Hbizz

Hi, I am after some advice/clarification please on our situation. I am uk citizen and my partner (Australian) is here on partner visa, arrived Dec 2015. Due to apply for next stage before Sept this year. We have an 18 month old baby (british citizen by birth) and i am pregnant with number 2. We are both sporting professionals ( coaches) and so travel for work is partcand parcel of that. We have received a job offer in Belgium to start at the end of this year. Are there any circumstances where applicants have been allowed to put thw awxond stage application on hold?
If we have to abandon the application and want to return say in 5 years time will the fact we walked away from this initial application count against us?
Also, would walking away also then prevent my partner returning with me to visit our family here in the uk for christmas etc? And if I decide to have the baby here in the UK? Would immigration question that he would be trying to get back in permenantly illegally!?
Thanks

SanDiegogirl

No you can't put applying for FLR(M) on hold.

Yes, if you leave and return in 5 years time you start the immigration process from scratch. Not progressing with this current visa will not be held against you.

If your current visa is up by September of this year and the new job is not starting until end of this year, what are you intending to do between end of current visa and start of new job? Your partner won't be able to work in the UK during that time.

If you stay in the UK to have the child, it would be beneficial for your partner to show strong ties to Belgium so the border officials would be confident that he will leave at end of visit. (one he takes up the new job)

BritInParis

I would renew the visa as planned at the end of September. Your partner will need to in order to remain in the country until the end of the year in any case. That would give him another 2.5 years so if things don't work out in Belgium you can always returned. There's technically no limit to absences on a spouse visa so in theory if you both returned before December 2020 he could still apply for and receive ILR providing he could show good reason for your absence (work commitment).

SanDiegogirl

I thought the rule of thumb was no more than 180 days absence in any one year and a certain number of days in the overall 5 years without affecting the route to ILR

Not sure that actually leaving the UK for a period of two years plus would be in the spirit of the visa which is to live in the UK.

BritInParis

It's a rule of thumb, but not hard and fast, unlike for work visas. There's obviously no guarantee it would work, particularly if they were away for almost the entire time, and the absence would affect the OP's partner's ability to naturalise as a British citizen but it would be worth attempting so they wouldn't have to start from scratch. Belgium may not work out in which case they could be back in a year in which case it would be quite simple to pick up where they left off.