Immigrationboards.com

Hi,
My wife is from the USA and she has been in the UK for about 4 years. The visa she is on now is the so-called spouse visa which has a 2-year probationary period which ends in June 2011.

We could apply for indefinite leave to remain for her. She meets all the criteria. It costs £900.

I checked the naturalisation process on the UKBA's website and it only costs £780. She meets all the criteria except one: she is not free from immigration control (because she is on a visa which expires in June).

To overcome that hurdle, we could apply for ILR (£900) and then when it's granted, for naturalisation (£780), total £1680. It's a bit steep.

I have seen on the naturalisation pages that they can exercise discretion regarding the "free from immigration control" criterion. There are a whole bunch of reasons that are listed. See http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/briti ... trictions/

One of them is family reasons and compassionate reasons.

My wife is pregnant with our 1st child who is due on 29 July 2011. In my view, this should be a good enough reason to waive the requirement based on family and compassionate grounds.

I would like to ask you guys out there if you have been in a situation like this and if you think my argument can succeed.

Thanks

fhumbert wrote:My wife is pregnant with our 1st child who is due on 29 July 2011. In my view, this should be a good enough reason to waive the requirement based on family and compassionate grounds.

Probably not (7).

You have to be careful with the reading here ...

If you have not been free from time restrictions for 12 months, we will normally use our discretion to disregard this if:

They wouldn't allow you to disregard the free from time restriction ... they are allowed to disregard the 12 month requirement.

This wouldn't apply if she were applying as the spouse of a BC anyway ...

So - yes - you have to go via ILR then Citizenship.

M.

Thanks for the answers.
I have just found out that there may be another route.
I am a dual national British/French.
Is it still possible to apply with form EEA2 for my wife to obtain a 5-year residence permit based on her marriage to me the French citizen ?

I realise that this is the route I should have taken two yers ago when applying for her first visa, all the more so as it's free to apply.

I wonder if it would still be possible to apply under EEA2 now and sort of disregard that I am also a British citizen ?

fhumbert wrote:Thanks for the answers.
I have just found out that there may be another route.
I am a dual national British/French.
Is it still possible to apply with form EEA2 for my wife to obtain a 5-year residence permit based on her marriage to me the French citizen ?

I realise that this is the route I should have taken two yers ago when applying for her first visa, all the more so as it's free to apply.

I wonder if it would still be possible to apply under EEA2 now and sort of disregard that I am also a British citizen ?

This has been answered in your other topic.


regards