The Spouse/Partner Permission to Stay is for those who have come to the UK as the Spouse or Partner of a British Citizen or someone who holds Indefinite Leave to Remain (the 'Sponsor').
You will have come to the UK with permission to enter for 33 months. Before that period expires you must apply for Permission to Stay to extend your lawful immigration status in the UK. It is vitally important to apply to extend your permission before the expiry of your current permission. That ensures you are still here legally while waiting for the decision on your extension application from the Home Office.
How you apply depends on your circumstances. There are strict rules relating to Spouse or Partner Permission to Stay applications and precise evidence must be provided or the application will fail.
For Spouse Visa Extension applications you must show:
It is vitally important that the evidence given to the Home Office to support your application is absolutely correct - otherwise your application runs a high risk of refusal and you will lose your Home Office application fee.
The financial evidence in particular is complex and specific. We are meticulous when we prepare applications and will not submit the application until we are satisfied that there is no reason for the Home Office to refuse the application. That's why our success rate is very high.
We work on a fixed fee basis so we do not charge by the hour. The fixed fee covers ongoing advice and the entire preparation and submission of the application and supporting evidence.
Our experienced team will take all the stress and work out of these applications. At Immigration Legal Services, we know how important it is that you are able to live with the person you love. We have successfully applied for a huge number of Spouse/Partner Permission to Stay applications.
We work with you and your partner in the UK to gather the evidence. We then submit the application online and arrange an appointment for you to attend your local visa application centre where you will present your passport and register your fingerprints and have a photo taken.
Once you have attended the appointment, it takes around 8 weeks to get a decision from the Home Office. There are Priority Services which secure a decision much sooner.
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When your new Permission is granted, you will be issued with a new Residence Card by the Home Office. The spouse visa extension allows you to work, study, rent property, open a bank account and drive in the UK. When you have lived for 5 years continuously in the UK as a Spouse or Partner, you will be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain.
You will need to switch to the '10 year route to settlement'. If you can meet all the requirements of the Spouse or Partner Permission to Stay route, you can apply for 'settlement' or 'indefinite leave to remain' after 5 years. If you cannot meet any of the requirements, you can use an exception to the normal rules that allows you to stay, but you must wait 10 years until you can apply for indefinite leave to remain.
Yes you can. If you change, you will rely on your relationship with your partner to continue living legally in the UK, rather than relying on your employment.
Because you applied for a spouse visa extension before your previous permission expired, you are able to continue living in the UK on the same basis as your previous permission - so you can continue working. We can provide a letter to your employer confirming your application. This will assist your employer to check your immigration status with the Home Office.
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