Thanks so much, english guy.

re 1, and 4, we have for most purposes kept our country of legal residence as USA and called this address a correspondence address. It is an expat contract paid from USA. This has made everything simpler in many areas, eg banking. But perhaps as we are paying rent here, have an address here and etc etc, France could be considered our current country of residence for the purposes of the form...

I was pretty sure the answer to 2 would be as you say.

re 3, I am worried by this answer. Every time he's gone into the UK, it has always been for a short time. They ask why are you here, and he says visiting my wife's family, for a week (or whatever it is), and there's never been a problem.
But it's true that he has never tried to enter for anything more than a couple of weeks. Do you mean that if at immigration he says, I'm staying in UK for a few months, with my British wife, this will raise red flags and he might not be allowed in????

(I feel a rant building up if this is the case!)

Re the Singh route, I've looked at this, but don't think it's very practical in our case...thanks for the suggestion though. May reconsider.

Thanks, michali!

Good questions and answers here and as you say we are all basically returning as retirees so are in a similar position and when my turn comes to fill in the forms I will likely have lots of questions as well

The stories about refused visitor visas all come from people who's spouses are visa nationals (so have to apply in advance). And yes, they all get rejected as "not conviced you will leave the UK at the end of your stay". There are plenty of stories out there (take a look at britcits.com) of kids in the UK not allowed to see there Mums/Dads for over a year while the settlement visa comes through because visitor visas are denied. Not sure how that would play out at the border in your case. I'd guess "visiting my wife's family" would be an acceptable answer. Not so sure about "visiting my wife and my family".

What extra hoops would you have with singh? Other than you having to have a job in France you seem to have done everything else already.

Unfortunately it's too late to do the S Singh route--we are leaving France at the end of the year, expat contract over, DH retiring. So I don't have time to get a job. (I didn't know abt the SS route til recently).

Because he may need to travel for work between now and the end of the year, he can't apply for his spouse visa (ie sending off his passport) while we are here.

In the new year he will still be doing a lot of international travelling, possibly doing consulting work, so there seems no time in the forseeable future when he can apply for the spouse visa!

All would be easier if they accepted notarized/certified copy of the passport. There seems no place in the system for people like us! But there are surely lots like us--international couple, married for decades, travelling a lot so needing passports???

(And don't get me started on the financial requirement that, if the non-BC is before pension age, it is the BC who has to be earning (if the couple don't have huge savings)-IIUC. What if she is a mother staying at home looking after children, as I was for so long?? Why don't they count non-BC spouse's earnings?? In our case now, luckily, DH will be receiving pensions which will suffice for the financial requirement, plus we do have savings, so are in a fortunate position there. But the whole thing is so unfair. I have been on britcits as you suggest and seen discussion of all this...)

Re the possibility of being refused entry as a visitor, we'll have to take our chances, until there is a calm space without travel for him to send off the passport with the spouse visa application.

Why are British citizens like me who fell in love with non-British or EU person so severely penalized when it comes to just wanting to go back home??!! Sigh. I know many others are asking the same question and campaigning for a fairer system...

Just to add--that was my 777th post on BE, pretty cool!!

And I wish I'd known about the Surindher Singh route earlier. I suppose we could still do it, if you only need to work for three months and if we changed our plans a bit and stayed a bit longer here...

I will mull.

Sorry for multiple posts, but I see from the other thread by alliekat about a lost application and needing a passport that a US citizen can apply for a second, two-year passport if their original one is lost or held up in an office somewhere...

I never knew about this....it may make it possible for my DH to send passport away with spouse visa application, and then get another passport if needed for travel.

I know I can look on the US govt website but has has anyone done this, is it fairly quick/easy?

Also his passport needs renewing next year--ha, there's a thought, can he get two at the same time?!!
Can he renew if he has only a copy of the original, because the original is in the spouse visa office?

These are US passport questions, sorry if it's a tangent--but if the foreign spouse applying for spouse visa is a USC these are urgent practical concerns!

You ask "why"? Because for every family which falls foul of these rules one visa rejection leads to a net impact of 2+ people on the immigration figures. The government made net immigration a factor - so every Brit who leaves is a bonus and every Brit who returns a loss on that front. Telling a mother she will be deported / not allowed in is an easy way to get rid of a family 4.

Well, it's appalling.

English guy, are you the person who wrote the wiki about spouse visas, referred to in your signature and available elsewhere on BE?

If so, thanks, it is very helpful!

But I have a question re the financial requirements:
I am pretty sure I read that when the non-BC spouse is on a pension or pensions, that pension income is acceptable as a source of income to qualify.

The wiki mentions pensions as an allowable source of income, but (I may have missed it) I don't see any reference there to the fact that the non-UK citizen's pension can count. (Whereas, as we know, when it's a question of salaried income, only that of the UK spouse is considered. Grossly unfair.)

This is an important point for older returnees and it would be helpful to have it mentioned in the wiki, I think?

I believe I read it in the guidance about financial requirements.

Thanks, yes I did the initial version of the current state of that wiki page - not sure who, if anyone has made updates since then.

Regarding pensions - the key rule is E-ECP3.2b:
Do you want to add a suitable comment to and/or extend the pensions bit of the wiki based on your research? I won't mind it's there for public editing, right now I don't have time and will probably forget by the time I do

Ok, thanks, I guess I will now you have found chapter and verse. It makes a big difference, doesn't it, that they consider the non-BC's pension (where they wouldn't accept his/her salary.