Any immigration experts?

[dilbertina]

I have a relation who is a US citizen, she has been married to a UK citizen for over 20 years. During their married life they have lived in both UK and US, mostly US, but now want to return to UK. She was granted "indefinite leave to remain" 15 or so years ago but this has expired because she then returned to live in US for several years.

She was advised in US (by WorldBridge) to apply to have "leave to remain" reactivated, she applied but this has been refused on the basis that she spent only a few years in UK before returning to US for several.

The couple have now sold their house in US and would like to move to UK ASAP. What would be the best way forward now?

She needs to apply for Entry Clearance to allow her to settle in the UK. After two years, she can get her LTR. Same as before.

Simply apply to the Consulate in Washington DC.

Was she given the right to appeal the decision? Did she appeal? I've never come across that as a refusal reason before.

Might be worth getting a free half hour with a solicitor over here and taking a copy of the refusal papers.

Otherwise she would probably have to reapply for a 2 year spouse visa to accompany your DB again and upgrade to ILR at the end of that.

Yes, she needs to apply for a visa to give her "leave to enter" as a spouse of a Brit Cit, then after five years in the UK she can apply for "indefinite leave to remain" (ie settlement). Essentially she has to start the process again, I'm afraid. At least being an America means that she won't need to demonstrate English language competency

More details here

Families is right, it's a total of 5 years now, not 2. Apologies.