inxly wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:12 pm
Sharing my story as reading through other stories gave me a lot of hope, and at times made me worry. First trip to England I came on a visior visa back in 2007. Stayed six months, flew back before it expired. I flew on my own and my partner followed almost six months later. A year to the date of me first meeting my husband in person we got married. Shortly before his USA visitor visa expired we flew back to England again. Three months into my second ever visitor visa I found out I was pregnant with our child so we flew back to America as I was only on a visitor visa and had no medical coverage.
My husband ended up overstaying almost 3 years due to him entering on a visitor visa. At the time we were going to try and fix his legal situation but he really missed home, his friends and lost his entire life he knew while we were in the USA. Which really was just the three of us as my family have always been extremely disfunctional and didn't want our daughter near them. We made the decision to move back to the UK. He moved first to try and get a job and find us a place, while he was doing that I was applying for a Spouse Visa (I did this on my own without a solicitor). All the money I had saved went to that and it was rejected due to not meeting the financial requirement. Huge mistake on my part for not looking into it enough and being more educated on how these things work.
Our daughter lived with me and we were separated from my husband for almost a year and a half. I saved up again to get enough money for us to visit and was going to let our daughter live with him while I tried to save up for the appropriate visa again. When it came to me having to leave I broke down and just couldn't cope with the thought of us being separated. So I ended up overstaying by four years. My husband was on benefits and I obviously wasn't working so it took us a long time to save up to try and fix our situation.
I contacted a few solicitors and met someone on a different forum, she had a similiar situation and had success with her solicitor so we decided that was the solicitor we were going with. Took about a year, but I was granted FLR FP via the 10 year route, and finally I was in a legal standing position and things were looking up for us. I got a full time job straight away and have been working ever since. My husband has signed off all benefits (minus PIP and Child Benefit - we don't claim Child Tax Credits as I'm worried if my name was on any claim it would ruin all the hardwork we've done to get us in the right legal standing position). My current FLR FP visa is up on the 16th of July.
Worrying about how long standard application timelines are for FLR FP I was worried I wouldn't be able to continue to work, not only that but our tenancy agreement is up end of this month and with it being mainly in my name they said I wouldn't be able to renew it unless I had my new valid visa - not sure how accurate either of these were but I didn't want to chance it). Although reading through this forum I have read that it is pretty much only advised with straight forward applications. Felt like I was seriously gambling with £800 for Super Priority Service as with me having 1) A previous denied Spouse Visa and 2) The fact I did over stay for four years until being granted my current FLR FP visa. Not only that but this time around I couldn't afford to use the solicitor I used for my current visa so I've done this one on my own ... last time I tried it on my own I got rejected. Panic all around! Again, I did read that extensions are typically easier to get approved than the initial applications I was hoping I had a good chance. This is my first ever extension.
I applied on the 20th of June and booked the soonest appointment at the closest location to myself which is Wakefield. Attended on the 8th of July (yesterday) at 10am. Appointment was straight forward. Took my biometrics (finger prints & photograph) and then she verified all my documents (I already previously uploaded all of these at home prior to my appointment). I do think I went over board as she said she's never seen anyone upload so much (there was 350 documents total) but was worried of missing something and being in a really bad situation again. I genuinely just want to keep doing things the right way and move forward with our lives. We've made one too many mistakes as you'd be able to tell. The entire appointment was done with in 30 minutes.
From 2pm until I went to bed I kept refreshing my email hoping to hear something back. I couldn't sleep and kept having nightmares of different scenarios but they all ended up with me being rejected. I woke up this morning feeling extremely anxious (felt like I was going to have a breakdown) and again kept refreshing until I went into work. At work I kept checking every 30-60 minutes. Luckily my manager and colleagues all know about my situation and didn't care. My manager would ask after every check, "Anything?" "...No." Felt more and more hopeless after every check and kept worrying it was going to be bad news.
At 4:25 I received an email, I was shaking checking it. Once I read the first few words I had this massive sigh of relief. Email stated:
"Dear Mrs ************,
I'm pleased to confirm that your application for leave to remain as a spouse/partner has now been granted. You will receive your decision letter and biometric resident permit (BRP) in due course and these will confirm your immigration status.
Thank you for using our super prioriy service.
Kind Regards,
* ******* "
I don't want to give anyone false hope, so please don't gamble your situation. Weigh out every pro - the cons aren't worth gambling. I just feel so incredibly thankful for my result (and proud that I did this on my own!) Wouldn't have been so successful without stalking through countless posts on this forum which is why I wanted to share my story. Because so many stories helped and at times scared me into preparing more. Wish you all the best of luck. Will update with the date I receive my letter / BRP.