Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the period of duration for spousal visas.

A partner or spouse coming to or staying in the UK with their British or settled relative is granted permission for 33 or 30 months respectively. The temporary grant of permission allows the Home Office to confirm the relationship is ongoing and subsisting before an extension of permission to stay or settlement as a partner/spouse.

The Government will set out its approach to future policy on a range of immigration policy areas in the upcoming Immigration White Paper which will be published later this year.