Is Their A Limit On When To Enter With A Settlement Visa?

[caledonia]

Hello all,

Just looking for clarification as I realise the settlement rules are ever changing.

My friend's family have just been granted their settlement visa to come to the UK. This has been an ongoing battle for over a year with the Home Office finally overturning their decision just before the appeal case was meant to be heard.

He has just started a four month contract overseas with his UK company, as he had been told to expect the visas to take six months he thought this would be fine.

Now obviously he could bring his family here now (visas were issued Dec but they didnt get their passports until Friday from courier ) but they speak no English (visas were applied for before Nov 2010) and his elderly mother is not in good health. Ideally he would like to bring them in three months time when he will be here full time.

I understood this to be fine- it just means that he will need to apply for FLR when the visas expire in January 2013 as they will not qualify to apply for SET(M) until April 2013.

However some of his friends are saying this is not true - and some info seems to be they must enter within 28 days and some are saying 90 days. Are people getting mixed up or is it been so long since I had to apply that it has changed?

Many thanks for any info

Rachael

[7by7]

A settlement visa is valid for 27 months, and can be first used at any time during that period.

The residential qualification for Indefinite Leave to Remain is 24 months, so if they have not been resident in the UK for at least that time when their settlement visas expire then they will have to, as you say, apply for Further Leave to remain and then they can apply for ILR once they have reached 24 months in the UK; provided the other requirements are met, of course.

As from November 2009, in order to apply for FLR his wife/partner will have to meet the New English language requirement for partners and then the Knowledge of language and life in the UK requirement to apply for ILR.

You say that their visas were issued in December. If the start date is, for example, 20th December 2010 then as the visas are valid for 27 months they will not expire until 19th March 2013. Is it not possible to get his family here before the end of the first 3 months life of the visas so they will have been in the UK 24 months when their visas expire and so go straight to ILR (assuming they meet all the other requirements)?

FLR is expensive; currently £500 for an adult applicant plus a further £150 per child under 18 if applying by post; more if applying in person. If this government continues with the above inflation rises of the old, then who knows how much it will be in two years time!

[caledonia]

Thank you for the prompt response 7by7 - thats excellent and what I thought!

I thought the visas were for 24 months so it makes sense when you say 27 months as I thought it was strange they were saying they were valid into 2013.

I will explain all this to him - although the contract is very lucrative overseas so they extra cost of applying for FLR is probably cancelled out by the loss of money for the contract he would lose but he can consider his options.

Thanks again for your promtp and very helpful response

Rachael

[potter09]

A settlement visa is valid for 27 months, and can be first used at any time during that period.

The residential qualification for Indefinite Leave to Remain is 24 months, so if they have not been resident in the UK for at least that time when their settlement visas expire then they will have to, as you say, apply for Further Leave to remain and then they can apply for ILR once they have reached 24 months in the UK; provided the other requirements are met, of course.

As from November 2009, in order to apply for FLR his wife/partner will have to meet the New English language requirement for partners and then the Knowledge of language and life in the UK requirement to apply for ILR.

You say that their visas were issued in December. If the start date is, for example, 20th December 2010 then as the visas are valid for 27 months they will not expire until 19th March 2013. Is it not possible to get his family here before the end of the first 3 months life of the visas so they will have been in the UK 24 months when their visas expire and so go straight to ILR (assuming they meet all the other requirements)?

FLR is expensive; currently £500 for an adult applicant plus a further £150 per child under 18 if applying by post; more if applying in person. If this government continues with the above inflation rises of the old, then who knows how much it will be in two years time!

When you say "from November 2009", trust you mean from November 2010.

[7by7]

Indeed.