Returning Resident Question

Hi there - 2 questions.

1. I'm British and my wife, who is American, sent off her passport to Sheffield a week ago for a "Returning Resident" visa and I'm wondering if this was the right thing to do.

You see, we live in Minnesota, USA, now, but have been discussing moving to the UK for some time. We actually planned to move from the US to the UK in 2011 after I had got a job there and my wife was granted a two year spousal Settlement Visa. However, our plans went a bit bottoms up after our youngest got sick so the move went on hold. The wife's UK settlement visa expired in December but we want to try the move again this summer so we applied for the Returning Resident (partly because she'd previously had a visa). I'm wondering if we applied for the right thing?

2. Second question, I noticed that no where in the application or payment process for the above visa was there anything about additional fees for the return shipping of our documents. However, I've read that generally there IS an additional charge. Does anyone know or have experience of this?

Thanks,


Will

No, I'm afraid you don't qualify for a returning resident visa. If I were you, I'd withdraw the application and request a refund. You're going to have to get another spousal visa, under the new rules introduced in 2012.

If she previously held the visa but never lived in the UK, there is no way she could be a returning resident as she was never resident in the first place.