Wife Russian, our son British Citizen... help!

My wife and I got married in Russia in 2001 and moved to the UK in march 2004, where our son was born. (my wife was granted a two year spouse visa in Feb 2004). In August 2005 we had to return to Moscow to look after my wife's brother who was seriously ill, and has no other relatives to look after him.

He is now recovered to the point where he can work again, and my wife and I are planning to move back to the UK some time in spring 2007. I'm pretty sure that we cannot take up where we left off on my wife's old spouse visa, so I presume we need to make a fresh application.

However, given that our son is a British citizen and a minor (he's two) does this accord my wife any special status regarding leave to remain in the UK, or does she have to apply for a two year spouse visa again, and then go through the ILR thing after this probationary period has ended?

I'm grateful for any advice as a search on these boards didn't turn anything similar up...

Thanks!

Short answer, Gerry - no - I don't think that your son's British citizenship will make a difference to your wife's needing to jump through the spouse visa hoops again.
Sorry....

Hello,

Your wife will have to apply for a spouse visa again before she returns to the UK.

She will, hopefully, qualify for a settlement in 2 year time from the date she enters the UK.

In other words, she will have to start it all over again.

Regards,

Anton

ppron747 wrote:Short answer, Gerry - no - I don't think that your son's British citizenship will make a difference to your wife's needing to jump through the spouse visa hoops again.

I concur with Paul. If wife had obtained ILR then there might be hope of getting a returning resident entry clearance, but that doesn't apply if the only visa held was the initial spouse visa.

And unfortunately, as you broke your overseas residence by spending time in the UK, I don't see eligibility for immediate spousal ILE under the "4 year rule" either.

Thanks for the responses.

Just one more question. Does this mean that if my wife's application is rejected, and I return to the UK with our son, she has no legal right of access to our son while he is in the UK?

Thanks

Gerry_Marsden wrote:Just one more question. Does this mean that if my wife's application is rejected, and I return to the UK with our son, she has no legal right of access to our son while he is in the UK?

But why should it be rejected?