Phillipians

Dear all

I have looked through different threads concerning my situation however i still have some questions based on my unique situation, that i would appreciate help with.

I am a British citizen currently living in the US,and me and my wife want to come to the UK, with her applying for a spouse visa. We want to do some travelling around the US once she leaves her current job, however i am unsure how to plan this around our visa application. Our intended travel length is around 3 months, which can of course change if necessary. I understand that one can delay their intended visa start date if the decision is approved, by up to 3 months ( although i have also read 6 months, could someone please clarify?) However my understanding is that that hypothetical 3 month period begins once we pay the fee, hence part of that 3 months would be eaten up by a biometrics appointment and mailing time.

I thought of completing our travels and then applying, but this seems untenable, as we will need to use our previous 6 months of income along with a job offer in the UK to fulfil the financial requirements, hence if we had just been travelling for 3 months we would have been out of work, and unable to fulfil the financial requirements. Therefore the only viable option for us seems to be to make our application with an intended start date, start our travels, have our documents mailed to a family member, and have them inform us of the decision.

If the proposed date of entry could be 6 months from the application, that would obviously be perfect for us, so it would be great if someone could clarify.

I would welcome advice on our best course of action concerning this situation
Many thanks

Joseph