Spousal visa refused then I joined her abroad.

[Jango15]

I applied for settlement for my wife about 7 years ago,but unfortunately it was refused.
At the time I was resident in the UK and had been married to my wife for 5 years. We also had a daughter who was 4 years old at the time.My wife has always been a frequent visitor to the UK and in fact been visiting every summer on a visitors visa for over 20 years . When her application for settlement was refused I decided to join her abroad because it was too expensive maintaining two homes and we also had a son .
I have been living abroad with my wife and two children for the past 6 years and we intend to continue living here for now. My two children are UK passport holders and my wife is a non EEA passport holder but she has a 5 year multiple visitor's visa which she obtained on her own. She is, by the way, a chartered accountant and has a good job in banking here.
Our children are happy and settled here and attend one of the best British International Schools here. So we are content with our lot but I would like to know what I could apply for her to stop her wasting money paying for a visitors visa. She has also been told severally on arrival in UK with the kids at the Immigration desk at heathrow to go and apply for a change of status.
The issue however is that if we apply for settlement the rule states that we must intend to settle in the UK,but we have no immediate plans to go and live in the UK for now.

[Casa]

If you don't intend to settle in the UK then a visitor visa is your only option. The condition is with a visitor visa that no more time is spent in the UK than in your wife's country of legal residence within a 12 month period.