Just spoke to UKBA contact centre and asked what the rules were concerning the amount of time my honey could spend out of the UK during her 2 yr spouse visa and was told that she should be in the UK "majority of the time".When I asked (sarcastically)if that as 367 days would be the majority therefore! she then said well each case is taken on its own merit and a judgement made by the officer,, hmmmh I see so there is no hard and fast rule! So I then said would three months in one year and two and half months in the other ie still more than 18 mths UK over 75% would that be ok? she replied it is down to the officer on the day.
aaarrrggh........ so I have to take a punt with £1020 and the office might decide to just to extend her permission for the 5 1/2 mths she would have been out ie FLR then another £1020 five months later. I complained that nowhere on the spouse visa application or guidance forms or the ILR forms did it state a rule or guidance on this issue so how could we know what was acceptable. They just repeated what they had said about it being down to the office on the day.We now have to wait on the whim of an officer which could cost us £1020