I'm Canadian and getting married in Canada in 5 weeks. My fiance is British. The plan was to go to the UK right after the wedding (I don't normally need a visa to come for up to 6 months) and apply for a spouse visa once I'm there. That would give us 2 and a half years to decide whether to stay in the UK longer or live in Canada or somewhere else.

However I just found out I'm not allowed to apply for a spouse visa while in the UK, only when I'm outside the UK. I also can't apply just before entering the UK because I'm not allowed to enter while waiting for the spouse visa to be approved. Approval is likely to take about 6 months. All this is true for a fiance visa as well from what I understand. I don't know why the system makes things unnecessarily difficult.

Fortunately I'm eligible for the Youth Mobility Scheme, and that only takes about 3 weeks to get approved. My understanding is that I'm allowed to apply for a spouse visa when in the UK on a youth mobility visa. That's based on what I've read here https://www.burnesspaull.com/insights-and-events/news/when-can-you-apply-for-a-spouse-or-partner-visa-from-inside-the-uk,-and-when-do-you-have-to-leave-the-uk-to-apply and here https://iasservices.org.uk/how-to-switch-to-spouse-visa-uk/ since I will have permission to be there longer than 6 months and won't be a visitor.

However from what I've read on sites like this it seems like doing anything even slightly different from the usual pathway could get me in deep trouble and that prospect is very scary. I'm not sure how exaggerated those comments are. Would the UK government have a problem with me getting a youth mobility visa to live in the UK for up to 2 years then applying for a spouse visa to stay for longer? (They would be able to see we married before I arrived in the UK) Would they have a problem with me entering the UK with my British wife on a youth mobility visa? As I said we're not entirely decided on whether to live in the UK so I may not even apply for the spouse visa in the end but I need the option to be there.

Thanks so much for any advice.