Visa Travel Date (Uk)

[koan]

My wife got her UK spouse visa today. Our proposed travel date was 01 June 2012, she wants to change this to traveling at the end of June or early July, so that she can finish off some work and have a bit more time with her parents.

I read some previous threads that say you must enter the UK within 28 days of the start of the visa; unfortunately some links in older threads are now broken.

I found http://www.ukba.home...o/visa-holders/ which says

You can arrive in the UK at any time up until the 'valid until' date

I take it that this means she can travel in early July. I assume that if we delay too long the immigration officer will have extra questions, so best not to delay too much.

[Guest jonzboy]

you should be OK

there is no 28 day rule that I am aware of

and, assuming your wife has the standard 27 month validity on her visa, she will need to spend 24 months of that time in UK so she can qualify for ILR (also assuming she can overcome the language requirements before then too)

good luck...

[7by7]

As said, she can travel at any time up to the 'valid till' date, which will be 27 months after the commencement date.

However, as jonzboy says, to be time qualified for ILR she must have been resident in the UK for at least 24 months, so if she delays travel for more than 3 months after the commencement date of the visa then it will expire before she has completed this 24 months residency and she will have to apply, and pay, for an expensive extension.

As long as her spouse visa is valid when she submits her ILR application it doesn't matter if it expires before she has spent 24 months here. She can submit her ILR application up to 28 days before the 2nd anniversary of her arrival, so she only needs to be resident for 23 months(ish).

This is where the 28 days you mention comes from.