nirvanasspear

Hello everyone-- I've had a hunt through the forums and haven't found an answer to this question yet, so I'm hoping someone can help me.

I have two passports, both of the same nationality (USA). I recently applied for a settlement visa (two weeks ago) with my husband so that I can move to the UK (where he is currently living). I live in Portugal and typically visit him on weekends. For various miscellaneous reasons, we jumped on an appointment for the settlement visa earlier this month even though I had a few weekend flights booked for the upcoming few weekends in April. They took away one of my passports and all my old passports at the appointment, but I kept my secondary passport as I have it for work. Work gave me a letter stating that I require my secondary passport for international travel and I included that in my application.

The question is, can I travel to the the UK this weekend and/or next weekend on my secondary passport as I planned? Would that be a bad decision? My country of residence is Portugal, so I suppose I am meant to be in this country at this time, but I've already been in three other EU countries since submitting the application without issue. Please let me know if you might have any idea if I might be detained and sent back if I attempt to enter the UK-- I don't know if travel to the UK while waiting on a visa application is forbidden in cases like mine!

BritInParis

I don't expect the Home Office anticipates that someone will be able to travel to the UK on a visitor stamp whilst a visa application is being processed as most applicants would only have one passport. I don't have a definite answer for you although I suspect you won't have a problem as even if your visa is issued in your first passport whilst you are in the UK on your second passport your settlement visa isn't considered to be active until you enter the UK for the first time and it is stamped. Whether it's a good idea though is up for debate.

It may be a moot point however given that processing times for settlement are currently at 10 days for applications lodged in Lisbon. If you lodged your application two weeks ago then I suspect you will get your first passport back with your visa by the weekend.

nirvanasspear

Thanks very much! I haven't received any further updates (the tracking system only says that a decision is waiting to be made), but that would be pretty excellent! I suppose I'll potentially give it a shot unless anyone says otherwise and see how it goes

charley99

Hi, I realise this was a while ago but really wondering how you got on? My usa citizen husband has been waiting over 12 weeks for a spouse visa to live here in the UK with me. It's getting really close to Christmas and we've heard nothing. We've both tried calling but they won't tell us anything. It will be awful to have to spend our first Christmas as a married couple apart considering we applied in August. He is getting a second passport and I was wondering if he would be able to use it to visit me for Christmas or whether border control would send him back? It's so unfair. We meet all the requirements and have no immigration history. Hearing nothing and not being able to speak to anyone who can tell you anything is really shocking when families are literally being forced apart like this.please tell me they let you in? If not he's thinking he will try to enter via Dublin.

nirvanasspear

Hey there Charley99,
I did in fact get my passport the Monday following my post, but apparently you can have them held for up to 6 months. I flew in the Friday of my post on my second passport with no issue, though. A little birdie told me that my application had already been approved by then (after the fact), though. I don't think they would have let me in if they'd known who I was; I've used my second passport for entry since then and they've chastised me about it (other one was being held at work for a visa, etc).
Best of luck to you both!

charley99

Hi thanks so much for the quick reply. I was working myself into a state about it. I miss him so much. I think we will probably do that then and take our chances. Although I wonder if the reason they let you in on the 2nd passport was because they knew your visa had been approved anyway. I just can't find anyone else who has tried this. Thank you so much for helping! Much appreciated