Settlement Visa for Spouse - URGENT HELP REQUIRED

StaceyWarman · Post by **StaceyWarman** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:34 pm

Hi All,

I have been reading some of these posts and I am getting somewhat confused. I am british born and my fiance is from Nigeria. He came on a student visa and overstayed by 3 years. He was walking down the street one day and got stopped by 2 policemen for looking suspicious. He knew they were going to start asking him questions and confessed his situation. They took him to the police station and called Immigration. He was not deported nor was he removed. His paperwork says he voluntarily decided to leave the UK and he has not got any criminal record after being arrested. He left on saturday morning and it was the worst day of my life. I am flying to Nigeria on the 27th June - flight is paid and i have my visa and we are getting married but i am worried about him being an overstayer. There is a question asking if you have ever been deported, removed or asked to leave the country. His family are saying that we should put no as technically none of these relate to his case but i think that leaving that question blank if they find out that he was asked to leave then they will think what else are we lying about on the application. Do you think overstaying will affect he's chances of the application being granted? Also, even though we lived together for 2 years, we stayed with a friend so we had no tenancy agreement or any bills in our name. Will this also have any effect on our application.

I have 4 weeks until i go so i am panicking quite a bit and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:08 pm

StaceyWarman wrote:Hi All,

I have been reading some of these posts and I am getting somewhat confused. I am british born and my fiance is from Nigeria. He came on a student visa and overstayed by 3 years. He was walking down the street one day and got stopped by 2 policemen for looking suspicious. He knew they were going to start asking him questions and confessed his situation. They took him to the police station and called Immigration. He was not deported nor was he removed. His paperwork says he voluntarily decided to leave the UK and he has not got any criminal record after being arrested. He left on saturday morning and it was the worst day of my life. I am flying to Nigeria on the 27th June - flight is paid and i have my visa and we are getting married but i am worried about him being an overstayer. There is a question asking if you have ever been deported, removed or asked to leave the country. His family are saying that we should put no as technically none of these relate to his case but i think that leaving that question blank if they find out that he was asked to leave then they will think what else are we lying about on the application. Do you think overstaying will affect he's chances of the application being granted? Also, even though we lived together for 2 years, we stayed with a friend so we had no tenancy agreement or any bills in our name. Will this also have any effect on our application.

I have 4 weeks until i go so i am panicking quite a bit and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Was anything written in his passport? Whatever u do - be honest in ur app - any sort of deception will be found out and may result in a baan of up to 10 years.

StaceyWarman · Post by **StaceyWarman** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:12 pm

No - he had lost his passport about 2 years ok so immigration arranged for him to have an emergency travel document that he picked up when we got to the airport from the airline supervisor

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:29 pm

StaceyWarman wrote:No - he had lost his passport about 2 years ok so immigration arranged for him to have an emergency travel document that he picked up when we got to the airport from the airline supervisor

Anything at all with IS151 or similar on it?

StaceyWarman · Post by **StaceyWarman** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:31 pm

Sorry i'm a bit new to all this. What is a IS151?

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:35 pm

StaceyWarman wrote:Sorry i'm a bit new to all this. What is a IS151?

Removal or deportation notice, just trying to find out if he was issued with one, i know u said not, but u never know.

StaceyWarman · Post by **StaceyWarman** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:38 pm

Nope definately not. The only forms he was ever given from the home office all had stated on it that he had voluntarily decided to go home. He paid for his own flight and everything so i think we should be ok on that front. I just don't know what to put on the VAF4 application form about his removal. Even though he left voluntarily he still overstayed by 3 years.

Do you think he will be ok then.

Thanks for all your help so far!!!

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:50 pm

I'm sure there will be a record of his overstay so be upfront on that.

As regards being OK I dunno - the new rules pledge amnesty for those who return home before Oct 2008 but without saying what is happening out in the field when these people apply formally we don't know the reality.

StaceyWarman · Post by **StaceyWarman** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:57 pm

Well thank you for your help anyway. Its costing me an absolute fortune for the flight and the application but its just not worth it if he has no chance of coming back. We have a friend at the Nigerian Embassy who seems hopeful but they can reject things for such silly things.

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:02 pm

StaceyWarman wrote:Well thank you for your help anyway. Its costing me an absolute fortune for the flight and the application but its just not worth it if he has no chance of coming back. We have a friend at the Nigerian Embassy who seems hopeful but they can reject things for such silly things.

Three years overstay is not a silly thing, it's quite a serious overstay. Best to be be humble and apologetic over it rather than try and pass it of a trivial and risk getting the ECO's back up.

Tell them what they want to hear, regret but not too grovely, that u'll be together no matter what in Nigeria or anywhere if u don't get the visa, that sort of thing to cement the veracity of ur relationship.

StaceyWarman · Post by **StaceyWarman** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:04 pm

Sorry - i did not mean him overstaying was a silly thing. I meant that they reject applications for such silly things and this is quite a big issue so there could be a big chance to refuse his application.

I did not mean no harm by it.

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Settlement Visa for Spouse - URGENT HELP REQUIRED