Second US passport to visit UK while spousal application is processing

Hello,

I understand from the US passport website that I can get a second (limited-validity) passport if my current passport is with a foreign government for visa processing and I have confirmed upcoming international travel.

I'm interested applying for this to get myself to Europe for a little while at least, so that I can be closer to my partner and so we can deal with a few personal endeavors without the annoying US-UK time zone differences. The updated UK.gov November 2017 processing times for US citizen settlement visas were not encouraging, and we're concerned that it could still be a good while before we hear anything. I don't want to be trapped  here if I don't have to be.

Anyway, I still have time left on a UK visitor visa (built a handy little tracker in Excel to keep myself straight, lol). If I have a second valid passport, can I legally go to the UK as a visitor while my spousal visa application is processing? Anyone have any experience with this?

You can go anywhere you want with that second passport - EXCEPT THE UK - as you must be outside of the UK when the visa is granted.  Entering while the visa is processing with cancel your application and the fee will not be returned.

But what you can do is go to, say Paris, and he can travel there to meet you in a third country.

But I don't think you'll be waiting much longer now anyways.  I'd sit tight.  I bet you have your visa by the end of the month.

You can go anywhere you want with that second passport - EXCEPT THE UK - as you must be outside of the UK when the visa is granted.  Entering while the visa is processing with cancel your application and the fee will not be returned.

But what you can do is go to, say Paris, and he can travel there to meet you in a third country.

But I don't think you'll be waiting much longer now anyways.  I'd sit tight.  I bet you have your visa by the end of the month.

Thank you! This is helpful information. I'm trying to give it a few weeks, but I'm also starting to do some contingency planning in the event that we get the dreaded "your case is complicated" email or are rejected for some reason. Also, newly anxious because of that Guardian article that came out on Christmas talking about how spousal visas are being "kicked into the long grass" or whatever the (extremely disheartening) phrase was.