[amirb]

Hi All,

Apologies for the long post, I will try to explain our situation as clearly as possible.

I am a British Citizen. My wife & I were married in 2014 and she came to the UK in July 2014 on spouse visa. Unfortunately shortly after this her mother was diagnosed with cancer. My wife had a very close relationship with her mother, and she went to visit and stay with her twice to look after her during the treatments (first time for 5 months and the second time for 2.5 months). When we applied for her extension, we included hospital letters verifying her mother's illness, and she was granted visa for another 2.5 years. Unfortunately her mother's condition deteriorated rapidly after this, and knowing this, my wife went back home again to be with her. Her mother eventually passed away, and my wife returned to the UK after 4.5 months. Apart from this, we have had a few trips together outside of UK for holidays.

Now that we are approaching the end of her visa (in July), we are preparing to apply for her ILR. But I am very worried that her long absences are going to cause issues. There are a lot of info about absences online, but nothing for the spouse visa category, and no indication of what period of absence is actually acceptable.

- Are we right to be applying for ILR? Or do we have to apply for another extension?
- Based on our situation, do you think our chances of getting ILR are slim? Do you have any advice on what can be done to improve our chances when applying?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

Amir

 

[Raneem]

From what I know I think she is not qualified to ILR at the moment. She has to be living in UK for 5 years with no absence more than 90 days in a 12 months. So the last time she arrived after a long break, that’s when you start counting the 5 years

U now need to apply for another year extension

 

[amirb]

Thank you so much for your response. I was under the impression that the 90 day rule applies only to neutralisation applications. Does it also apply for ILR?

 

[Raneem]

Yes it does, in the application you will fill a table for all the times you spent outside UK, the total number of days must not exceed 450 days, not more than in 90 days in a single year

 

[amirb]

Thank you for your assistance

 

[SJDurrant]

Raneem, I think you're incorrect. It's 180 days absence in a 12 month period.

Taken from the Home Office website:

180 whole days absence
No more than 180 days’ absences are allowed in a consecutive 12-month period.
You must only include whole days in this calculation. Part day absences, for
example, less than 24 hours, are not counted. Therefore if the applicant had a single
absence during the 12 month period and arrived in the UK on day 181, the period
would not exceed 180 days.

Source: https://assets.publishing.service.g...13/Calculating-continuous-leave-v17.0-EXT.pdf

 

[SJDurrant]

Actually, from reading this forum and others there doesn't seem to be a limit on absences on a spousal visa. The document above relates to these visas:

• representative of an overseas business (paragraph 150 of the Immigration
Rules)
• UK ancestry (paragraph 192)
• retired person of independent means (paragraph 269)
• domestic workers in private households (paragraph 159G)
• the following sub-categories of the points-based system:
o Tier 2 (General) (paragraph 245HF)
o Tier 2 (Sportsperson) (paragraph 245HF)
o Tier 2 (Minister of religion) (paragraph 245HG)
o Tier 2 (Intra-company transfers) (ICT) granted under the rules in place
before 6 April 2010 (paragraph 245GF)
o Tier 5 (International agreement) – private servants in diplomatic households
granted entry under rules in place before 6 April 2012 only (paragraph 245
ZS)
• PBS dependent partners (paragraph 319E) and PBS dependent children
(paragraph 319J)

It covers the following routes which allow accelerated settlement:
• Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) (paragraph 245DF)
• Tier 1 (Investor) (paragraph 245EF)
• Tier 1 (Exceptional talent) (paragraph 245BF)

Hopefully one of the mods can back me up here.

 

[Raneem]

Raneem, I think you're incorrect. It's 180 days absence in a 12 month period.

Taken from the Home Office website:

180 whole days absence
No more than 180 days’ absences are allowed in a consecutive 12-month period.
You must only include whole days in this calculation. Part day absences, for
example, less than 24 hours, are not counted. Therefore if the applicant had a single
absence during the 12 month period and arrived in the UK on day 181, the period
would not exceed 180 days.

Source: https://assets.publishing.service.g...13/Calculating-continuous-leave-v17.0-EXT.pdf

I am on this route, I answered regarding my experience and I always tried to be in the safe side
Thank you for the addition👍🏻