TimFountain

I've got a hypothetical situation that no amount of googling seems to address. My spouse has 2 passports, from country A (USA) and country B (EU). The spouse has a visa application with the UK under passport A which is in progress. Passport A was chosen as no language test is required for that passport, whereas passport B would need a language test. There is a possibility that the visa may not be granted before the intended travel date for the rest of their family. Is there any possibility to either use passport A or passport B to travel to the UK and stay with their family whilst the visa is processed? If necessary, a return plane ticket could be organized within the normal time period of a visitor, i.e 1-2 months. If it is relevant, both passport A and passport B do not need a visitor visa in order for spouse to visit the UK.... The reason for wanting to do this is to ensure the family are not split up..

Thanks

- Tim

Pulaski

An applicant cannot be granted a visa to live in the UK while within the UK. If they visit the UK while their visa application is in progress they must return "home" to receive their visa.

Note it is the relevant applicant, the person, that the rules apply to, not their passport, and the process cannot be gamed by someone with two passports, they still have to go back from whence they came to collect their visa.

TimFountain

Thank you. We are 99% of the way to deciding to cancel the whole visa application and calling it a day for the next couple of years. The Ukraine situation has thrown one spanner in the works, as the UK is prioritizing asylum seekers, and has abandoned any concept of meeting deadlines, having also cancelled premium processing. The lack of any slots for biometrics was the nail in the coffin. I also heard on other immigration sites that with the lifting of COVD restrictions in the UK, coupled with COVID theoretically diminishing elsewhere, that they have been deluged with travel and business visa applications. It really was the perfect shit storm in terms of timing, and I do not want to split the family up, with my spouse having no clue as to when a visa might be issued. The way the UK treats their own citizens shows the clear contempt in the way this process (doesn't) work in terms of keeping legitimate families together. /end rant/

BritInParis

When are you intending to move to the UK?

The one benefit of cancelling Priority processing for everyone is that standard processing tends to move more quickly as no-one is able to pay to jump the queue.

TimFountain

July 1st. It was predicated on a job transfer, one kid finishing HS and one halfway through. If we don't do it now, we'll really have to wait for the other kid to finish HS. Since we need to sell a house, contract with pet and house movers, sell cars etc. the one thing that we don't want to happen is to commit a substantial amount of money to for the visa and IHS, and then end up with the house sold (and us legally committed to selling), no cars in the US and me having to move to the UK, with the kids in tow, but my wife waiting an indeterminate amount of time in the USA for the visa to arrive, and not even having a passport. We have no friends we can rely on to help so it really looks hopeless given we have no certainty on how long the visa could take. We could take a giant leap of faith and just hope it works out, but we are not really up for this kind of game of roulette. One question I haven't addressed is why we didn't get on the visa sooner. And the answer is that I was waiting more than 3 months for my company to produce the offer of employment letter and arrange an inter-company transfer.

BritInParis

Providing you can secure an appointment slot by the end of March I think it highly unlikely that the application would take longer than three months to process.

TimFountain

I agree, but if it was you and your SO, would you risk it? That's the current dilemma....

Pulaski

You can't put your life on hold waiting for a better time, as that time may never come.

I had three job offers on the table in New York City when I was granted my CR-1 visa on September 10, 2001. I had to make a choice to go, or wait. If I had waited there may never have been a better opportunity - first there was the Afghan war, that segued stratight into the great recession, followed by extended uncertainty, and the chaos of the Trump presidency.

Looking back, moving to NYC immediately after 9/11 was one of the best decisions I ever made, though it appeared crazy at the time.

SanDiegogirl

Same here .. I got an offer of a job in the US at a 'not good' time for my family. However it was take it now or someone else would jump in. I took it and had to live 4 months by myself in Silicon Valley until such time as hubby could arrive.
Sometimes you've just got to take a chance ......

BritInParis

Short answer, yes. There is risk attached to everything. This situation, whilst stressful, is objectively low risk.

TimFountain

For you, but for me the risk is actually relatively high, jobs, pets, house sale, house rental, 2 car sales, 2 car purchases, moving, kids schools, sons university, visas etc. It's a lot of gears in motion. Anyways. It's all decided at this point.

ArthurBrit

Not trying to be a smartarse but this is typical risk for most of us, we know exactly what's at risk.

It's the same for all of us, it is scary, there is a lot of risk...

TimFountain

I never said it was scary, but thank you.

BritInParis

There is zero risk to me, I’m not applying for the visa. The things you mention means the stakes are relatively high but they have no effect on the risk involved.

ArthurBrit

Yeah I'm just trying to let you know, your not alone in this.

I have 2 young children that I need to leave behind for a few months whilst I set up in England. The visa hasn't been granted to my wife and I was initially planning on using the 5 day visa route, that obviously got shutdown due to the more pressing needs of Ukrainian applications.

I'm confident the visa will be approved as we were married in England 17 years ago and have 2 kids together, financially we are in a good position for the visas, but until it's approved there's always that nagging doubt.

I've booked my flight and start my job in early May, my wife will need to sell the house while I'm in the UK and 1 of 2 cars (I sold the other one to the dealership).

I'm not bringing anything over except clothes basically so everything in the house has to be sold or donated or thrown away, it's a lot to do in a little amount of time but it will get done regardless.

The hardest thing seems to be finding a rental in the UK whilst physically in Canada. It's not impossible but it's been frustrating and difficult, right now I have got through to 2 landlords so hopefully one of them will pick my application.

If I don't find a rental I think I will live in a hotel for a month, rates are reasonable and the hotel is pretty close to work with a Sainsbury's on route.

This is what's great about BE is it gives you a place to put your thoughts and concerns, most of us have either thought about the same thing or even have experience doing it.