First spouse visa is too short - help!

[materson]

Hello everyone, I need your advice/assistance.

My wife and I applied for her spouse visa in late 2018, she was pregnant at the time, but we believed that we would have everything organised (our son's birth, Russian and UK passport) ready by the time the Home Office issued her vignette (or at least by the time the vignette ended). The vignette was issued end of December 2018 (so expired end of January 2019)
This wasn't the case, due to numerous complications that were both unexpected and beyond our control.

We therefore applied for Transfer of Conditions (TOC) (once we had the passports sorted). This was granted and we then flew to the UK.

we arrived late May 2019, collected the BRP and started to settle into the UK.

We've recently begun thinking about the next stage, and my wife therefore realised that the BRP expires end of September 2021, which is only 28 months after she entered the UK. it is 33 months after the initial Vignette was granted.

When we applied for the Vignette we had searched extensively for information on it and we had communicated with the official Home Office helpline (don't waste your money on that!). At no point did we see or get told that a transfer of conditions would result in us being unable to fulfil the required continuous 30 months of residency in the UK. We had assumed, that as our application for TOC had been accepted and a new vignette had been granted, the validity of the visa would have been altered, with both the start and end dates being altered accordingly. But, no!

Is there any way that we can avoid applying for an additional FLR before applying for ILR, in the current situation, we will only have 28 months of continuous residency in the UK before the BRP expires. And therefore we will not have 5 years of continuous residency when the FLR expires in the future (as it is a 30 month visa).

If anyone has been in a similar situation, your experience/advice would be appreciated.

Mark and Nika

[CR001]

Unfortunately, a new 30 day vignette won't change the original issue date if a visa. Many have learnt the hard way that a delay in entering the UK, for whatever reason, has a consequence.

I suggest apply for an extension as close to visa expiry date as possible and book the biometric appointment as late as possible within the timeframe given. Doing this can give you an extra 2 months. If you apply using standard service, it takes about 8 weeks for a section after biomterics, so you could gain almost 4 months.

The new visa start date is from date of approval and is not tagged onto the last expiry date.

She can apply for indefinite leave to remain no sooner than within 28 days before the 5th anniversary of the date she entered the UK. And again, she can apply before her next visa expiry, slightly delay biomterics and apply using standard service.

[seagul]

The vignette was issued end of December 2018 (so expired end of January 2019)
This wasn't the case, due to numerous complications that were both unexpected and beyond our control.

my wife therefore realised that the BRP expires end of September 2021, which is only 28 months after she entered the UK. it is 33 months after the initial Vignette was granted

Spouse visa was issued with correct length because 33 months will be counted from the issuance date which won't be discounted where someone couldn't arrive within the stipulated time. TOC was just the extension of expired entry clearance vignette of a pre-concluded application.

[materson]

Thanks for the information CR001, I think we'll do what you have suggested, and hope the HO will be very busy at the time so they'll drag their feet with getting things organised!

Seagul, do you know where that information is located? we have never seen it anywhere and it would be interesting to finally see it in black and white.

Thanks Mark and Nika

[seagul]

Seagul, do you know where that information is located? we have never seen it anywhere and it would be interesting to finally see it in black and white

Sure it is even in colored. You can fathom it out from below by concentrating the word application and the toc isn't an application rather a request to elongate an expired entry clearance (same as said earlier). Only reapplication might have actually resettled it to 33 months which actually wasn't needed.

The outcome
A successful application under Appendix FM will generally result in a grant of leave to enter for 33 months or leave to remain for 30 months.

https://www.freemovement.org.uk/how-to- ... pendix-fm/