Retained Right of Residence while waiting for Decree Absolut

[Maria2020]

Dear All

I would like to ask for your advise regarding my immigration case, basically I am from Colombia and I married an Italian national in June 2012, the marriage took place in London. Then unfortunately our relationship broke, and I started the divorce proceedings in August 2015. We lived in London previous and during my marriage.

I had a post study work visa (previous my marriage),then I got a residence card for 5 years as a family member of an EEA national, this residence card was issue from January 2013 to January 2018.

Now my problem is that my divorce is not yet finalized, and my residence card is about to expire.

I am currently waiting for a Judge to grant me an order to apply for a Decree Nisi. In summary, my husband has been very difficult and did not want to sign my divorce petition, after several months I was advised by my solicitor to change the grounds of the petition to Unreasonable Behavior, the Judge thankfully accepted it.

In September 2017 my solicitor sent a Dispense with service application to the family court, because we could not find where my husband is. In other word I am trying to get a divorce without serving the papers to my husband. Together with this application we sent an statement explaining all the ways we used to try to contact my husband. The last communication we received from the Court was on the 12th October, saying that my Dispense with service application was in the Judge's desk awaiting to be reviewed. Since then, every time I called they give the same answer, it is almost 2 month and nothing seems to be moving.

Now I am really concerned because my residence card is about to expire, and I cannot apply for Retain Rights of Residence to the HO without having a Decree Absolute, then if I do not apply for a ROR my employer will probably terminate my work contract.

My solicitor suggested to apply for ROR even if I don't have the Decree absolute, only to maintain my job because this way at least I can tell to my employer that I am in the process of renewing "my residence", but I wonder what will happen after, obviously my ROR application will be refused, can I re-apply again just to buy some time until I get my divorce sorted/Decree absolut. I need to keep my work.

Please I ask for your advise, what would you recommend to do in this situation.

Many thanks

Maria

[Maria2020]

Does anyone experience a Dispense with Service divorce? is it normal to take long to be approved by a Judge? In you experience a similar case please reply, slightly concern for the slow process.

[CR001]

My understanding is that you can only apply for retained rights once you are divorced.

Divorce can take long in the UK. You dont even have the decree nisi yet. After you get that you still have to wait a few weeks before you can get the decree absolut which is the final document.

[Rza123]

For ror you must be divorced and your spouse must be qualified at the time of divorce finalised as well as you also need to be working, as you married in June 2012 and it is already five years from marriage date then upon divorce you can apply for permanent residence straight away provided you have all relevant supporting documents and your spouse been qualified from marriage till decree absolute... you are still a family member of eea national until decree absolute is issued

[BADII]

hello maria, I'am in similar situation as you, my 5 years permit ended in november 2017, I have already apply for ROR in order to keep my work few month but also is depent when ur employer will do the checking before or after the application been rejected cos the missing of decree absolute. Now am still waiting for acknowledge letter from my wife regarding the divorce, the petition was sended by the court few days ago but last week my boss told me that I can't work coz she done a checking again with the Home office and they said NO. I know your post was in last December, if u have any new information please let me know. thanks

[Maria2020]

Hi BADII, I applied for ROR mid-January without having a decree absolute, similar to you I only applied to keep my job, otherwise my employer would have suspended me because my residence card had expired.

Unfortunately, as we all know without a decree absolute you cannot applied for ROR, so my application was refused mid-March 2018, the reasons the home office gave was that the decree absolute was not provided, and also the spouse ID was missing (I only sent a copy because my ex-husband doesn't want to cooperate with anything).

2 weeks later I got my decree absolute, and then I re-applied for ROR, this time I also enclosed evidence that my ex-husband purposely doesn't want to provide me with his passport, I printed e-mails of every time I asked him, he is very mean and he is trying everything to stop me to get my ROR successfully.

During this time thank God my employer did not check my records, now I'm waiting for the certificate of application, I already sent my bio-metrics details, hopefully this letter will arrive soon.

I have question for the forum, my husband lived over 5 years in the UK, I have his tax information from all these period in a letter from the HMRC, plus p45 and employment contracts. If he wasn't working at the time of the decree absolute was issued, is he considered unqualified?

[BADII]

hello again Maria thank you for ur response. The answer of your question, a qualified person: a employee, a job seeker, self employer, student, and a self sufficient.
also please can you confirm that the Home office will only accept the decree absolute rather than any other documents from the court about the divorce processes.I' m already off work and seems my ex ignoring the petition, can't wait until a get the decree absolute, do you have any suggestions. thanks