Hi all, I had a query about the length of time normally given for child dependent settlement visas. My wife arrived in the UK on a spouse visa in October 2017, and was given 33 months in total, so her visa is expiring soon in June 2020 and we plan to apply for an extension of this. Her daughter was given a settlement visa as a dependent in July 2019 and she arrived in UK the following month (she was 18 years old at that point). I had assumed she would also be given 33 months initially, but her BRP has an expiry of September 2020, making 14 months in total from the award of the visa. Unfortunately we never received the visa letter from the Home Office when the visa was first awarded that might have explained things. Are child dependents given different length visas? That seems a bit odd. I thought it might be possible that they align the first visa with her mother, so expiry in June, but even that doesn't fit here? Or is it just that the BRP document itself has an initial expiry and has to be renewed, but the visa might still be the full 33 months? If anyone who has had similar circumstances has any insights in to this, I'd be very grateful, Thanks Rod
Hi Rod We are in exactly the same position and you answer your question yourself correctly. The child dependant catches up the visas and aligns with who they are dependant on. For example My wife landed Oct 2015 Her FLR runs out February 2021 So that looks like 5 and a half years for the visa journey however this includes the waiting period for a decision between spouse and FLR and the length of the spouse visa Her daughter landed may 2017 on Leave to enter and has just been granted FLR till February 2021 in line with her mother so this looks short by just over a year on the 5 year visa journey but is correct! They will both apply for ILR together The downside it appears although I've not looked at dependant children is that mum can apply for British Citizenship straight after her ILR is granted but first reading suggests daughter will have to wait till she has been in the UK 5 years ie may 2022
Thanks for that. Yes it makes sense that they align the visas so that ultimately they apply for ILR together. In your case though it seems the original visa for her daughter was the normal 2.5 years and the alignment was done on the FLR? In our case, it looks like they have done that for the initial visa. What is confusing for me though is that their visa expiry dates are still slightly different; June this year for my wife, and September for the daughter. What also seems odd in our case is that the daughter's visa expiry date happens to be my wife's birthday. Not sure if that is a coincidence or not?!
Just thought I would post an update on my initial query in case anyone finds themselves in a similar position. We ended up reporting the BRP as having an incorrect expiry date via the government BRP webpage. They replied by email very quickly and arranged to send us a new BRP (free of charge). It turned out the correct expiry date for the daughter was the same date as the mother, so we will apply for an extension for them together in a few weeks time and their subsequent dates will now be aligned. In the future, they can then both apply for ILR at the same time, even though the daughter will not have been in the UK for the full five years at that point.
This is correct. We are applying for my wife and her daughter ILR and the daughter arrived 2017 and the wife 2015
Thanks, that's good to know. It makes sense that both dates end up aligning so that their applications can be submitted jointly.
