Spouse Visa complex case

[Mr_Marwaha]

Hello, I have a complex situation regarding my spouse visa and plan to file my application in late February. Any advice offered would be highly appreciated.

Timeline:
1. Came to the UK on a student visa in 2008.

2. Met my first wife in 2010 and subsequently married in September 2012 before expiry of my valid leave as student( expiry on 31st Oct, 2012)

3. Spouse was not working and applied under Article 8 (human rights grounds)

4. Application refused by home office and appealed within time.

5. First tier tribunal overturned decision and biometric residence permit issued in 2014.

6. Separated from wife in 2014 but did not divorce.

7. Met my current wife in July 2015.

8. Applied under human rights grounds to extend stay based on private life before expiry of valid leave in Dec, 2016 which was subsequently refused in March 20th, 2018.

9. Did not appeal decision. However my passport had expired while in possession of home office in 2017.

10. Home office refused to return passport for renewal so applied for emergency certificate to leave the country of my own accord.

11. Got emergency certificate, informed voluntary returns service to return my passport at the airport and emailed them proof of my plane tickets.

12. The whole process took some time so overstayed by 7-8 days.

13. Returned to India may 2018. My partner at the time who is now my wife has come to stay with me on multiple occasions.

14. Got married in November 2019 after divorce from my first wife which was finalised in june 2019.


My wife makes the required amount of money in her job and we have all whatsapp chats, FaceTime etc. dating back to 2015

Questions

1. Should we apply from uk or from India?

2. Should we hire a lawyer as it is a complex case?

Any additional advice would be highly appreciated. Thank you for taking out the time to go through my query,

Kind Regards.

[Zerubbabel]

Hello

You can't apply for a spouse visa within the UK. You are in India at the moment and you have to apply from there.

As you already have a long history with the Home Office, I anticipate that they would try to refuse your spouse visa on any of the grounds available to them. If you have the money to get a good solicitor, why not. At least, you would make sure that the application is correctly put.