UK citizen and Russian overstayer + Changes from March 2015

[petergrey]

Dear all,

I've been reading the forums for a while and thought its time to send a message.

Background:
Me: 34 years old, UK citizen by birth/parents, high income working in partnership firm, have a flat with mortgage, but finanically independant
She: 32, Russian..but born in Poland to russian parents, came to uk in 2005, student visa till 2008, then place of study ruled as not eligible, appeals, then overstayer. Since the visa expired in 2008 she worked under another persons name and documents, earning 20k per year.

We have been together for one year but known each other for c. 4 years. Not moved in yet together.
I have tried unsucessfully to get her a Polish pasport by birth, but that has gone down a dead end.

There are some rules changes coming in to effect next year in getting married to a non-EEA citizen, and I woner how they affect us/other people.
We are also thinking of trying to get married and then moving in together, and either once we have a child, or with the marriage, applying for her to be allowed to stay in the UK.

I wonder what the forum members thoughts are and on what would be the best steps for us to do?
Does the fact that I have a irregular income (partnership drawings) have an impact?
Does it matter that I can support her and she doesn't need an income?
Are there any obvious issues to getting married / do the changes make it much more difficult to getting married?
Does the 10 year rule, that I read about, mean she could stay here anyway ?

[sherriesmum]

working illegally using other persons name and documents.hopefully no one will help you on here.sorry but your gf is well out of order.britain welcomes legal immigrants.
my advice go back to her homeland and do things properly.

[petergrey]

working illegally using other persons name and documents.hopefully no one will help you on here.sorry but your gf is well out of order.britain welcomes legal immigrants.
my advice go back to her homeland and do things properly.

Why do you judge that using someone elses docs to work is worse than the overstaying a visa ? She paid tax, rented an appartment and has never claimed anything. Pretty much a model migrant.

[t123456789]

The problem for her is what she's doing is called fraud and it's a criminal offence. It doesn't matter that no money is involved. She could go to jail for up to 8 years if caught, so it's a serious problem. Even if you do marry and she comes back legally and assumes her real name, her prior history could catch up with her and she could still be prosecuted.

Back to just the visa part, one of the experts can probably give a better option, but usually the easiest solution is for you to both go back to her country, marry there, you come back (or you can wait, but it could take 3 months) and she applies for a spouse visa which would entitle her to join you in the UK. There is a financial requirement which is something like earning around 18600/year.

[t123456789]

Does the fact that I have a irregular income (partnership drawings) have an impact?
Don't think so, as long as you both meet the financial requirements. It's the amount earned over a 12 month period. If you have a child the amount increases. Here are the financial requirements.

Does it matter that I can support her and she doesn't need an income?
No, as long as you both meet the financial requirements.

Are there any obvious issues to getting married / do the changes make it much more difficult to getting married?
Not sure. Marrying or proving you're in a civil partnership is essential, whether it's better to try do it in the UK or abroad I'm not sure about.

Does the 10 year rule, that I read about, mean she could stay here anyway ?
No, the 10 year route is only for people who have been here legally.

[odat]

as she overstayer you can use FLR FP FORM under 10 year route to ILR (discretionary leave )

[t123456789]

as she overstayer you can use FLR FP FORM under 10 year route to ILR (discretionary leave )

But how do you explain away the part where she has been using somebody else's identity? Her passport and documentation till 2008 will have one name and after that another?

[Wanderer]

Don't hold out much hope for this one.

Best bet is for her to return home before she gets arrested/detained and take it from there...

[petergrey]

as she overstayer you can use FLR FP FORM under 10 year route to ILR (discretionary leave )

But how do you explain away the part where she has been using somebody else's identity? Her passport and documentation till 2008 will have one name and after that another?

Its a good question, but she could say she was living with a boyfriend, would maybe be the best answer.

[petergrey]

Don't hold out much hope for this one.

Best bet is for her to return home before she gets arrested/detained and take it from there...

Thanks, its somehting I've brought up with her often

[petergrey]

Does the fact that I have a irregular income (partnership drawings) have an impact?
Don't think so, as long as you both meet the financial requirements. It's the amount earned over a 12 month period. If you have a child the amount increases. Here are the financial requirements.

Does it matter that I can support her and she doesn't need an income?
No, as long as you both meet the financial requirements.

Are there any obvious issues to getting married / do the changes make it much more difficult to getting married?
Not sure. Marrying or proving you're in a civil partnership is essential, whether it's better to try do it in the UK or abroad I'm not sure about.

