Expired Residency permit Renewal (issued Prior June 2012)

[ShamR]

Dear All,

Can someone kindly advice me the best route to take or how to renew my expired spouse residency permit issued prior to June 2012. I lived in UK for 9 years on different visa. Got married in 2010 and I moved myself to spouse Visa in year 2012 prior to new regulation. After that due to job offer I moved out of country with my family. I could not apply for PR or renew my residency permit earlier because I was out of country for work ( non EU). Now we want to move back to UK, My wife and kids are British citizen. I don't want to go through new Family VISA process because it takes 5 years to get PR. Can I just renew expired residency permit to enter country. In past years we have been visiting UK every year due to family ties and I had family visit visa. Please suggest.

[CR001]

No, unfortunately you cannot simply 'renew' your expired visa.

You will have to apply for a new spouse visa on the 5 year route (2 x 2.5 year visas) before you will qualify for Indefinite leave to remain.

You will have to meet the English A1 language requirement and your British spouse will have to prove the financial requirments are met.

You will also have to pay the visa fee (goes up in April) and the £600 Immigration Health Surcharge.

[ShamR]

Thanks for your reply. What about the old regulation where married couple who stayed anywhere in world for more than 4 years are eligibility for permanent visa upon their return. I looked at these regulations before I left UK. I am not able to find it anymore. It also states that people who received residency permit prior to July 2012 will be treated as per the previous regulations.

[CR001]

What about the old regulation where married couple who stayed anywhere in world for more than 4 years are eligibility for permanent visa upon their return. I looked at these regulations before I left UK. I am not able to find it anymore.

The '4 year abroad ILE subject to KOLL' provision was removed a number of years ago, around mid to late 2012.

It also states that people who received residency permit prior to July 2012 will be treated as per the previous regulations.

Yes, only for applications to extend a visa WITHIN the UK if and applicant still have a valid visa issued before 9th July 2012 and had extended it for whatever reason (i.e. not passing LIUK is the most common reason).

Your visa expired while out of the UK, you can no longer rely on these old provisions and you will be subject to the harsher and more difficult Appendix FM under the post July 2012 rules which is a 5 year route to ILR, English and financial requirements are mandatory.

[ShamR]

Thanks, i think I would try my luck to renew it instead in worst case scenario they will reject it and I would have same option as you mentioned earlier. Can you suggest me link/ form to use I order to renew residency permit ?

[CR001]

You cannot 'renew' visas outside the UK. Renewal is only possible within the UK provided the previous visa has not expired.

You would have to apply for an entry clearance visa, which is form VAF4A and Appendix FM.

Your visa will be refused if you don't meet the requirements and you will lose your visa fee, currently £1,464 (increasing on 6th April) PLUS the £600 Immigration Health Surcharge.

[secret.simon]

Thanks, i think I would try my luck to renew it instead in worst case scenario they will reject it and I would have same option as you mentioned earlier. Can you suggest me link/ form to use I order to renew residency permit ?

You can certainly try applying, but I believe that your application is liable to be rejected on two grounds.

Firstly, as CR001 has already advised, in order for you to come under the old pre-2012 rules, your leave under those rules must be extant i.e. you could continue under those rules while you extended the same visa, but not if you changed the basis of your visa. So, if you had a pre-2012 spouse visa and then hypothetically changed to a student visa within the UK, your continuity of the visa would be broken. Then any future spousal visa application would come under the post-2012 rules.

Secondly, you mentioned that you had visit visas after your spousal visa, which would also break the continuity of your spousal visa. A simple way of thinking about it is that a person can have leave under only one category of the UK Immigration Rules at any one time and a later grant of leave cancels out a former grant of leave. By applying for visit visas, your spousal visa, even if it had not expired, would be void. If you wish to return to the spousal route, you would have to start from scratch, meeting all the current rules.

Given that your wife is a British citizen, she and you could look at moving to an EEA member-state other than the UK before Brexit. That would be much simpler and cheaper and the withdrawal agreement should preserve her EU citizenship rights.

But if you insist on returning to the UK, the pre-2012 Rules will definitely not apply to your case.

[ShamR]

I think there has to be other way for genuine cases like this... specially when person leaves the country after consulting the existing rule, a family life cant be effected in such a way because govt. decided to change the regulation while we were away..Once I have approval for spouse visa and if I am still in same marriage then I don't see a point why I should re apply for spouse VISA from scratch while we have kids who are British citizen as well. I checked I have to show 62,500 saving in bank account to apply for new visa or my wife and kids has to go back to UK without me and she has to get a job of at least 18,600. it doesn't make sense that I have to s stay without my family for at least a year.

BTW do I really have to pass English exam even though I have masters degree from British university?

[CR001]

A UK degree is sufficient to meet the English requirement.

There is no other way unfortunately. Many married couples who are genuine cases have the same route to follow.

You are not the first person to leave the UK and then find the rules have changed and you have to start again from scratch.

You allowed your visa to expire, so that ship has sailed now.