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Hi everyone,
Just a question, my husband came to UK on student visa but I have been married to him from Nigeria and we both came in to uk. He come on a student visa because we did not know he can apply been a spouse of a British citizen. On getting to UK we find out that he could have apply for spouse visa. I and my husband have been living together in UK since 15th September 2008 but he was on student visa then while I am a British citizen. We have been married since June 2008. My husband switch from student visa to spouse visa on the 7th April 2009.
My question is that can my husband apply for ILR by 15 September 2010 since we would have been living together in UK for two years by 15 September 2010?
Please note that he switch student visa to spouse and the spouse visa is still valid till April 2011. Please can anybody help base on their knowledge of two year in UK with your spouse four year outside uk before qualifying for ILR. Thanks to everyone. God bless

AFAIK time spent in UK on leave to enter / remain (visa) as a student cannot be counted towards residential requirements for ILR unless one is applying for ILR under the 10yr./14yr. long residence category.

Also, from immigration perspective your spouse became your spouse only in 2009 when he changed to spouse visa. Before that he was just a student (and not your spouse).



regards

Thanks for your advice.

blove wrote:Thanks for your advice.

Not just advice, tis the truth...

Thanks

My wife was on a student visa until April 2009 (married 2007). She then got her Work permit dependent visa. When we applied for our ILR, we had been living together already the previous 2 years (+). We all got our ILR on January of this year despite her only actually being on that dependent visa for about 9 months previous to applying. This fact was pointed out by the counter officer, but the case worker he passed it on to said that everything was fine, and we all (me, wife, infant daughter born here) got our ILR that day. Perhaps there was an exception made in our case, however we never got that impression. I researched this pretty thoroughly and never found any UKBA site or other visa site that stated that the *type* of visa was relevant. Only that the spouse and main applicant had to be living together for a continuous period of two previous to applying, which we had been. Has this changed recently?

ouflak1, dependents of work permit holders are not subject to residential requirement of 2 years to become eligible for ILR. So, if your spouse applied for ILR when you were on either of the following leave to enter/remain, she was indeed eligible for ILR at the same time as you irrespective of immigration history:
1. Leave to remain as Work Permit Holder (not tier 2 but old WP), or
2. Leave to remain as Tier 2 migrant which was extended from WP leave but with the same conditions attached.

Only dependents of Tier 1 / Tier 2 / HSMP (post nov. 06 changes) migrants are subject to the 2 yr. residential requirements.

So, the obvious question would be .... what was your leave status when you applied for ILR?


regards

ouflak1 wrote:My wife was on a student visa until April 2009 (married 2007). She then got her Work permit dependent visa. When we applied for our ILR, we had been living together already the previous 2 years (+). We all got our ILR on January of this year despite her only actually being on that dependent visa for about 9 months previous to applying. This fact was pointed out by the counter officer, but the case worker he passed it on to said that everything was fine, and we all (me, wife, infant daughter born here) got our ILR that day. Perhaps there was an exception made in our case, however we never got that impression. I researched this pretty thoroughly and never found any UKBA site or other visa site that stated that the *type* of visa was relevant. Only that the spouse and main applicant had to be living together for a continuous period of two previous to applying, which we had been. Has this changed recently?

There was no exception made to your case at all, but you have missed the point here. The type of visa is very much important, for starters the difference between your case and the OP is that in your case there is a 'Main Applicant' and 'Dependant' who is of course your spouse, but is not on a 'spousal' visa, in the OPs case there is only the main applicant who is the spouse of a BC and is on a 'spousal visa'. Also even in cases where there is a 'main applicant' and 'dependent' the requirement to be in UK on that visa (dependent visa) for 2 years varies, eg those on points based system cannot now apply unless dependent spouse has been in UK for 2years, also students or others using the long stay (10year) cannot apply with dependents at all. Only those who came b4 the 'new' points based system can apply.

Please browse the link below to see that the type of visa does matter

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/settl ... rightform/