FLR and Covid (out of country)

[Albion]

Hi,

My Wife had a Spouse visa (exp. 08/07/2021). We left UK in August 2020 to return to Australia for family reasons, returned to visit the UK in January 2021 and planned to return to reside in the UK in Q1 2021. Covid happened and we are still in Australia and my wife's visa has expired and as yet, Australian Rules and having a new born we haven't entered to the UK to apply for FLR.

We applied via the Covid Visa Concession Scheme on 05/04/2021 to allow us an extension to enter when we are able to do so. This was not accepted and we were told to apply via CVCS once the visa had expired. We completed CVCS SMART form on the 18/07/2021. The CVCS was removed from GOV.UK on the 19/07/2021. On completing the CVCS SMART form we had to verify the email and we would receive a response with 10 working days. On 15 working days we contacted the CVCS email as we had not received a response. The auto response said the CVCS scheme ended on the 14/07/2021, yet the GOV.UK website existed until the 19/07/2021.

We would like to return to the UK and apply for FLR to extend residency in the UK. The new COVID concession cover people for 180 days leave if the visa expired up to 30 June 2021. We are 8 days after.

What options do we have to reenter and apply for FLR? The government website and email correspondence offered no help, so I can really only see my option is with an immigration lawyer. Once I have done this it is probably just cheaper to reapply and start the visa again.

Any advice would be great.

[CR001]

Reapply and start from scratch again, meeting all the mandatory requirements as before.