Criminal Record Certificate- Tier 2 Dependant to Tier 2 General Out of Country Switch

[gladiator939]

Hi All

My wife is currently in India and has received an email from the BDHC asking for police clearance certificates from China, India and the UK, from the ECO reviewing her case.
She is a doctor and whilst I acknowledge that the requirement is well founded, her sponsor never mentioned this to us at the time of assigning the CoS and neither did this requirement come up at the time of completing the visa application.

I therefore have the following queries:
1) She is already working in the UK on her Tier 2 Dependant visa. Our idea behind going for a switch was to help her get her own w/p which would help her apply for NHS training posts. This is also clearly mentioned in my application. Therefore, if the switch is only an "admin change", and there is no change of employer, are we exempt from the requirement?
2) I read the guidance which stated that if the ECO is convinced that it is "reasonably impractical" to furnish the PCC from an overseas authority, that would be acceptable. China to us falls in that category only because my wife had studied medicine in the country over 5 years ago and does not have any proof of residence, which is one of the requirements to apply in-person. Does anyone have any advice / experience of such a situation? Would this be considered a situation which renders it reasonably impractical to obtain a PCC?
3) Is it possible to withdraw the application at this stage, altogether? If yes, would this need to be declared in a subsequent application (Tier 2 General or Tier 2 Dependant Extension or FLR(M))?
4) Would withdrawal or refusal lead to future applications being prejudiced adversely?

Would be most grateful for any advice. Thx.

[gladiator939]

Bump - anything at all?