Post
by Mr Rusty » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:32 am
The judgement on how long she might stay was made by the Entry Clearance Officer who granted the visa, the opinion of the IO at Luton airport is irrelevant.
If she declared on the application that she was going to stay for nearly 6 months, and she was granted 6 months then she is fully entitled to stay for 6 months. Even if she declared a shorter period, if the visa says 6 months then she is breaking no law by staying that long.
The '6 months in 12' stipulation is not a law, it's merely guidance to assist the decision whether someone is a genuine visitor or not. The worst that could happen is that at some stage on a future application, the ECO might look at the length of time an applicant has spent in the UK and say, "hang on, in the last x years this person has spent more time in the UK than their own country, so are they a genuine visitor?" and then start looking in detail into their circumstances at home. He would also be expected to look more closely at an applicant who siad last time they were going for 2 weeks and stayed 6 months.