Trying to figure out the best path

[courtb]

Hi!

I feel like I am going crazy - for the life of me, I cannot understand what the best course out of my current options are (seriously - as an American, I thought our paperwork was mind boggling). Here's my situation and if anyone could help me, I'd be forever grateful!

My visa/UK immigration background: I first came to work in the UK on a work permit valid from Sept 20, 2007 - Aug 31, 2008. It was extended for a year, expiring on June 30, 2009. I left the UK in July 2009 (I had left the country in June and returned as a tourist to prevent overstaying) and returned on a Tier 4 (General) student visa August 27, 2010. I received my post study work visa (with my handy dandy biometrics residence permit) April 4, 2012, which expires April 4, 2014.

My husband and I first met October 2007 and got married August 4, 2013.

Originally, I had planned to just switch to the spouse visa - I didn't realise that there's both the FLR(M) and the SET(M). The spouse visa is the cheaper option (significantly so, which makes a difference if we don't stay in the UK), but ILR is so much handier.

And then there's naturalisation (my favourite option). I have seen conflicting information as to whether my student and PSW visa years count towards naturalisation as well as the necessity for ILR status to qualify and the UKBA website doesn't exactly help make that clear. If I don't need ILR and can count those years, I qualify both under standard requirements and spousal requirements.

Apologies for the novel - it's 2 am and I can't sleep with trying to sort all of this out. Any guidance, thoughts, tips - even jokes! - would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Courtney

[Amber]

Assuming your spouse is settled/British. Your options are:

Switch to FLR(M) which has an English and Financial requirement, the leave would be granted for 2.5 years if the requirements are met.

To settle (be granted ILR) you can apply for SET(M) after 5 years under FLR(M) meeting the Financial requirement 3 times in total or SET(LR) after 10 years long residence.

In order to naturalise you need to have ILR first.

[Amber]

Hey everyone!

Apologies if this has been answered somewhere else - I'm relatively new!

I'm currently working on my FLR(M) visa to replace my PSW visa (I qualify for ILR and could immediately apply for citizenship after that, but do not want to pay for both when my British husband and I are unsure how long we'll stay in the UK - very frustrating really). We met in October 2007 while I was on a work permit, married in the states in August, 2013.

Anyway, forums like this have been helpful - something that I find the UKBA really struggles with. It is from forums that I learned about the FM 1.7 Immigration Directorate Instructions (the link in the guidance book leads to "Page Not Found" for all their FM documents, which are themselves filed under "Policy and Law") and discovered that original payslips are not proof enough for the financial requirement.

To further add to my dismay, other posters' "Checklist" holds more items/documentation than my husband and I were planning on sending (apparently, one cannot take the Documents section at face value). My husband doesn't want to send off all our important/financial papers without just cause. If anyone can help with the following document questions, I'd really, really appreciate it.

1. Cover letters from both you and your sponsor - did I miss where it says you should do this?

2. Accommodation - I know people are submitting documents about rent/mortgage/tenancy. I was not planning on sending our mortgage agreement as proof was not requested - again, did I miss where it specifies this?

3. Evidence that you've met (according to the website) / Evidence you have been living together - I just assumed that this, combined with the marriage license, covered the whole "in a real relationship" aspect as we've lived together 3 years already. We have a joint savings account, various council tax bills for the past 3 years, and a life insurance policy all addressed to us both. Then I have a letter from my bank and a letter from my dr addressed just to me and my husband has a utility bill and letter from his work. Is it really necessary to include the photos, plane tickets, emails, etc? Actually, re-reading the requirements, is 12C even necessary as it seems to apply to unmarried or same-sex applicants?

What else is needed that isn't expressly spelled out in the "Documents" section? And do we need to submit a copy of the entire application as that also isn't listed as a requirement (unless I missed it)?

Ahh - this is all so incredibly frustrating. I managed to apply for a work visa, renew said work visa (ok, my work did more than I on that one), apply for a student visa, and apply for a PSW visa - all without this stress and difficulty in understand what is required of me.

[courtb]

Hi Amber,

Apologies - I figured that since it was a different topic, it should have it's own thread. I'm happy to delete it.

[Amber]

See also, documents required and Supporting documents guidance - settlement. Although the latter is for outside the UK, it gives some hints re; accommodation.

See also, Subsisting marriage and Appendix FM-SE - Family members - specified evidence. Again the latter is for EC but is on par with Annex FM 1.7.