confuseddotcom wrote:Hi all,
I've been reading on this board for a while now and am looking for a little advice from the enlightened gurus out there. My situation is this. I am a BC and my girlfriend is an overstayer who originally came here on a visit visa while studying in Ireland (She now overstayed by 3 years, she was young and foolish at the time, only 17).
We want to regulise her stay here now and I was wondering about the eu/Singh route and was looking for some clarification.
If we turned up at th Irish border (after we hopefully manange to get married) with marriage certificate, both passports and me as a jobseeker, will we be refused entry on the basis that she is not currently legal here in the UK?
I understand that I will either have to apply for a COA, or wait for it to be abolished altogether first.
Our other options are article 8 (not sure if we would qualify because we have only just started living together), or for her to go home and we get married and apply for a spouse visa from over there, although she is very reluctant to do this as she thinks they we refuse her on the basis that she has overstayed for so long. We also will have to wait nearly a year for this option as she is not yet 21.
Any answer would be greatly appreciated.
An alternative of COA is to get married in Church of England.
Application under Art 8 is likely to be refused in her circumstances.
Under Surinder Singh rule, you have to stay in another EU member state for at least 6 months and work /self-employed there. Could you commit to this?
Overstaying is not an obstruction to get spouse visa from home country. However, if you sponsor her under national law, you have to fulfil the ordinary rules, such as maintenance and accommodation etc. Yes, she has to be 21.
Even if COA is abolished, generally talking, the UKBA will still have right to raid at the Registry/Church and arrest the overstayer (except in some cases they will be challenged). There is a recent case which may interest you. A non-EEA has been cohabiting with an EU national. Non-EEA applied for COA which was granted. On the day of marriage, the UKBA raided at the Registry where marriage was to take place and arrested the non-EEA, saying he was illegal and they have right to arrest him. The non-EEA has not applied under cohabitation rule, nor they have been living together for the past two years (however, 2 years cohabitation rule doesn't stem from EU law, this point has been argued with the UKBA but they insist to apply it under EU law). The non-EEA has been detained, removal direction has been set. However, JR has been filed on behalf of non-EEA. There is no doubt that in this case non-EEA national is not direct family member of EEA national as they are not married. However, their marriage was prevented when they were just to get married. Lets see the outcome.
