Andrew79

Lots of thoughts going through my mind at the moment and I'm feeling quite fed up with the whole immigration thing.

Can someone please explain to me the "Returning Residents" section?

I'm facing losing my job by March, thanks to some "restructuring" in the business. I have little savings and a low paid job (by British standards). Non-EEA wife who had a spouse visa before, 3 kids....and I can't afford to stay.....and I can't afford to go (back to UK).

A lawyer here told me we should apply for my wife as a RR, but I'm not so sure.

pennylessinindia

try this for starters
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/si...df?view=Binary

In short your wife would have had to have ILR in her passport and have been out of the country for not more than 2 years unless can show strong ties and reasons why out of the country

ldollard

I'm really pretty sure, that if your wife has been our of the UK for more than two years she cannot return as a Returning Resident. But in saying that, if you dont have an exit or enter stamp from the UK or Mexico, it might be possible to return, but I would highly recommend NOT going that route, having your wife deported from the UK would be the worse thing possible.

Can your wife and kids go stay with her family while you go back to the UK and get a job so you can then sponsor her to come over?

Or alternatively and I don't know this route myself, you can go to an EU country stay and work for 3 months then enter the UK to live and work immediately with the whole family.

Sounds like your situation is really difficult, sorry.

WEBlue

Have a read of this recent thread about the RR visa:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...+resident+visa

Andrew79

Unfortunately, she had "Leave to Remain" only. We have been out of the UK for 1 year 3 months (her old visa expired August 28th 2011).

I'm just about to check the link you sent. Many thanks for that

Andrew79

Thanks to all for the replies and links. I'm still reading some of the UKBA ones, but so far very helpful indeed.

I regret not having researched properly when she was in the UK with her valid visa. We were told at the time it would take 5 years to get ILR, but at the time we could have got that at 2.5 years. That's why we applied for Leave to Remain.

I can't prove that we had been given wrong information.

WEBlue

If your wife was living with you in the UK under the OLD rules (i.e. acquired her spouse visa pre-9/7/12), she would have been entitled to ILR (permanent residence) after two years of residence, if she fulfilled the other usual requirements.

5 years of residence was the requirement for those on other visas besides the spouse visa, like one of the work visas or a sudent visa. So the length of time needed for ILR would have depended on which visa she was covered by.

But a lot of this has changed in recent years. Now ALL the visas that can lead to ILR have a minimum residence of 5 years time, and some of the work & student visas no longer lead to ILR.

So sorry you were given bad advice. The only two routes back would seem to be via the new (difficult) spouse visa or the Surinder Singh route mentioned by Idollard (working in another EU country for 6 months first). Lots of others are in the same boat here, if that's any consolation....

Andrew79

Yes, I'm really regretting not having done proper research back then. But at the time we were going to stay permanently in the UK, but then after my father passed away unexpectedly, I decided to move to Mexico....Anyway, we have to deal with this situation as it is now. Probably you will have seen my other posts as I am considering the SS route seriously.

And I was looking again at the visa previously granted to my wife. The first application was entry clearance in 2007 as Spouse/CP. Don't know what the CP means. Then the second one was a pink card "Residence Permit" of type Spouse/Partner, valid for 2 years. Any difference between a visa and a residence permit?

WEBlue

CP means Civil Partner, the spouse visa is also given for a civil partner.

Your wife's first visa is the spouse visa applied for outside the UK that is used for entry clearance & WAS (under the old rules) good for 2 years or 27 months. The second visa or "residence permit" was your FLR (Further Leave To Remain), and is another linited visa (again usually valid for 2 years) that allows her to continue residing in the UK. Has that (second) one expired?

Andrew79

Thank you for your clarification, WEBlue. Yes the second one (the residence permit) expired 28th August 2011. Like you say, it was valid for 2 years.