FLR Spouse Visa Extension

[IWM_SA]

Dear Members,

I hope you are all well!

I have a few queries with regards to my wife's spouse visa extension which hopefully you can shed some lights on.

Here is the background information:

I had my settled status back in September 2018 on the 10 year route (I am still PR holder and not naturalised yet) and my wife then switched from Tier 2 dependent to spouse visa shortly in November 2018. She is due to extend her spouse visa for the second 2.5 yrs term in May 2021.

My wife was pregnant in the beginning of 2020 and went back to China last July on her own. I then went back to look after her in late August and have been working from China since then. Our daughter was born in mid September 2020 and it took us until the very end of December 2020 to apply for her passport and UK entry clearance. When we start to arrange for our trip back, the direct flights between UK and China have been suspended until further notice due to the new strains of Covid-19 and it is still in force for the moment. We are not sure when the travel restriction will be lifted and probably we will still be staying in China for another 1 or 2 months before we could book a return flight. I am currently having a few concerns in respect of my wife's spouse extension:

1. Would such a long stay outside of UK (more than 180days) affect her spouse extension? I appreciate that there is no strict absence requirement on Spouse visa. However, the home office does like to see your good reasons for such a long absence as it may raise a concern or doubt on your intention to live in UK together permanently.

2. We are thinking something like Family Visit and Safety Concerns over UK Covid-19 situation to support our decision to give birth in China. To your best knowledge, would they be counted as good reasons? We were really planning to go back to UK within 180days, but unfortunately, we are sort of being stranded in China due to the Covid-19 situation.

3. If, in worst scenario, the extension application of my wife's second 2.5 yrs spouse visa got rejected, would it be possible to clock back and start the new application from scratch?

P.S. We do own properties with mortgage under both of our names in UK, hopefully this can be one of the evidences to show our intention to stay in UK for the future.

Really appreciated for your time and your help. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best regards!