Hi there,
I was wondering if anyone could help with a question I have about my wife's situation. She is American, I am British, and we met and started a relationship at university in Scotland 8 years ago, though we had not yet married.
A year ago she finished a postgraduate social science degree in the UK and came back to volunteer at an organisation for 6 months to improve her chances of getting a job/work visa. In advance we had checked with the Home Office and an immigration lawyer both of whom confirmed this was perfectly legal as long as it was for 6 months. On her return from the US after Christmas she told the airport immigration official she was doing an internship which we assumed was the correct term for an unpaid temporary position - big mistake! In immigration terms it is something that requires a lot of documentation and has to be done as an undergraduate student. Instead of letting her in on a tourist visa as we had previously discussed with the Home Office, he held her in detention for 12 hours and denied her entry to the country.
We got married in the US a year ago, and got her a spouse visa without too much difficulty (as we have documentation from 8 years of living together), and she has been living here since.
So, the question: in about ten months we can apply for her ILM, but we wanted to know if she can apply for citizenship at the same time. She has studied in the UK for a total of 5 years, and has worked here for one year prior to our immigration run-in. She has since volunteered for about 9 months, and has been working the last three months. Does her previous time here count towards the three years for citizenship, or does it start from the time she came here on a spouse visa? And does she need to have an employment history for 3 years, or is volunteering going to count?
Many thanks!
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