Greetings all
My wife was removed from the UK for overstaying her student visa by 20 days. Removal was in April 2010. We weren't in a relationship at that time and always knew once we got into a relationship that the visa application for any settlement visa to the UK would be more difficult and had made contingency plans for me to move to Asia if need be (she is Thai).
Anyway we went through an immigration specialist to submit the application, pretty much his focus was on us demonstrating the strength and bona fide nature of the relationship (loads of photos, travel receipts, communication logs, cards, letters etc) and that I would have no problem supporting her in the UK.
I was worried about many things, firstly the overstay being a black mark (he actually pointed out that student visa renewals usually have a 30 day grace period after expiry so technically UKBA should not have removed my wife from the UK), secondly my wife had changed her first name upon return to Thailand (very common in Thailand as people usually go by their nicknames anyway but not common at all in the UK and I was worried that the UKBA may view this as my wife trying to switch identity to return to the UK) and so on. Her mum actually asked her to change her first name as according to local beliefs the old one had brought bad luck and so a new one would be more auspicious.
The process we were instructed to follow was straightforward - under no circumstances lie or provide false information in the application or if otherwise asked by the ECO. So for example, we made a point of disclosing my wife's previous name, even submitting her previous passport that she has used in the UK with the application, we submitted in addition to the usual forms an explanation letter from my wife outlining her immigration history in the UK accompanied by her removal letter, affidavits sworn by 3 close friends of mine, affidavit from me about my intention to sponsor my wife and a personal letter from my wife as well. This is all in addition to the usual documentation required.
The advisor stated clearly that under no circumstances should we lie, but likewise there is no point in disclosing information that would be harmful to the application unless specifically requested to do so by the ECO.
A couple of things he wanted to submit I was uncomfortable with and overruled him on, namely in my wife's explanation letter of her immigration history he had pretty much rewritten it in a way that pointed the blame at the UKBA and using specific references to immigration rules and procedures that the UKBA had not necessarily followed when removing her - I didn't think this approach would be right as it would be blatantly obvious to the ECO that this had been written by an immigration specialist and not my wife so we submitted one actually written by my wife instead which outlined the truth, namely that she had been advised that she had a further 30 days in which to extend her visa (she had been waiting for funds to be sent from her family) but that ultimately it was her responsibility to ensure she was compliant with her visa and as a result she took full responsibility for her removal. Open and honest, and not pointing the finger at anyone else.
Anyway she did her biometrics and submitted her application and it was approved in only 7 working days. I was almost certain that they would have requested more information or an interview at the least but nothing, just a silky smooth approval. I even checked with my HR department at work if the UKBA had been in touch to verify my employment details but this had not happened.
So anyway, I just wanted to outline story and approach for a less straightforward case. Maybe we got an ECO in a good mood that day I don't know, but what I would say is that we did base the application on proving and demonstrating the strength of our relationship and if I was a betting man I would say that is what convinced the ECO to approve this so quickly.
One question for anyone in the know, obviously when my wife submitted her biometrics this would have linked her to her previous name (the one she had when she was removed from the UK). Biometrics are done partly to stop people switching identities to get visas and in our case we submitted full details of her previous name and in fact the translated name change certificate too, so obviously we weren't going to hide this. Does anyone know whether the UKBA would have linked in their database my wife's old identity to her new one and the subsequent settlement visa? The reason I ask this is that I don't want my wife to arrive at Heathrow, have her fingerprints done and then it gets red flagged as a dodgy attempt to re-enter the UK under a new identity. Obviously if the database linked her old and new identities together then immigration would be able to see that we have disclosed her previous name in our applications and not hidden anything, but I just worry that the system won't be as sophisticated as that.
My advisor told me that he would be very surprised if they asked her anything at all at the airport as the biometrics will link her to the settlement visa and the fact is the ECO would have had all access to her old records at the time of making the decision as the biometric test would have flagged this whether we declared her previous immigration history or not and that basically when an ECO makes a settlement visa decision then the immigration officers at the border can't overturn this unless they believe it to be a false document etc. In any case we will be printing out a copy of the visa application and taking it with us just in case, worst case is we can show it to immigration and they can verify that we did indeed submit all details regarding my wife's previous name as part of the application and I'm sure they must be able to access this online anyway.
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