Need some opinions re spouse visa from china

[bobbyash]

Hi everyone. I need some advise/opions/reasurance please.

I am uk born citizen and my wife is chinese national.

She was in this country for 3/4 years at uni. Which she passed. She was due to go home in 2007 and then we met. We started a relationship and started living together amost striaght away. I never realized about visa's etc as I had no experience in this matter. But she let her visa run out. She had seen these agencys online saying they an get visas so she thought she would go down this route.

She never told me about her visa until I proprosed, then she told me. She thought I would be so mad but hey, everyone makes mistakes.

We applied for COA to get married and explained everything. The Home Office wrote to us and asked for more information. It took them nearly a year to give us the COA but in August last year we got it and got married in November.

In the letter from them they advised us to apply for LTR when we were married but could offer no guarantees. We did this but it was refused with no right to appeal.

They give us the option for us both to move to china but I have a son from a previous relationship and this is not possible or she could go back to china and apply from there, which she did.

Its now been 6 weeks and we are still waiting. It is driving me crazy, not knowing what is going to happen.

We was living here in Uk nearly four years. I have a job. She was working voluntry at an organisation helping non uk's with problems, housing, benefits, etc

Her family have been supporting her also with payments every month, and she has about 3 grand to bring back with her.

We have supplied every possible document to support our case.

Do you think we have a chance??

Sorry for the essay but I needed to say it all.

[bobbyash]

anyone??

[batleykhan]

First of all I think you need to be a bit more patient. 6 weeks is not a long enough time to wait for an outcome as some can take 3 months or so before a decision can be made.

Your matter is slightly complicated as your wife was an over stayer in the first place.The ECO looking at your wife's application will have to decide whether her overstaying was a genuine mistake or there was a deliberate attempt to stay illegally here in the UK. If the latter was to happen it could have serious implications on her application and on her attempt to return to live with you.

If it was indeed a genuine mistake, then you have nothing to worry about .She should be able to get the visa providing you can prove you can maintain, support and accommodate her without any recourse to public funds.
Just be a bit more patient and you will hear the outcome one way or the other soon hopefully

[bobbyash]

thanks for your reply.

the only thing in our favour regarding the overstaying is that we was completely honest with the home office from the start when we applied for coa.

plus when they said she had to go and apply from China she did and she built up a good relationship with the enforcement team in Leeds who, I have to say, were really nice people.

also in the home office rules it said that the overstaying bans didn't apply for spouse visa.

[MPH80]

You're right - overstaying bans don't count.

However, there is a catch all rule known as '320(11)' which basically says that if there were significant attempts to frustrate the immigration rules - a general refusal can be applied.

So - for example - if someone deliberately overstayed AND worked ... that might count ... or if they claimed benefits when they weren't entitled ... etc.

It has been known to be applied to generally suspicious applications which then have to be appealed against.

The one note of caution I'm going to add is that when my wife was here on a tourist visa, we enquired with UKBA about her volunteering at a local school (to help keep her busy). We were told this would count as working and wasn't allowed under the terms of her visa.

M.

[bobbyash]

thank for replying.

I just hope they look at everything and give us a chance to be together.

another point to mention.

when we filled the first application in England we didn't go in why I couldn't go live in China as I guess, stupidity we thought it would just go through ok.

after the refusal we wrote to ukba and explained about my son. they said the decision was made with the information they had and if we felt my son was an important factor in our application, we should submit another application ASAP.

we had already paid 500 pound for the first application and didn't want to pay another 500 only to be told the same thing...that she had to go back and apply from there. then pay 800 pound which we have done.

I was wondering why they would tell us to apply again in UK and not just "go home" but my wife said we can't take that letter as a guarantee.

[bobbyash]

any thoughts on the above? am I just reading to much into it?