Post
by gordon » Wed Nov 21, 2007 2:15 pm
My thoughts, for what they're worth (because I'm not an immigration specialist), on your options:
1. If you reapply for FLR(HSMP) : I don't know how successful this would be, even if you were to underscore your interpretation of the regs. The verbiage 'entered the UK [as a student] ... and has obtained a degree ...' seems straightforward to me as requiring you to have completed the degree in the period of leave from which you're applying to switch. But maybe caseworkers have some discretion on this point, and you got a caseworker who was feeling slightly ungenerous ? I really don't know; but the guidance notes and their refusal suggest not.
2. Having already been refused, going though a solicitor or an immigration specialist (like Victoria on this board) might help you to articulate more convincingly such an argument in (1), or otherwise give you some sense as to the prospects of its success. It might be worthwhile to approach the international office at your university as well; perhaps they might be able to provide feedback based on their experience.
3. After you get your initial two-year leave on HSMP, you're not going to run into this problem again. When you go for the extension in two years' time, you would at that point be extending your extant HSMP leave, not varying (or obtaining) leave.
If you're not successful at this juncture, then I wonder what your options would be. Going home to obtain entry clearance ? Waiting until you finish your degree, and then applying for FLR ? If you do the former, I cannot imagine that your student leave would be curtailed unless there were good cause (and the caseworkers would likely have already identified such a problem if it had come up in the FLR application anyhow), and thus your student leave would only be terminated on the issuance of the HSMP EC.