Hi joebloggs, thanks for this info just as I thought, entry clearance (is the word)is required and I better go back to philippines to apply for spouse visa for myself there. The reason why Im on visit visa only is because, we never thought we would stay here for good. I met my scotish husband in UAE when we're both working there in 2004 and got married in the philippines 7 months after and have decided to stay in the UAE and work while we can till we have enough savings to buy a place to permanently stay but the president of the company where my husband worked wanted him to go to saudi which gave him no choice but to resign. He had some good offers in the abu dhabi and dubai and a few here in the UK so, after reviewing the offers we decided to come here in the uk while the company is cancelling my husband working visa and we'll comeback again to uae to grab the offer and I can continue my job in the gov administration but, so I applied for visit visa to uk only with the plan to go back to uae and apply later on for permanent settlement visa when we are ready for early retirement. as soon as we arrived here in the uk the plan changes as my husband just felt that he had enough of the uae and he feels so at home in his own country