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She should have returned when she ceased to be a student. She is now an illegal immigrant. In fact, you should have applied for a spouse visa and there would have been no problem. Now she'll have to return to her home country and apply for one.Mr Man wrote:Any help will be much appreciated.
I am English, my wife is not. She was first allowed here to do a degree which was a sandwhich course (has a year work placement). as a result, she was given a 4 year student visa. She couldn't find a placement and reverted to the 3 year course. Should she have gone home after finishing the course, or does the 4 year visa still stand?
It has now been 1 year since the end of her course and we are applying for Further Leave to Remain. She is still technically within the visa time, but hasn't been a student for a year. Do you think this will affect our application? She has only been working part-time and we meet the financial requirements.
Thank you very much
OK, give us her full immigration history, when you married and where (ie UK or not) and whether you have any other EU nationality, like Irish or Irish gramps. When does her current visa expire?Mr Man wrote:Anyone got any other advice? That was about the worst thing I could have heard!!!
Wanderer wrote:OK, give us her full immigration history, when you married and where (ie UK or not) and whether you have any other EU nationality, like Irish or Irish gramps. When does her current visa expire?Mr Man wrote:Anyone got any other advice? That was about the worst thing I could have heard!!!
Did you get a CoA (Certificate of Authority) to marry? Why didn't you switch to Spouse visa after you married? You'd be well on the way to ILR by now. Hindsight I know, it can be a killer....Mr Man wrote:Wanderer wrote:OK, give us her full immigration history, when you married and where (ie UK or not) and whether you have any other EU nationality, like Irish or Irish gramps. When does her current visa expire?Mr Man wrote:Anyone got any other advice? That was about the worst thing I could have heard!!!
She is Chinese, we've been married 1 and a half years in England, lived together 4 years, absolutely bog standard case in every other way.
I went to visit a lawyer with specific immigration knowledege and he advised me to still go to the Home Office and apply. He believes that as there has actually been no attempt at wrong-doing and that it was really just an accident, and that we are in an actual marriage, the Home Office should see the merits of that and didn't seem all that worried!?!Wanderer wrote:Did you get a CoA (Certificate of Authority) to marry? Why didn't you switch to Spouse visa after you married? You'd be well on the way to ILR by now. Hindsight I know, it can be a killer....Mr Man wrote:Wanderer wrote:OK, give us her full immigration history, when you married and where (ie UK or not) and whether you have any other EU nationality, like Irish or Irish gramps. When does her current visa expire?Mr Man wrote:Anyone got any other advice? That was about the worst thing I could have heard!!!
She is Chinese, we've been married 1 and a half years in England, lived together 4 years, absolutely bog standard case in every other way.
Anyway my take on this is still the same - when the course is finished the visa is void I'm sure of that, irrespective of the length of visa. You can normally get away with a few months for graduation ceremonies etc but a year is too much. As such IMO she's an overstayer and there is no way to regularise her stay in-country, she'll have to return to China and apply for a spouse visa at the Brit Emb. If you can get her home before her visa officially expires I reckon you'll get away with it, no stamps on her passport since the visa would appear bona fide to immigration control.
If you formally apply in country with the checks the HO do now they may well cross check the student visa with attendance at uni and then u have to fear the worst.
I'm surprised no one else has chipped in with this, keep bumping it!
When my student gf went to register with the Police they hadn't clue what to do, I think they see at as something they have to do which is not really in their realm.....Mr Man wrote:Hi Victoria,VictoriaS wrote:Do you have in writing what the police said?
Victoria
No nothing in writing. My wife just went down there to reregister and told them the situation a year ago or more, and they said it would be ok, so we thought that should be fine!!!!
What do you think???
Her visa expires December 31st this year, so her visa is still technically valid.Wanderer wrote:When my student gf went to register with the Police they hadn't clue what to do, I think they see at as something they have to do which is not really in their realm.....Mr Man wrote:Hi Victoria,VictoriaS wrote:Do you have in writing what the police said?
Victoria
No nothing in writing. My wife just went down there to reregister and told them the situation a year ago or more, and they said it would be ok, so we thought that should be fine!!!!
What do you think???
When exactly does her visa expire?
Hi Victoria, If I go in person why will it be refused? Surely if I can explain myself in more than just a couple of lines, that would be better would it not!?!?VictoriaS wrote:If you go in person your application will be refused.
if you apply by post it may still be refused as she has been in the UK for 12 months in breach of the immigration rules - she was not studying therefore she should have left the UK. You can make an argument for them to allow it on compassionate grounds, but whether or not it it approved depends entirely on the discretion of the Immigration Officer.
Victoria
Because in-person appointments are for straight-forward cases, for the muppets on the front desk to deal with. Ur's will just get passed to a caseworker with all the postal ones.Mr Man wrote:Hi Victoria, If I go in person why will it be refused? Surely if I can explain myself in more than just a couple of lines, that would be better would it not!?!?VictoriaS wrote:If you go in person your application will be refused.
if you apply by post it may still be refused as she has been in the UK for 12 months in breach of the immigration rules - she was not studying therefore she should have left the UK. You can make an argument for them to allow it on compassionate grounds, but whether or not it it approved depends entirely on the discretion of the Immigration Officer.
Victoria
Cheers
No it is not a god given right, no point in getting righteousMr Man wrote:So should she go home to China and apply for a spouse visa rather than go to the home office and make the application???? Or should we exhaust all channels here first, because compared to alot of cases on this forum, ours is a minor technicality I think and it would be quite harsh to kick her out.
If she gets asked to leave after exhausting all channels, would obtaining EC as my wife be hard to get or are we doomed to a life in China together?? As I do not want to be separated from my wife ('for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health...') can they not take into account that they are dooming me to a life abroad??? I don't know, call me naive. Our marriage has resulted in my wife being estranged from her family, so she would have no support in China...no where to live, no money to support herself! Does this not get taken into account.
How soon after a decision would she have to go if she had to?
Is it not a God given right to just be allowed to live with the person you love without another person having judgement over the rest of your life???
Thanks for any advice!!!!
So should I put any reference to this situation in the 'additional information' section, or just deal with that if they ask?John wrote:I really don't understand why the 2-year spouse visa was not applied for as soon as the marriage had happened. If that had been applied for in a few months time she would be applying for ILR.
Having looked through this topic I think that some of the posts are too negative. By that I mean this. I wonder whether the fact that your wife has not been studying for about a year will even come up as an issue when form FLR(M) is used to convert the still-in-time student visa into a 2-year spouse visa. But I do agree that the application should be made by post .... cost £395 ... rather than in person ... cost £595.
That is, complete the form FLR(M), supply the information that such form asks for, and look forward to receiving your wife's passport back with a new shiny visa therein. And stop worrying!