US Taxes: counting Non-resident alien UKC spouse as resident alien?

Good morning all,
Was just looking through previous posts but couldn't find anything on this--does anyone have any ideas:
If a USC married to a UKC, both living and working in the UK, selects 'married filing jointly' and attaches a statement asking to count the UKC as a resident alien, would they forfeit the right to foreign income exclusion?

This is doing my head in, btw--not the *best* way to spend a Saturday morning! Thank god for Valvona and Crolla coffee. And thanks in advance for any advice!

You can still take the foreign earned income exclusion if a UKC is counted for US tax purposes, but the UKC will need an ITIN number and if you ever decide to revoke this in the future, you can't go back and file jointly for 5 years (if I am recalling correctly).

It's a bit more of a headache to file jointly but we found it was worth it the first year I moved over since I had US income for the first half of the year--when we filed jointly, I ended up with a $2300 refund whereas I would have owed taxes had I just filed on my own. 

Thanks for that--sounds like the way to go!