geoeng

I am Canadian citizen and my spouse holds dual UK/Canadian citizenship; we have decided to move from Canada to the UK and have been looking at different visa routes for myself. I was originally planning on applying for a family visa as the spouse of a UK citizen, and meet all of the requirements for doing so, but stumbled across the Youth Mobility Scheme and thought that might be a better option for initial entry to the UK due to it being processed much faster, lower cost, less paperwork, etc.

It appears that I meet all of the eligibility requirements (lucky me being under 30 without kids I guess). I just wanted to confirm with anyone that has experience with this type of visa that I will be able to apply to switch to a family visa after this one expires in 2 years without having to leave the UK to apply after having lived and worked there (or if I end up with a kid there I suppose). The main purpose for going this route is to sidestep the paperwork and financial burden of the family visa in the short term and defer it until we're both living and working in the UK, as well as to spend less time apart through the visa application process. Thanks.

BritInParis

You can do that but be aware that any time spent on a Tier 5 YMS visa won't count towards ILR. The clock will only start ticking towards your five years once you switch to a spouse visa. I would aim to do that once you both have both working in the UK for six months as you can count both incomes towards meeting the financial requirements, something you cannot do if you are applying from outside the UK.

geoeng

That makes sense and is something I didn't think about. Given the cost difference between applying for a spouse visa inside the UK vs. outside and the extra time it would take to get a spouse visa initially, I'd more or less break even overall on the cost and total time to ILR, but get to spend it all in the UK. Thanks for the advice.