Time permitted outside of UK (FLM)
Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2019 8:22 pm
Hi all,
New to the forum, so apologies if this is posted in the wrong place. I hope someone can help with our confusion.
My wife has a UK spouse visa, and is about 1.5 years into the 2.5 years. So in about six months, we'll start thinking about applying for the 2.5 year extension (which I think is sometimes referred to as further leave to remain, FLM?).
My wife is currently back in her home country, as her mum is very unwell. Before this trip, she has spent a total of 64 days outside of the UK since arriving on a spouse visa. This trip is currently scheduled to add a further 31 days to that total. But because of circumstances over there, we are now considering extending a further month, to take this trip to 59 days (and so 123 days in total).
But before doing that, we need to confirm exactly how much time she is permitted to be out of the UK in this 2.5 years, to still be eligible to be granted an extension. This information appears difficult to come across, and when looking around online, it seems many have confusion between applying for the 2.5 year extension, applying for ILR, and applying for citizenship.
I thought I'd read on the UK Gov website that there was a limit of 180 days per year, but I now can't find any mention of time limits. And I can't find anything about maximum time out of UK on a single trip.
This information regrind applying for ILR mentions 180 days allowable absence in any given 12 month period:
https://assets.publishing.service.go...e-v19.0ext.pdf
On another page in this forum, I found specific mention of restrictions relating to citizenship, which some people appear to have confused with FLM:
"To apply for citizenship you must have spent no longer than 450 days outside of the country in the past 5 years, no longer than 90 days in the past 12 months. "
Can anyone kindly confirm, when applying to extend a spouse visa, if there is a maximum number of days permitted outside of the UK (1) for the duration of the 2.5 year visa, (2) in a 12 month period, and (3) in a single trip. Links to relevant information online would also be a great help.
With many thanks in advance.
New to the forum, so apologies if this is posted in the wrong place. I hope someone can help with our confusion.
My wife has a UK spouse visa, and is about 1.5 years into the 2.5 years. So in about six months, we'll start thinking about applying for the 2.5 year extension (which I think is sometimes referred to as further leave to remain, FLM?).
My wife is currently back in her home country, as her mum is very unwell. Before this trip, she has spent a total of 64 days outside of the UK since arriving on a spouse visa. This trip is currently scheduled to add a further 31 days to that total. But because of circumstances over there, we are now considering extending a further month, to take this trip to 59 days (and so 123 days in total).
But before doing that, we need to confirm exactly how much time she is permitted to be out of the UK in this 2.5 years, to still be eligible to be granted an extension. This information appears difficult to come across, and when looking around online, it seems many have confusion between applying for the 2.5 year extension, applying for ILR, and applying for citizenship.
I thought I'd read on the UK Gov website that there was a limit of 180 days per year, but I now can't find any mention of time limits. And I can't find anything about maximum time out of UK on a single trip.
This information regrind applying for ILR mentions 180 days allowable absence in any given 12 month period:
https://assets.publishing.service.go...e-v19.0ext.pdf
On another page in this forum, I found specific mention of restrictions relating to citizenship, which some people appear to have confused with FLM:
"To apply for citizenship you must have spent no longer than 450 days outside of the country in the past 5 years, no longer than 90 days in the past 12 months. "
Can anyone kindly confirm, when applying to extend a spouse visa, if there is a maximum number of days permitted outside of the UK (1) for the duration of the 2.5 year visa, (2) in a 12 month period, and (3) in a single trip. Links to relevant information online would also be a great help.
With many thanks in advance.