Planning ILR

[Wanderer]

Briefly, I'm British, gf Russian, student visa till Oct 2008, these are the issues/plans so far!

1. Gf has to spend 9 months in Germany as part of course, I know I've brought this up before but searching here I found a link to an IND reg saying that time apart of no more then six months will be considered for UPV providing contact is kept up, visits made etc as you'd expect. We're looking a nine months tho, so we feel that might bugger up our UPV plans.
She goes Sept 2006 until June 2007


2. We are now talking about marriage. Time feels right now, nearly nine months living together. No rush of course, but now the option is very much a real propsect. So the UPV is not so critical although I'd still like to plan for it.

3. We feel that after her degree we may well move to russia, st pete specifically, however we don't want to burn our UK boats in case things don't work out so how do we plan around that? Keep UK bank accounts?

Her time here as a student doesn't count towards ILR I know but would it from the date we marry? And if we do, do we need to apply for spouse visa then or should/can we use up the student visa? Is there any advantage to either/or? I suppose her ILR clock only starts when we get spouse visa, how does the nine months in Germany affect her ILR then?

Cheers

Steve

[John]

Her time here as a student doesn't count towards ILR I know

It does count if the application is being made under the 10-year or 14-year procedure. But I presume your fiancée has not been in the UK nearly that long?

would it from the date we marry?

No, but an application for a spouse visa would be made straight after the marriage. A spouse visa does count towards ILR and after nearly two years on the spouse visa she would apply for ILR.

If the marriage and then the spouse visa were to happen prior to September, would the nine months outside the UK studying tend to affect the ILR application in due course. I think not as long as time outside the UK after she returns from Germany is minimal. It would be necessary to show regular contact between the two of you during the nine months. Presumably she would come back to the UK for Christmas and Easter etc?