Implications of Marriage Break Up on Visa for Non-EU worker and spouse

Apologies if this is in the wrong forum..it's a tough one to categorise.

A friend of mine is from New Zealand and she and her husband have lived here for almost 5 years. Her husband is here on a working visa as he's a medical professional. She is entitled to work here and has a spouse working visa. Their marriage has broken up.

Her visa is granted a spouse, and when she renews it she has to bring her marriage certificate. In a few months she will be entitled to apply for long term residency having met the 5 year requirement. In the meantime she's trying to convince him to stay in their house so it will look like they're still married so she won't have any issue with her current visa, but she's worried. Does she need to be?

The visa information online doesn't cover the breakup of a marriage where both people are non-EU citizens. They seem to take a case by case attitude, but she's worried about tipping off immigration. Technically until they divorce they are still married?

"Technically until they divorce they are still married? "

I don't know the answer to the rest of the query but the parties are married until they divorce - separation does not end the marriage as it does not enable either to remarry.

I would imagine though that the separation would be taken into account as, if they are no longer an entity the whole "spousal" aspect of the application is gone.

mf

mf

Well, I know someone who was here as the spouse of an EU citizen, who was told by INIS that they would not renew her residency once her husband had filed for divorce - even though the actual divorce was still a long way off. So clearly they don't look purely at the technicality of the marriage.

I would think she'd probably be ok up until the expiration of her current permission, since these things are granted on a short-term renewable basis and changes in circumstances are usually dealt with by not renewing a status rather than automatically terminating it midstream. But she could still have a problem even when she gets to five years and applies for long-term residency, since the application itself doesn't confer a right to remain and she'd still need some underlying basis to be here during the processing period. Can she transfer to an ordinary work permit/green card, or apply for an indefinite permit on the basis of having worked for the same employer for five years?