US National wondering if he'll be refused entry.

[EnderRoark]

I'll try to keep this short.

I'm an American with a US passport. My girlfriend is British. Last year, I decided that I was going to go on an extended visit to be with my girlfriend. I work in a small architecture office and we'd just finished a big project, so I managed to get a huge hiatus approved with my company so I could join my girlfriend to figure things out. I get to London on October 27th, 2015. I then left December 21st, 2015 to go home for Christmas. Being young and dumb, I thought I'd be ok going back for New Years and on. So I then returned to the UK December 30th and planned on staying until June 6th, 2016. I had already purchased the return ticket I was going to use. I had almost $7000 saved for use during that time. I had mistakenly thought that my 6 months would "reset" when I re-entered the second time, therefore, not breaking any rules about overstaying (that was my big mistake). So in April 2016, we decide to go on a short trip to Greece for my girlfriends' birthday. Upon trying to re-enter, the immigration officer became very suspicious and questioned me about my stay. It was then when he informed that me that I had just admitted to him that was going to overstay. At the specific point in time, my re-entry would have still been under 6 months from my initial October arrival, but my June 6th return would be overstay.Now the immigration office made it quite clear that I had made a mistake. However, he let me through with this stamp.

http://imgur.com/a/P2Sec

He basically said that he'd allow me to re-enter and even stay until June 6th because I made an honest mistake (practically admitting to him as well), I didn't intentionally plan on overstaying (because of my return ticket), and that he appreciated that I was calm and level headed (I was very sleep deprived so I was very mild and nervous).

So my question now is, if I wanted to go see my girlfriend over Christmas, this time only for 2 weeks, would I be automatically denied entry? What ramifications does that stamp on my passport have for future travel to the UK? I'm planning on marrying the girlfriend soon and we've decided that we'd like to live in the UK, would this previous mistake effect getting a spousal visa?

[vinny]

Technically, your leave lapses when you depart from the UK. So, you wouldn't have overstayed, if you entered and remained in the UK between April 2016 and 06 June 2016.

However, they do take into account the frequency and accumulated time that you are in the UK. If you are spending more than six months in the UK within a twelve month period, then they may think that you are not a genuine visitor and may refuse you entry.

Given the warning, you have to be more careful.

[vinny]

Perhaps it's time for your girlfriend to visit you?

Marry in the USA and you may apply for a spouse visa.

[Casa]

In addition to Vinny's advice, it would be wise to apply for a visa before your next visit as the previous entry stamp may well flag up with the Immigration Officer.

[EnderRoark]

So just to clarify, I technically havent overstayed even though I was over there for a total of about 8 months from October 2015 to June 2016 since I had left and and gone back into the UK twice during that time? and the 6 months stay in a 12 month period is a benchmark for them to gauge whether or not I'm "living" in the UK? how about the stamp? From what I've gathered in other research, it just serves to indicate to the next IO that they should watch out for me?

Yeah, I wish she could visit more but my work is a lot more flexible so we do it that way. She actually came back with me when I returned in June. I'll definitely try to get an actual travel visa if I try to go for Christmas.

Thank you so much for your help, Vinny and Casa. I really appreciate it. It's crazy how hard it is to find information out there, so I'm very grateful.