Welcome to the forum
First off, your questions aren’t dumb at all
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Second, the answers:
1. Yes, this is a viable and legal way of doing it
2. The visa is called FLR(M) - Further Leave to Remain based on Marriage to a U.K. citizen.
3. Nope, not too much of a squeeze for time at all. The visa takes about 8 weeks to be processed and the only requirement is that you submit the online application before her visa expires in March. No need to pay for priory service unless she has to travel urgently before Christmas.
You’ll need to include a full copy of your passport. Having SC Clearance is not relevant (I have SC Clearance myself as I work with the military).
For relationship evidence, if you live together, you need to send evidence of living together in the form of bills/official mail. You need to provide as many as you can of the following:
- 6 official documents in each name showing you live at the same address as each other, from at least 3 different official sources, evenly spaced over the time you have lived together, up to 2 years.
All other relationship evidence is only needed for the time you DID NOT live together.
When it comes to cards and letters, ONLY letters/cards you and your wife have sent to each other will be considered, so you should NOT send ANY cards/letters from family or friends.
In terms of emails/ messages, you just want to select some of them from your relationship, when you were not living together. Copy and paste them into Word and crop out all message content, so you just have a list of dates and times. You want them evenly spaced, maybe 50 messages/50 emails etc. In total... for example, 1 or 2 per week or per month of each communication type.
DO NOT send LOTS of photos. Only 1 photo is needed, simply to prove you have met in person at least 1 time. We usually recommend sending 1 photo from early in the relationship and 1 from the wedding.
Boarding passes/tickets are important so send as many as you have from when you visited each other.
The marriage certificate is absolutely mandatory and must be an official copy
Your wife will get her passport and BRP back when the visa has been processed. This generally takes up to 8 weeks, but if her visa expires before she gets them, her Tier 4 status will be extended until a decision is made.
Assuming she is a US citizen, she is except from the English Language Requirement. Her US passport will be proof of this.
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