Advice re marriage vs family visitor visa

[safarigirl]

We are having problems on trying to sort out our life together. I am a british citizen, my husband is nigerian. We have been living in nigeria for the last 1.5 yrs and have been married for 2 years. We've just had a baby and are currently not comfortable about me and the baby returning from the UK to nigeria to be based permanently due to rising costs of living, bad electricity, traffic and security worries (not to mention malaria and other health issues for our baby).

However, he has his own business which is doing well there, it is obviously his home and roots. I would prefere to work a couple of days a week in the UK where I would earn the same money as working fulltime in Lagos.

In an ideal situation we would like to stay in my owned house in the UK. I can work parttime and he can be free to come and go to Lagos but be in the UK over half the time. HOWEVER...
If my understanding is correct, if he travels on a visitor visa he is only entitled to stay 6 months of the year and is likely to get stopped at immigration if he travels in and out too frequently or stays too long. And if we go down the spouse route he would only get a 2 year visa initially which would mean he'd have to ensure he doesn't leave the UK for more than 90 days in those 2 years (so his nigerian business would suffer) or he wouldn't get ILR.

Is there any way of getting "the best of both worlds" so he can travel in and out of the UK (he has no current intention of doing business here) freely or should we just wait until we've been married 4 yrs and go for ILR?

Any ideas greatly appreciated!

[sakura]

It would be ideal if you could wait another two years and then apply for ILE...if it is still in the rules, anyway.

A tourist visa might be quite difficult to obtain, because it is not a settlement visa and the ECO might argue that he should apply for a spouse visa if he is married to a British citizen who resides in the UK. Also, he cannot work or study, use the health care (except for emergencies) or do almost anything on a tourist visa anyway, which poses problems in applying for things.

You should apply for a spouse visa. If he spends too long outside the UK to qualify for ILR, I think you can apply for Further Leave to Remain (FLR), basically extending his spouse visa. However, he would need to ensure he does not spend too long outside the UK to qualify for ILR once he extends his spouse visa.

Other options might be the European route, if you hold another EU nationality (Irish, perchance)?