Best visa to stay in the UK

[surat123]

Hi,

I would like to move back to the UK for about 10 years with my wife and children. I am a UK citizen, my wife is Thai and the children have joint citizenship. We plan to move back to Thailand to retire - we already have a house here. My wife will not need to work or have access to benefit, except the NHS (if possible). What visa options do we have? Is there an alternative to a settlement visa? We do not intend to live in the UK forever - just until I retire/semi retire.

thanks in advance for any advice.

[theoldgit]

There is no real alternative rather than Settlement if your wife wishes to stay in the UK for ten years.

Visit Visas would normally allow her to stay in the UK for six months in the year, and not allow access to NHS.

A settlement visa is expensive and requires that you meet a minimum income requirement of £18,600.

[surat123]

Thanks for the reply (although it is not what I wanted to hear;-) ). A follow on question - I am worried about my wife not being able to pass the B1 language test to get ILS. Is it possible to just keep applying for Further Leave to Remain? (assuming she can pass the A1 test)

thanks

[7by7]

At the moment; yes.

But every now and then there are rumblings from the Home Office (whichever party is in power) about limiting the number of times someone can apply for FLR.

B1 is not difficult, and neither is the standard required for the LitUK test; and she will have 5 years in which to study for it once in the UK.

Also, if she obtains ILR she can then apply for naturalisation as British; which would mean no need for visas to travel to far more countries than a Thai passport allows. It would also mean that after you had returned to Thailand you and she could come back to the UK at any time, for any period without her needing a visa.

You may find UK settlement visa basics and British citizenship basics helpful.