Switch visa ti tier 1( general)

[joy_kavee]

I am on a student dependant visa and my wife is student. Our visa expires in November 2010.

1. Since i do qualify for the points based tier 1 general, i would like to know if its possible for us to SWITCH to the tier 1 now, thus , making my wife as dependant of my tier 1? and this being done in UK itself?

I have had various controversial answers in the past , so i would be grateful if you could enlighten me.

2. Can we actually switch to tier 1, thus making me the main applicant of tier 1 from student dependant, bearing in mind that we still have more than one year left in our current visa?

3. Is there a difference in home office procedures between switching visa and renewing visa ? ( i.e, changing from student dependant/student to tier 1/tier1 dependant)?

4. Does having more than 6 months remaining on our current visa makes th case different as from some previous answers , it seems you can't move from student dependant to tier 1 ( main applicant)?

5. If the student dependant and student are applying at the same time makes the case different?

Thanks a lot.

Kave