Post
by gdm485 » Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:52 pm
Hi I was hoping someone would be able to give me some advice on which route I should take as I'm having problems considering how I should go about bringing my partner back to the UK.
I'm a british citizen and my partner's an indian national. She came here on a Tier 4 student visa in 2011 and we have been living together for slightly over 2 years (I've got joint tenancy agreements and individual bank statements covering this period), we were last living together in September 2014 before she voluntarily departed. We have spent 3 weeks together in Thailand last month as a holiday.
She applied to extend her student visa in Jan 2014, however we did not hear from the HO for quite some time. We had also changed address in April 2014 but despite contacting the home office, we were not provided with a progress update. We found out from someone at the previous address in Aug 2014 that immigration officers had visited with a warrant for my partner. Upon contacting the HO we were told that a curtailment letter was sent out to the previous address however this was returned undelivered (we did not receive this as we were not residing there and also had wrote to the home office to change her address on file in April 2014). All the HO stated was that my partner doesn't have valid leave despite us not receiving any correspondence regarding this.
After realising she had no valid leave to remain, we decided to opt for voluntary departure and she departed in September 2014. The immigration decision stated "You are specifically considered a person who has sought leave to remain in the United Kingdom by deception following information provided to us by Educational Testing Service (ETS), that on 19 June 2013 an anomaly with your speaking test indicated the presence of a proxy test taker."
It was only when we were given this decision letter was that we actually knew the reason behind the immigration officers visiting. Also though it doesn't state anything on the decision letter, I believe there's a 12 month mandatory ban which I have filed an appeal to lift, explaining our situation.
My question is that which options are available to me to bring her here again. I would consider marriage, but she currently has a divorce case going on (indian divorce cases can take a really long time for those who know, especially as it is not mutual, despite both of them living apart for the past 5 years). She is resolving her case right now but from what I'm told it could take quite a few months.
I was thinking of applying under the partner route but considering she isn't actually divorced yet and not free to marry would this be a problem even if we submit evidence of divorce proceedings? Also would the fact that we last lived together in September 2014 and she didn't have valid leave be a problem in calculating the 2 years living together.
Also what are the chances of this ban being lifted because then she could maybe apply for a visitor visa? I could also sponsor her through my company by applying for a license and issuing a certificate of sponsorship but not sure how the deception decision will impact this. Any advice regarding this would help me a lot as I am quite stressed as I can't really see any valid options