Originally Posted by Terra Firmish

My question is short and hopefully simple:
My wife is a US citizen and is going to be applying for her spousal visa shortly. I believe she will need to state when she intends to travel, and this will need to be a date at least three months in the future. She will need attend an office in the US and send her passport as part of the application process. If the visa is awarded she will have a 30 window in which to travel to the UK, which will usually be from that stated intended date of travel, and then she will have 10 days from her arrival to collect the actual visa permit from the appropriate UK office.
My question is, when her US passport is returned from processing, would she be able to travel to the UK using the US passport and the default permission to stay for six months without any further visa, or would she need to wait until the visa was awarded and the intended date of travel came? She also has a Brazilian passport, and that too would normally allow her to stay for six months. Would travelling on that make any difference?

Many thanks for any advice offered.