IRL application after 10years but Passport is missing.

[therealwocity]

Can someone please HELP!!! I am new to this site and this is my fist post.

I believe my story is not that complicated – but I don’t want to take any chances because there is no appeal in my case if I fail in the application as I still have leave to remain under Tier 1 General.

I came to this country 10 years ago exactly, and I want to apply for my ILR under the 10 year rule, I have no gaps or irregularities, my only problem is that one of my passports is missing, this covers me for my first 4.5 years in this country, a period in which I travelled about 4 times.
Out of my 10 years – I was a student for 6 of those, so I believe my case is straightforward as I have all evidence to prove this; but once again the only glitch is that they don’t take attendance record at Universities.
But fortunately for I have kept a lot of my records over my 10 years in the UK such as phone bills, bank statements, proof of accommodation and a few travel artefacts such as my airmiles statements which showed when I earned my airmiles etc
Lastly – when I requested my SAR from the homeoffice earlier this year – they included a photocopy of all pages of the missing passport which shows my travel record in that time, but I hear you cannot use this as proof!!!

So my questions are:
1. How complicated is my issue?
2. How do I prove that I haven’t been in the UK for longer than stipulated by the ILR rules in my first 4.5 years?
3. Lastly – can anyone recommend a good lawyer to fight my case?

Thank you.

[vinny]

Lastly – when I requested my SAR from the homeoffice earlier this year – they included a photocopy of all pages of the missing passport which shows my travel record in that time, but I hear you cannot use this as proof!!!

Where have you heard this? Do you have a police report of your lost passport?

[therealwocity]

Thanks Vinny.

I heard that from a lawyer. She said we could refer to the pages received in the SAR information but that it could not be the main evidence. I have not reported my passport lost beause I just noticed recently that I could not find it. It's an old passport which i havent used in over 5 years.

[bb21]

If you only recently discovered that your passport was lost then file a police report asap so that at least you have some proof of that. In the absence of the missing passport you can submit as much information as you have to prove your stay in the UK, and the list of documents accepted are listed under the 14 year category. Apart from these, UKBA can use all their records such as your landing cards and previous records of your passport pages to determine your case. If it's something held by UKBA then it WILL be used as evidence. WHY NOT? That's the question I would ask the lawyer who told you utter bullsh!t.

See the application form here
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... o04091.pdf and read Section 9S on page 18 carefully. There are provisions for people who have lost previous passports, otherwise there will be no point printing anything beyond the first sentence.

Good luck