Exceptional Assurance - Spouse Visa

[gladiator939]

Hi all,

My wife is an Indian National and had leave to remain as the Spouse / Partner of a Settled Person. Her leave was valid from 3 Oct 2018 and expired on 1 May 2021. She works for the NHS as a doctor and has a letter to confirm her key worker status.

Unfortunately we were unable to submit a renewal / extension application before the expiry date. We had planned to apply on 30 April 2021, but our son had a serious medical emergency and had to be taken to A&E. We had to look after him at home and thereby missed the 1 May 2021 deadline. We did apply on 4 May and have submitted the application online, with a biometrics appointment booked in for later this month (25 May). My questions are:

1) I wanted to know whether our situation qualifies for 'Exceptional Assurance' under the latest set of rules? For what it's worth, we've written to the CIH Assurance Team yesterday notifying them of the situation and requesting this, but we are very stressed and keen to understand what our options are.
2) What is the typical timeline for the team to come back with a response?
3) I also read that in the event of leave expiring, the person has to leave the UK within 30 days. If she does leave the UK to make an out of country application, would her stay in the UK for this brief period (from 2 May until her departure later in the month of May) prejudice her out of country application to return under the same visa? This is frankly the last thing on our mind as she would have to return to India, where the COVID-19 situation is extremely grim. We've stated this on our exceptional assurance request and can also see that the local VAC centre in India for us is closed.
4) What would the impact of any overstay be on a future ILR application? She was on course to qualify by 3 Oct 2023.

Apologies for the numerous questions, just hoping that someone who has been through a similar situation is able to offer up any suggestions or advice.

Thx