Spouse visa and entry clearance with criminal record

[mrsmagoos]

Hello All,
Please can anyone give me some advice.
Its a long story but the basis of it is this:

I am a British Citizen living in London, UK. I met my Albanian partner here in October 2012 and soon after he moved in with me.
He was an illegal entrant to the UK, a clandestine entrant and had not attempted to legalise his staus.
In December 2014 he was arrested for possession of a fake ID card. He had attempted to obtain an NI Number at a job centre appointment in August 2014 and the document was removed from him. 4 months after he was arrested at our home and remanded in custody. In January 2015 he was sentenced to 8 months in prison of which he served 4 before being moved to a detention centre.
During this time we made an application to remain under human rights article 8. This was refused as they HOME OFFICE said there wasn't enough proof of our relationship. (No joint bills etc)
He was released on bail from immigration detention and we made an application to marry in the UK.
Unfortunately after about 3 weeks of release he was detained again during signing and taken back to an immigration centre. After 3 weeks we paid for his ticket back home to Albania.
In September I went to Albania and married him. I returned to the UK , then went back to Albania last week and we made an application for a spouse visa in Albania a few days ago.
We have declared everything on the application and included all details of his conviction and actual immigration history. Our application was just submitted a few days ago.

What I would like to know is:
Does he have any chance of getting his spouse visa despite having a criminal record?
How long it is likely to take for a decision?
If refused what are the chances of success on appeal?

We are both very traumatised, stressed and depressed about being away from each other.

We know he did wrong but we feel it was exceptional circumstances, he wanted to work in the UK to support his family back home. He was naïve, not a career criminal and prison caused him great distress. He has paid his price.

Please can anyone give an indication of what the likely outcome will be.
Thank you in advance.

[noajthan]

Hello All,
Please can anyone give me some advice.
Its a long story but the basis of it is this:

I am a British Citizen living in London, UK. I met my Albanian partner here in October 2012 and soon after he moved in with me.
He was an illegal entrant to the UK, a clandestine entrant and had not attempted to legalise his staus.

...

In September I went to Albania and married him. I returned to the UK , then went back to Albania last week and we made an application for a spouse visa in Albania a few days ago.
We have declared everything on the application and included all details of his conviction and actual immigration history. Our application was just submitted a few days ago.

What I would like to know is:
Does he have any chance of getting his spouse visa despite having a criminal record?
How long it is likely to take for a decision?
If refused what are the chances of success on appeal?

We are both very traumatised, stressed and depressed about being away from each other.

We know he did wrong but we feel it was exceptional circumstances, he wanted to work in the UK to support his family back home. He was naïve, not a career criminal and prison caused him great distress. He has paid his price.

Please can anyone give an indication of what the likely outcome will be.
Thank you in advance.

Not my area but until fellow members are able to contribute here's a starting point..

Marriage to a European citizen

If you marry a European citizen, you may qualify to remain in the UK irrespective of your immigration status (valid visa, visa expired, overstayer, illegal entrant, failed asylum seeker etc).

Marriage to a British citizen who worked in the European Union

If you marry a British citizen, who worked in the European Union, you may qualify to remain in the UK irrespective of your immigration status (valid visa, visa expired, overstayer, illegal entrant, failed asylum seeker etc).

[CR001]

And to add to noajthan's post, by European Union, it means any EU country but excluding the UK in terms of working.

[Elliewifetoalbanian]

I'm sorry I have no advice for you. But I wanted to say I really feel for you. I have recently married an Albanian man and going through the same struggle. However we are lucky he is in the UK and he was never prosecuted for a fake id. I wish you the best of luck and hope it works out. Malik and Malik are good Albanian solicitors based in London if you need one.

[mrsmagoos]

I'm sorry I have no advice for you. But I wanted to say I really feel for you. I have recently married an Albanian man and going through the same struggle. However we are lucky he is in the UK and he was never prosecuted for a bad quality id. I wish you the best of luck and hope it works out. Malik and Malik are good Albanian solicitors based in London if you need one.

Thanks, we used Malik and Malik to get him bail from prison and detention but did the visa application in Tirana.
Its devastating but I think unless he comes back illegally he has very little hope of us being together again. We are both heartbroken.

[vinny]

Difficult. Refusal under 320(2)(d) or 320(11) possible.

Have you considered moving with him and working in another EEA country?

[mrsmagoos]

Difficult. Refusal under 320(2)(d) or 320(11) possible.

Have you considered moving with him and working in another EEA country?

Thanks Vinny.
This is what I am scared of. The solicitor gave a 50/50 chance.
I have considered perhaps moving to Ireland. Both my parents are Irish so I am entitled to an Irish passport anyway. But I have a house, job, kids here so its last resort.
I'm trying to be hopeful.
If refused how likely is he to win on an appeal under HR act , Article 8? Any idea?

[vinny]

Not sure if you can exercise EEA treaty rights in Ireland, if you are also an Irish citizen.

