request moderator to move above post in new thread?

njoseph wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:09 am

Obdani
You are right that this topic does not belong in this thread.
Can I request moderator to move above post in new thread?

Posts split to its own topic.