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I am a british citizen having lived in Malta as a CEO on a malta salary and owning a malta house for the last 10 years. I have been with my wife for 5 years, 4 years as a partner and 6 months married. My wife and I have malta residence cards registered to the same address. We are looking at living in the UK shortly. My wife does not work. She has a UK Family Permit that runs out in 3 weeks.

My question is twofold:
1. Is the EEA2 Surinder Singh route the right next step? We are not 100% staying in the UK so the actions being:
a.) we go to UK next week
b.) rent a short term apartment
c.) apply for EEA2
d.) apply for passports to be returned as needed for business
e.) We then need to come back to Malta to sort things out before moving to UK properly - we do not need to go back to the UK until the RC is issued so no rentry issue.
f.) we sit in Malta and wait for the RC to come through to the UK address

My main concern is the EEA2 without real solid residence in the UK and not being there while the later part of the application progresses.

2. Would the uk spouse route be better?

thanks

Sorry, forgot to say my wife is Turkish, lived in Malta for 10 years, divorced 1 year ago.
thanks

Assuming.your a Brit Cit using a Brit passport to travel on. I am struggling to see how you can use EEA.route unless you.have dual nationality as a Maltese citizen.

Does your wifes current uk visa relate to her previous marriage? If it does then there is risk that has been curtailed or noted on the HO system that the marriage no longer subsists - in that case it might be a very unpleasant experience at the airport.

The safe route is to apply for the spouse visa.

The OP could use the Singh route frontier mole!

As they have Maltese residence permits, it should be a straight forward EEA2 application.

Yes I am Brit Cit and my wife family permit is last 6 months based on our marriage.

I have no doubt the EEA2 is simple on Singh route as I am fully time employed in Malta and own house only in Malta etc.

My concern is about applying and then neither of us being there fully all the time the 6 months or whatever it takes processing occurs.

any thoughts?

Well, I suppose once you've entered with an EEA Family Permit and have established a residence in the UK, you are theoretically now resident in the UK whether you apply for an EEA2 or not, in which case you now mustn't be absent for more than 6 months a year to not affect the continuity of your residence there. It shouldn't affect your EEA2 application in theory if you're out of the country as long as it's not for more than 6 months.