Canadian married to Brit

Dear All, I am new to this forum and hope someone can point me in the right direction.
I hold a Canadian passport and moved to the Uk in 1974. I was issued the right to leave and enter freely. I married my British born husband 17 years ago in the UK. We have 2 children both born in the UK.
In 2005 we moved to Cyprus for a 5 year work contract.
We travelled back and forth to the UK but regettably I did not between 08.01.06 to 01.12.2009, a period of over 2 years.
My right to leave and enter has been "removed" because i was out of the UK for a two year period.
My husband and children live here (all British passport holders) and i came back on 11.11.10 to join them only to be detained at LHR for nearly 2 hours and then issued a 6 month visitors visa and advised i am unable to work. Please what do i do now to be able to remain in the UK with my family? I just want my right to leave and enter reinstated.
Thank you in advance

Hello,

I would assume that the spousal visa would be the best option. That is where I would start my research. Visit this link from the UK Border Agency. As I am new to the forum so I can not post proper links yet, just remove all the spaces.

h t t p : / / w w w . u k v i s a s . g o v . u k / e n / h o w t o a p p l y / i n f s / s e t t l e m e n t g u i d e

Here is some quoted information from the previous post. You can of course ignore the part about getting married I assume.

Cheers,

Robert

It would easier if you first got married in Canada or USA and then apply for a spouse visa, which would allow you to live and work in the UK for a probationary period of 2 years. After that, you can apply for permanent residency in the UK. Just be careful, in some US states, you have to be a resident of this state, otherwise you can't get married there.

If you want to get married in the UK and plan to live here afterwards, you'll have to apply for a fiancé(e) visa first, which would give you a period of 6 months to get married in the UK. Once you're married, you have to apply for a spouse visa and undergo the same process as above.

With option 1, you save time, money and paperwork while option 2 allows you to get married within the UK. It depends on what your priorities are, really.

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