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Hello all.. could you give me some opinions on this situation please.

My wife was denied a UK spouse visa in 2009. After a lengthy 13 month appeal the refusal was overturned and the visa issued.

During the appeal process we laid down roots in another EU country and she now has an residence card for that country. We've been here for 8 months.

We do still want to move to the UK asap. However because of the length of the appeal, the job offer that I had during the initial UK visa application is no longer on offer. So I am waiting for a new UK job offer before we move, and I don't know how much longer this will take - vacancies for my profession are very few and far between.

The thing is, I believe that my wife will have to obtain FLR in the future because of the delay in making the move to the UK, in order to meet requirements for ILR, if we continue through the national immigration law route. So would it be better to go down the EU route under Surinder Singh instead?

What are the pros and cons of each route, in terms of costs, timescales, progression to British citizenship, and other hoops to jump through such as the Life in UK test?

Thanks!

See also EEA Fp/ EEA2 or FLR(M)?

Thanks for the link. The reference to http://www.lawcentreni.org/EoR/immigrat ... tions.html was very useful.

The only thing it doesn't seem to cover is the application for citizenship in the future. Will it affect the residence qualifying period? I assume it would still be 3 years of lawful residence if we choose the Surinder Singh route? I've looked on the home office web site but there doesn't seem to be reference to this exact situation

Citizenship requires ILR or PR.

So effectively going down the ILR route will require minimum 3 years of residence to be eligible for citizenship. Whereas with PR it will take 5 years.

So the question is now - Are the extra 2 years worth the free and simpler procedures? A personal choice of course, and one for my wife and I to think about.

Vinny thanks for the clarification of things.

dazzle wrote:Whereas with PR it will take 5 years.

You must be free of immigration restrictions for at least 1 year which would mean 6 years in the typical case. How possible new rules will affect naturalisation through the EEA route is still unclear as far as I know.

86ti wrote:

dazzle wrote:Whereas with PR it will take 5 years.

You must be free of immigration restrictions for at least 1 year which would mean 6 years in the typical case.

Unless you're the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen.

dazzle,

Are you working right now?

Out of curiosity, which country are you in?