Does the 10 year rule, that I read about, mean she could stay here anyway ?
No, the 10 year route is only for people who have been here legally.

Many thanks

[357mag]

income has to be legally earner so if shes an overstayer you cant count hers, in fact you had better not mention she has been working at all.

Obvious issues about getting married, well yes. Someone subject to immigration rules can only marry in certain offices. Wherever you try to get married you should expect a couple of goons to be there to drag her away to be put in detention for deportation.

Imho your best option is to try to get her out of the country as quietly as possible and hope to not get a ban. For fraud, hmm thats a 10 year ban I believe.

[yoshi_jp]

Having spent loads of money to live here legally, I "usually" get a bit wound up by this sort of stuff, but for the sake of my love of Slavic Europe, here comes my thought experiment.

The only way out as far as I can see is:

1. Get married in Russia, or perhaps Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova etc where she needs no visa to enter and stay indefinitely.
2. For the above, make sure to pick the location where you two can get married easily.
3. Move to another EU member state together ("Surinder Singh" ruling)
4. Stay there together for at least 3 month while you work there to exercise your treaty right
5. Come back to the UK together
6. Use form EEA2 to get a residence card.

If she has no valid Russian passport at all, she'll need a one-way travel document (IS137) to get out of the country.
If she has, at least, a Russian "internal" passport, she can enter Russia, Belarus or Ukraine (and perhaps quite a few more).
Step 1 should be fairly easy if you two can deal with Soviet bureaucracy.
Step 2 needs some study.
Step 3 requires a visa. You two, once married, will be entitled to live in any EU state barring the UK, but she needs a visa to board the flight.
Step 4 is self-evident. If unsure, read 2004/38/EC
Step 5 is easy if you decide to live in Ireland (Rep of). There's no border check.
Step 6 is legally "optional", but practically a must.

Beware of direct flights from the UK to Kiev, Minsk, etc. They often carry out exit checks at the boarding gates to detect overstayers.

The problem is how to board the flight.

Good luck

[sagareva]

Having spent loads of money to live here legally, I "usually" get a bit wound up by this sort of stuff, but for the sake of my love of Slavic Europe, here comes my thought experiment.

The only way out as far as I can see is:

1. Get married in Russia, or perhaps Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova etc where she needs no visa to enter and stay indefinitely.
2. For the above, make sure to pick the location where you two can get married easily.
3. Move to another EU member state together ("Surinder Singh" ruling)
4. Stay there together for at least 3 month while you work there to exercise your treaty right
5. Come back to the UK together
6. Use form EEA2 to get a residence card.

If she has no valid Russian passport at all, she'll need a one-way travel document (IS137) to get out of the country.
If she has, at least, a Russian "internal" passport, she can enter Russia, Belarus or Ukraine (and perhaps quite a few more).
Step 1 should be fairly easy if you two can deal with Soviet bureaucracy.
Step 2 needs some study.
Step 3 requires a visa. You two, once married, will be entitled to live in any EU state barring the UK, but she needs a visa to board the flight.
Step 4 is self-evident. If unsure, read 2004/38/EC
Step 5 is easy if you decide to live in Ireland (Rep of). There's no border check.
Step 6 is legally "optional", but practically a must.

Beware of direct flights from the UK to Kiev, Minsk, etc. They often carry out exit checks at the boarding gates to detect overstayers.

The problem is how to board the flight.

Good luck

as a Russian myself I must say all of this is very sound advice, bravo )
she wont have a right to marry or stay indefinitely in any of the other countries mentioned -- in fact Ukraine might be even hard to enter nowadays! -- except belarus, so if a trip to those parts is planned it best be Russia itself, marrying there should not be a problem.

topic starter I have also PMed you with what was largely a similar sort of advice plus some insights stemming from my own Russianness))

getting a new Russian passport at the embassy here should also not be a huge problem, if she has an expired one or internal one, eg some proof of citizenship. it iwll take longer if they are all expired though.

as for boarding a flight, one is advised to use flights with EU stopovers, such as SAS or air baltic, HO usually does not bother with spot checks on departure on flights to EU countries. flying from anything that is not gatwick will make it safer too

[sagareva]

how well did you look into polish passport for her though? might be worth a thought because if you could prove that she in fact is a polish citizen, this will erase everything -- she cannot possibly have been illegal if she was polish all along!