How do I consolidate apps bought in two different countries?

Hi,

I hope someone can shed some light on a question I have about the App Store. I apologise if it's a little long, please bear with me 🙂

I used to live in India. My iTunes account was associated with the Indian store; all the apps I have bought so far were bought on the Indian App Store. A few months ago, I moved to the UK. I updated my billing address to the one in the UK, and now I want to buy apps using a UK debit card. I will be moving back to India in a few years, and when I do, I will change my store back to India and update my payment method and billing address again to an Indian one.

I asked Apple support whether the apps I buy in the UK now would be treated any differently when I switched back to the Indian store. Their reply was that yes, the apps will be considered different, since each country has their own version of that app. This means that, for instance:

-- I currently have apps A, B and C that I bought in the Indian store

-- I switched my store to the UK and I buy app D

-- I will have apps A, B, C and D on my phone

But once I go back to the Indian store, if I ever delete app D and I want to download it again, the Indian store will not acknowledge that I own app D. I can either a) re-buy it in the Indian store or b) switch my country to the UK to be able to download it again for free.

Is there a way for me to avoid this whole country split altogether? I don't want to have to switch my country every time I want to download an app that I may have bought in the UK. I don't want half my apps to belong to the UK and the other half to India.

Is there a way for me to get all my purchased apps readily available to re-download for free (icon) regardless of where they were bought?

Thanks for your time.