Traveling Back to UK After Visa Expired

Hi all! I realize this forum has been quiet for a while but something has been playing on my mind that I'd like to ask about.

In 2019 my husband and I moved back to the US from the UK a few months before my first UK spouse visa expired. I essentially just left the  UK and let the visa expire. We are planning on traveling back for a short visit this summer and I wondered if the expired visa will cause me any trouble. I have had immigration officers in England give me a hard time in the past (not for a specific reason, just generally they have been intimidating) so I'm unsure.

I am not planning on using that visa to enter the country of course, it would just be a standard tourist visa for us to visit family. I'm assuming once the spouse visa expired I'd go back to a tourist visa status as normal - but can anyone let me know if they've had issues with this?

Thanks

Shouldn’t be an issue at all.

Your spousal visa became invalid when you moved back to the US, as you did not maintain your residency in the UK, and now that it has expired, it’s irrelevant anyway.

So, now, you have to enter the UK as a visitor as you no longer have a valid spousal visa.

If they ask about the previous spousal visa, you can just explain that you decided to move back to the US (I once had a US student visa for grad school which I abandoned after a few months… occasionally when I enter the US on my visitor visa they ask about the abandoned student visa so I just explain why I decided to leave the US and it’s all been fine).

Unless travelling with children, I suspect you will use the egates and never speak to anyone.