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Two years ago Dawn & I went to Croydon to apply for her UK Spouse Visa.  A 2-year temporary residency visa was issued which allowed her to live and work in the UK.  Today we went back to the Home Office in Croydon for Dawn to apply for her permanent residency.  Unfortunately we were turned away at the initial validation stage this morning at Croydon.

Part of the application included us providing at least 20 letters or other documents as evidence that Dawn & I are still living together as a couple and have done so during the past two years.  We included about 23 pieces of evidence of this kind, yet the person at the validating stage said we needed more for 2005 (from July onwards, as her previous visa is dated 28 June).  2006 & 2007 were fine, but we needed some more for 2005.  So it seems that Dawn is unable to obtain permanent residency at this stage because of a lack of documents from 2 years ago!  Even though the last 18 months is fine and clearly indicates that we are still living together as a couple!

At this stage the only choices are apply for a further temporary residency period or go to Australia.  We’ve decided that the 2nd option is the best thing to do - it’s lucky I got my Australian Spouse Visa in 2005!  Dawn’s visa expires on 28 June, and so she cannot work in the UK after that day.  This is even more annoying, as the evidence for her citizenship application, which would have followed that for permanent residency, was fine - there was less to include in that.

We’re not sure exactly what we’re doing as we only got turned away this morning, but it seems we can’t be in the UK for much longer at all.  It seems a fortunate thing that we planned to move closer to Dawn’s work and had put in our notice on this flat - we need to be out by 25 June!