Spouse studying outside UK

[merc90]

Dear all,

I would be grateful for your guidance on our situation.

My wife is currently on her first 2.5 years spouse visa, which is coming to an end. After receiving her visa, she stayed in the UK for around 6 months, then returned to India, where she worked for a year. Since then, she has been studying (pursuing her medical residency) there, with approximately 2.5 years still remaining.

We are now considering renewing her spouse visa, and I have a few questions:

When she later applies for ILR, can her long extended absence from the UK be justified on the basis of her work and medical residency in India? Or does she need to live in the UK continuously for 5 years on a spouse visa to qualify?

If continuous residence in the UK is required for ILR, would it be better to renew her spouse visa now, or apply for a new spouse visa once she completes her residency?

Should we apply for the spouse visa renewal from India or from within the UK, given that she is unlikely to get more than 5 days of leave to travel to the UK?

Would the same residence requirements affect a future application for British citizenship, or would she need to first obtain ILR and then complete a further qualifying residence period before applying?

Thank you very much for any guidance.

Harshad

[secret.simon]

Should we apply for the spouse visa renewal from India or from within the UK, given that she is unlikely to get more than 5 days of leave to travel to the UK?

She can only extend her visa from within the UK. If she applies from outside, that will be a new visa, meeting all the visa requirements of the day that she applies on and resetting her visa clock to zero.

When she later applies for ILR, can her long extended absence from the UK be justified on the basis of her work and medical residency in India?

The rules for ILR may be tightened soon and we do not know what the rules will be when she is due to apply for ILR.

But in any case, keep in mind that the requirements for British citizenship, assuming that that is the eventual goal, are much stricter when it comes to absences. And naturalisation as a British citizen is not a part of the immigration pathway, which ends at ILR.

There is also a physical presence requirement for naturalisation, requiring the applicant to be physically in the UK at the start of the 3 year (if married to a British citizen)/5 year (if not married to a British citizen) period before the date of naturalisation. Long continuous absences from the UK could handicap future naturalisation applications on that front too.

So, even if she does get to ILR, she may have to wait a while before progressing to naturalisation.

[merc90]

Thank you for your reply.

In that case, we plan to apply for the extension of her spouse visa from within the UK and opt for the priority service, hoping to receive a decision within a week.

I understand your point about naturalisation; that is not our priority at the moment. Our main concern is ILR.

Under the current rules, would it be reasonable to assume that we may be able to justify her absence on the basis of work and study? Also, when extending her spouse visa, would the remaining duration of her studies have any negative impact on the extension application?

[CR001]

There is no 5 day priority option for a spouse visa.

You have standard service or super priority.

There is currently no absence limit for a spouse visa holder. However the applications might be more heavily scrutinised as she clearly doesn't live and work in the UK.

[secret.simon]

To add to CR001's observation on heavier scrutiny, keep in mind that, over and above the marriage, you will need to prove that the two of you are in a "genuine and subsisting relationship". That is a bit hard to do if the other party is living in another country for a significant portion of 2+ years.