[Obie]

But she could revoke her British citizenship though. It may have similar effect, as the OP is clearly an Irish Citizen.

I think is was reckless disregard of your application fee, for the lawyer to advice you to apply under appendix FM, absent a child and in the light of the immigration history.

At this stage I will not say 50/50. I will say 90/10 in favour of a refusal.

50/50 may be the case at probably on appeal.

[mrsmagoos]

Hi All,

My Albanian husband applied for a spouse visa from Albania to join me in the Uk only 2 weeks ago.
I suspect he has cancelled the application because I received an email from the Tls site saying application has been assessed and decided and docs would be returned within a couple of days.

He says he received passport and docs 2 days ago but there was no letter of refusal.

I think he may have cancelled it.
It has come to light that there may actually be someone else in his life in Albania.
How will I know? I lost the log in details for the tls contact site and every time I email they just send generic email telling me to request a new password which isn't working.

He just isn't being honest about too many things so although he asked me to chase up why he was refused I don't believe him and now think he cancelled the application.
No NHS money has been refunded to my account.

Does every refusal come with a letter with the docs returned or could a letter come separately after the docs are returned?

I understand if its refused I would get back the NHS surcharge.
But I believe if it's just cancelled there is no refund.

Please can anyone advise.

[noajthan]

Hi All,

My Albanian husband applied for a spouse visa from Albania to join me in the Uk only 2 weeks ago.
I suspect he has cancelled the application because I received an email from the Tls site saying application has been assessed and decided and docs would be returned within a couple of days.

He says he received passport and docs 2 days ago but there was no letter of refusal.

I think he may have cancelled it.
It has come to light that there may actually be someone else in his life in Albania.
How will I know? I lost the log in details for the tls contact site and every time I email they just send generic email telling me to request a new password which isn't working.

...

Please can anyone advise.

After all the pain and angst in your other posts, sorry to hear about this development.

I think a letter may come separately from the documents; thinking back to spouse visa I seem to recall that's what happened in my family's case.

[Obie]

I think you need to speak to this guy. The conclusions you are making are quite problematic in the absence of tangible evidence.

Ask him.

[mrsmagoos]

I think you need to speak to this guy. The conclusions you are making are quite problematic in the absence of tangible evidence.

Ask him.

I have asked him. He saying he didn't cancel it but a few days before I received email saying application had been assessed he was asking for the reference number. He said in an argument he was going to cancel it but then said he wasn't.
Its transpired he has another girl.
To say I'm devastated is an understatement.
But I just want to know if he did cancel the visa.

[Casa]

No one can say for sure whether he cancelled the application, but it does seem that the NHS surcharge is often refunded before the letter of refusal and documents are received. If it has been cancelled, unfortunately the application fee + the NHS surcharge will be lost.
However, cancellation doesn't seem consistent with notification that the application has been 'assessed'.

[mrsmagoos]

No one can say for sure whether he cancelled the application, but it does seem that the NHS surcharge is often refunded before the letter of refusal and documents are received. If it has been cancelled, unfortunately the application fee + the NHS surcharge will be lost.
However, cancellation doesn't seem consistent with notification that the application has been 'assessed'.

I also doubt the application would have been assessed so quickly - within 2 weeks.
I hear stories of people waiting 6 months +.
Why would the docs and passport be returned so quickly if not cancelled?

[mrsmagoos]

Hi Guys, an update. He did cancel. He withdrew the application unbeknown to me!
Great news eh? Waste of time and money.
But he has another girl in Italy and is on his way to her now, maybe to marry and apply for an EU permit.
Oh well, we live and learn or so they say.
Merry Xmas to you all.

[CR001]

Probably not what you want to hear but at least you weren't married and can move on. People will try anything and make enormous promises to get a visa for the UK, there are 1000's of stories about this.

I feel sorry for the next girl to be honest

[noajthan]

Hi Guys, an update. He did cancel. He withdrew the application unbeknown to me!
Great news eh? Waste of time and money.
But he has another girl in Italy and is on his way to her now, maybe to marry and apply for an EU permit.
Oh well, we live and learn or so they say.
Merry Xmas to you all.

I can imagine the hurt you must feel from being played along for so long by someone who clearly wasn't an 'innocent abroad' after all.

Probably nothing much will help how you feel at moment.

Wish you the best.

[Zee ali]

Hi Guys, an update. He did cancel. He withdrew the application unbeknown to me!
Great news eh? Waste of time and money.
But he has another girl in Italy and is on his way to her now, maybe to marry and apply for an EU permit.
Oh well, we live and learn or so they say.
Merry Xmas to you all.

I can imagine the hurt you must feel from being played along for so long by someone who clearly wasn't an 'innocent abroad' after all.

Probably nothing much will help how you feel at moment.

Wish you the best.

Feel sorry for u and wish u best of luck for future

BUT I am surprised how can someone believe and trust in this sort of guy.

He was an illegal entrant to the UK, a clandestine entrant and had not attempted to legalise his staus.
In December 2014 he was arrested for possession of a bad quality ID card.