ILR Long Residence 10 Year Route - Need Your Advice Please

[Kai2015]

Hi all,

I am asking on behalf of a friend of mine, and I really hope you can help.

He wants to apply for ILR based on 10-year Long Residence route. Everything is in order in his case except for two issues which I will try to explain as clearly as I can here.

He first came to the UK in August 2008 on a Student Visa. He has always held a valid visa and never overstayed.

1st Issue:
He stayed out of the UK for more than 180 days in 2014. He was out of the UK between
* 27-Feb-14 and 26-Aug-14 = 180 days
* And between 01-Nov-14 and 29-Jan-15 = 89 days

2nd Issue:
He had to leave the UK on 01-Nov-14 because his visa was about to expire. He applied for a Tier 4 Visa as soon as he left in an attempt to avoid breaking his continuous residence. His visa was refused because some of the funds shown in his bank statement weren't older than 28 days (I think the funds needed to be in his account for at least 28 days or something like that).

After the refusal, he wasn't able to submit a new Tier 4 Visa application soon after because the University had to look into the reasons of refusal before issuing a new CAS. They basically took their sweet time before issuing him with a new CAS number.

The big problem now is that he stayed without a visa and outside the UK for almost 3 months.


The questions that we have now are:
1- What is the likelihood that his application for Long Residence ILR application would be refused?
2- Is there any way to remedy these issues by providing valid reasons for why he had to be outside the UK and why he wasn't able to "continually" hold a valid UK visa.
3- Is it worth finding and paying a solicitor to prepare his application for him and to argue on his behalf as to why he didn't have a valid visa between November 2014 and January 2015.


Your advice, comments, opinions would be greatly appreciated

Thank you all in advance

[cyclina1]

Don't waste money with the lawyer, the application must be rejected.

[vinny]

There is no 2nd issue, if he left and returned, both in time.

The only issue is if he was absent from the UK for more than six months or 180 days, contrary to 276A(a). Only count whole absence days.

So, it looks like he may be okay after all.