I had submitted in April 2013 an application for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) under the 10 year long residence category. At the time of applying, my wife and my daughter (born in India) and I had all completed 10 years continuous and lawful residence in the UK.
However, I had, in error, submitted their application as my dependants in the long residence category. As a consequence, while I was granted ILR, my wife and daughter were refused the same as their application fell out of immigration rules. They were instead granted a 30 month limited leave to remain under Appendix FM, exceptions paragraph EX.1(a) and (b). The wording in the notice "the decision has been taken to grant you limited leave to remain for a period of 30 months, thus entering a 10 year route to settlement" has us confused.
Questions:
a) what does the sentence below mean?
b) have their stay so far (since 2002, which makes it 12 years) been reset? Do they have to complete 10 years all over again?"the decision has been taken to grant you limited leave to remain for a period of 30 months, thus entering a 10 year route to settlement"
OR
c) is it a case of them resubmitting their applications using form SET(LR).
I had spoken to an immigration lawyer who said:
The lawyers have asked for a fee of £2000 to take up our application, which is rather steep for me.However, from your previous correspondence, I note that all of you have been in the UK in excess of 10 years. Although your family has been granted leave which does not enable them to apply for ILR in the next 10 years as stated their refusal notice. I believe it is possible for us to assist you to vary your wife’s and daughter’s visa for ILR on the basis of long residence in their own right despite having been passported to a new category of the immigration rule. The process can be slightly complex but I believe this will be achievable.
Could the experts here advise on what my options are?
Regards
KB