omario2016

Hi, I am a British citizen and my wife is non EEA with her entry clearance expiring July 2019. I would really be grateful for some advice.

I work as a humanitarian and am currently away on an assignment since March 2019. My wife and daughter (British) are here with me. We are traveling back to the UK on 31st of May. We are about to begin the online application process and here are my questions: (We are meeting the financial requirements through savings)

1. Can we start filling in the online application form from abroad?

2. When do we choose the bio metric appointment?

3. I am aware that supporting documents can be uploaded (online if you are in the UK?), do we have to scan every single pages of our passports? I understand we can keep our originals?

4. We depend on the same savings we had when she applied for entry clearance, does this mean I have to submit the source of income from back then i.e. payslips 6 months prior to when she applied for entry clearance?

Thank you very much in advance!

BritInParis

1. Yes.
2. After you submit your application.
3. Just the bio-data pages and you keep the original.
4. No, six months prior to this application’s submission date.

omario2016

Thank you very much BritInParis!

Just regarding point 4, do you mean the last 6 months savings statements showing the money was sitting in the account? In other words, no need to show the source of income?

I have one more question not related to her FLR but to her ILR and then British citizenship. Is it each calendar year that applicants can not be away from the UK. Due to my wife and my daughter accompanying me abroad but also for our family holidays, it is possible that she may spend more 6 months outside the UK this year. Will this jeopardise her ILR and British citizenship?

I am very grateful for any input you may have.

BritInParis

Correct. Same as before providing you have at least £62,500 in cash savings.

It’s more than six months in any given twelve month period bar the final year before ILR when she can spend no more than 90 days outside the UK. I would strongly encourage you to keep a diary or Excel spreadsheet of all your wife’s travel so you can ‘budget’ her time abroad.

omario2016

BritInParis

It’s a rolling 12 month period from when she first arrives in the UK. Bear in mind it’s not a hard limit as it is for work visas but spending more than half her time outside the UK could threaten her ability to gain ILR. If in doubt play it safe. You always want to have as much time as possible in reserve in case of emergencies.

omario2016

Thanks a lot. Here are the breakdowns so far:

Arrived in the UK on 17 November 2016 with entry clearance.
12 months from that (17.11.2017)= 0 days absence from the UK
12 months from that (17.11.2018)= 22 days absence from the UK
12 months from that (17.11.2019)= 90 days by the time she returns to the UK (31.05.2019).

So am I correct in thinking that from 31.05.2019 to 17.11.2019 she can still be absent from the UK for about 3 months without, it negatively affecting her ILR and citizenship?
Grateful for your input.

omario2016

BritInParis could I double check that if one applies for FLR within the UK, you no longer need to send original and/or documents to Sheffield? also could you or anyone else look at the timeline I have mentioned in my last post in this thread and kindly comment? I would be very grateful for your time.

omario2016

Just started the online application and we are stuck here: (Please see below). My wife is here on soups visa (leave to enter), so do we choose 'Family' or 'Settlement' below?
Many thanks in advance for your help!

Your current permission to be in the UK

What type of visa, leave to enter or remain or other permission do you have to be in the UK?(Required)
You can find out this information on the document which shows you are allowed to be in the UK
Visit
Work
Study
Family
EEA residence permit or card
Settlement
Other

takhtar

Hello omario,

To me it would be very interesting to know how does your wife's FLR goes since she has spent some time outside UK. Because I am kind of in the same situation that I have spent 3 months outside UK after getting my BRP. And I get some scary words from my relatives that I might have problems getting FLR because I am not allowed to cross certain number of absent days.

But reading on different forums and after having a meeting with an Immigration advisor at Citizens Buro. I understood that there are no number of days. It is not for Spouse visa and is for a completely different visa. But still I am kind of worried and trying to avoid my vacations and travel plans for another 1.5years, which is kind of difficult to stay at one place for that long.

So I will appreciate if you could share your experience on how it goes for your wife.

Hope it goes well. Best of Luck!

omario2016

Sure, I will. So far, we have completed the online (new) application and it was fairly straight forward. We have also booked the appointment for her biometrics to be taken and apparently the service centre will also check that all documents have been uploaded. I had understood that this appointment was only £19.50 but it does not seem to be this amount anymore. The cheapest one was £60 but there were appointments for £125 too. I think this is quite expensive especially as you would have already uploaded your documents and all is left is for you to give your biometrics.

Will post once I have more updates....

omario2016

I have a question for which I would really appreciate some feedback:

Has anyone recently submitted a FLR application? Or does anyone know whether during biometrics appointment, you need to have the sponsor's passport and/or for the sponsor to be there too? I will be traveling when my wife has her biometrics. We are uploading all documents via the UKVCAS website and assumed that was sufficient but read somewhere on their website that even if you upload all the support documents, you need to have the originals with you during the appointment.....this obviously will not be possible for my passport....

This is making is rather nervous and stressed out. Can someone shed some light?

Best regards,

takhtar

omario2016

Hi everyone, just having a moment of panic as we think we may have submitted the application too early? My wife's souse visa expires on July 19th. We submitted the online application on June 7th and she has her biometrics appointment on 25th of June.

Can someone please help telling us if we submitted it too early? in other words, will her application be rejected? (that will be a waste of almost £2200!!

Many thanks in advance for any inputs.

DernierVirage

My wife's initial visa expired in December last year and we submitted her FLR application in September, which was no problem.