Family Visa arriving from Republic of Ireland

[Mattmanxxx]

We have applied for a Family Visa for my wife (a Canadian Citizen) and hope to receive an answer in the next few weeks. I am a UK Citizen and our 16 year old son also holds a UK passport.

We are currently living in the Republic of Ireland and have made our application from here and so hopefully should receive my wife passport back soon with the 30 day vignette stamped inside.

My first question is - Do we have to leave the 'Common Travel Area' and enter the UK from another country (e.g. France) in order to 'activate' the visa? Nobody at the UK Visa office (or anywhere else) has been able to give us an answer!!?! (Side Note: As a Canadian citizen, my wife does not normally require a visa to enter the UK and stay for up to 6 months). What happens when you arrive in the UK with the Visa vignette at the airport? Does entering the UK and going through passport control somehow 'activate' the visa and place the order for the BRP or is the BRP ordered and sent to the collection point anyway? The problem with entering the UK directly from Ireland (inside the CTA) is that there are no passport controls from Ireland to the UK and so we would not see an IO. There would be no official record of us entering the UK.

My second question is - Must I and our son also enter at the same time with her? Alternatively, could she fly from Dublin to Paris for the day and then fly to London and enter the UK that way in order to 'activate' the visa without us? We would then obviously join her in the UK.

I hope this makes sense.