Can I change from the 10-year Spouse visa route to the 5-year one to gain permanent residency sooner? Read this successful case and testimonial here that worked using same-day service.

By 1st 4Immigration - #1 UK Immigration Experts -
“I wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to you for helping me succeed in switching my current visa in to a spouse visa. I can't believe how quick the whole process was. Also want to say thank you to Harpreet who accompanied me to Home Office, he made me feel at ease. I will definitely use 1st 4Immigration in the future and I will recommend them to others. Thank you.”

This came from Nalaaluke, a Namibian national whose husband was British. In this case our client already had a partner visa for 2.5 years (30 months) but it was in the 10 year route. We submitted a ‘normal’ FLR(M) application to switch to the 5 year route. Although it means meeting the strict Financial Requirement and English language requirement, it allows to qualify for Indefinite Leave to remain (ILR, permanent residency), after 5 years instead of 10 years. 5 years have to be on the ‘normal’ spouse visas only. Can’t be combined with the 2.5 visa from the 10 year route, even though both visas are for 2.5 years at a time and both are from the ‘Partner’ category.

We made an application on same-day service in Croydon and all went well on the day.


If you have to enter the 10-year route, you can then change to the 5-year route , meaning fewer steps to the permanent residency, a midway of 7.5 years , so to speak , although you can switch to the 5-year route well before the end of the 2.5-year visa. Here you can read the post about the difference between the2 routes.

The next step will be to extend a Spouse visa for further 2.5 years and apply for permanent residency after 5 years.

 To read about the difference between the 5 and 10 year routes please look at this earlier post: http://1st4immigration-visas.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/what-is-difference-between-5-year-route.html

For individual advice or to make your application as successful please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com or visit  http://www.1st4immigration.com/spouse-partner-visas-after-9-july-2012.php 



If you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration Training and CPD website: www.1st4immigration.com/training We have a weekend OISC Level 1 course every month, a Saturday Points-Based System course every month and we also have online training courses, including Online OISC Level 1 course and courses focusing on the British Citizenship and Spouse/Partner visas. All our training courses are CPD-accredited with CPD credit accepted by  OISC. 


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