ILR advice.

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:40 am

Hi all,
Looking for some reassurance, my wife has been here now for 4 years;

First 2 years was on a spouse visa and last 2 years with a "Leave to remain" biometric card.

Her visa is about to run out and need to know if the next visa she needs to apply for definitely is "Indefinite leave to remain".?

She can prove she has made a life here, has a full time job, bank account, bills in hers and both names and we have a son who is British born.

We are very nervous about applying this time as last month we sought advice and were told she could apply for naturalization, we did and it was subsequently declined and we lost the Â£700. The new ILR visa costs Â£900 the last of our savings and we just can't afford to lose that!

So any help please folks would be much appreciated.

Post by **geriatrix** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 1:08 am

Assuming the "leave to remain" biometric card is a result of a successful FLR(M) application:

The next step is to apply for settlement (indefinite leave to remain) using SET(M) form. KOL required.

If you are a British citizen and if she has been living in the UK for approx. 4 years (as you stated), she may be eligible to apply for naturalisation as soon as she is granted settlement.

regards

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:15 am

I can't help but feel its a whole money making racket, legal extortion if you will.

It's unfair that honest tax paying immigrants like my wife have to foot the bill for funding the UK border agency to deal with unlawful immigration.

What would happen if we couldn't pay the visa due to hardship? We have a son together, would the UK border agency deport my wife and break up a family?

xyz123 · Post by **xyz123** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:30 am

CMAL11 wrote:I can't help but feel its a whole money making racket, legal extortion if you will.

It's unfair that honest tax paying immigrants like my wife have to foot the bill for funding the UK border agency to deal with unlawful immigration.

What would happen if we couldn't pay the visa due to hardship? We have a son together, would the UK border agency deport my wife and break up a family?

yes the fees are higher but then you (and all of us) have made choices to come to this country and we have to pay whatever it takes to stay or go back home.

you are not telling the reasons why your natrulisation was declined and whether it was mde through a solicitor?

i suspect it was because your wife was not on FLR(M) visa. if thats the case then you should have known that one can not go directly from normal leave to remain to naturilisation. you could have used local authority checking service before paying the fees.

Post by **Greenie** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:35 am

CMAL11 wrote:.

It's unfair that honest tax paying immigrants like my wife have to foot the bill for funding the UK border agency to deal with unlawful immigration.

What would happen if we couldn't pay the visa due to hardship? We have a son together, would the UK border agency deport my wife and break up a family?

What about the money it costs them to process your wife's application? The fee pays for this not for 'unlawful immigration'

You have to show that you and your wife had sufficient maintenance without additional recourse to public funds so saying that you can't pay the fees dues to financial hardship doesn't really fit with that. You need to pay the fee in order for the application to be valid. If you don't apply your wife becomes an overstayer and can no longer work, and yes is at risk of removal. You could try to prevent this by arguing it would breach her right to a family life but why risk the stress of this happening?

Why didn't your wife apply for ILR following completing her intial two year spouse visa?

Who advised you to apply for naturalisation before your wife had ILR?

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:54 am

She was here for the first 2 years on a spouse visa (visa inside passport), then the next 2 years on FLR visa (with biometric card). She was declined naturalization and told to apply for ILR instead. The Â£700 fee was retained.

She took the Visa Eligibility Assessment from Migration Expert UK and was recommended for naturalization, big mistake listening to these bunch of morons, don't ever listen to anything they advertise.!

The UK border web page has an article there stating the actual costs to process a visa, something like Â£250 - it then freely stated the rest of the money is used for other areas of immigration.

And no we didn't go through a solicitor, what difference would this have made?

Post by **Greenie** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:59 am

Yes but why did she apply for the further two years (the BRP) why didn't she apply for settlement at that stage?

Post by **Greenie** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:04 pm

If you had gone through a solicitor they would have advised you that you can't apply for naturalisation if you are not settled (i.e. have Indefinite Leave to Remain/Enter or Permanant Residence) in the UK. If you read the form and the guidance it makes this very clear.

I would suggest that you make a complaint about Migrant Expert UK to the OISC if they gave you incorrect advice.

If you wife has completed her two years probationary period and meets the language requirements then yes she should now apply for settlement as advised by sushdmetha.

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:06 pm

Greenie wrote:Yes but why did she apply for the further two years (the BRP) why didn't she apply for settlement at that stage?

We tried to but for some reason they felt she didn't have enough proof to show that she had established a life in those 2 years.

She gave birth to our son 2 months after first coming to the UK so she couldn't work, didn't have a bank account as she has no electoral role info, I paid all the bills in my name. She was studying part time to reinforce her qualifications from her country. She has very little correspondence in her name.

As a result she was offered a further 2 years FLR.

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:37 pm

Greenie wrote:If you had gone through a solicitor they would have advised you that you can't apply for naturalisation if you are not settled (i.e. have Indefinite Leave to Remain/Enter or Permanant Residence) in the UK. If you read the form and the guidance it makes this very clear.

I would suggest that you make a complaint about Migrant Expert UK to the OISC if they gave you incorrect advice.

If you wife has completed her two years probationary period and meets the language requirements then yes she should now apply for settlement as advised by sushdmetha.

Thanks Greenie,
She will apply for settlement as she meets all requirements. I'm not going to bother complaining to anyone, we just want this over and done with. It's too stressful to deal, there's no way to claim back that lost Â£700, we'd rather just pay and get on with our lives to be honest.

Thank you for the advice.

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:04 pm

Just a quick update,
My wife sought legal advice from a solicitor who specialised in immigration here in the UK. He is confident he can claim this Â£700 fee which we lost in my wife's previous visa application, or at best have them use that Â£700 we paid and then adding a further Â£200 to make up Â£900 for the new ILR visa.

He says that the UKBA can create as many rules as they like but they still have to answer to basic human rights, and if the lost Â£700 is preventing my wife from getting her new visa due to financial hardship then he can do something about that.

Anybody else heard of this before?

-C

Post by **Greenie** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:07 pm

CMAL11 wrote:Just a quick update,
My wife sought legal advice from a solicitor who specialised in immigration here in the UK. He is confident he can claim this Â£700 fee which we lost in my wife's previous visa application, or at best have them use that Â£700 we paid and then adding a further Â£200 to make up Â£900 for the new ILR visa.

He says that the UKBA can create as many rules as they like but they still have to answer to basic human rights, and if the lost Â£700 is preventing my wife from getting her new visa due to financial hardship then he can do something about that.

Anybody else heard of this before?

-C

No never heard of it.

How much does the solicitor want to charge you for this advice?

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:12 pm

A nominal fee, he said no more than Â£100. He is actually the husband of our GP who is a friend of my wife.

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:15 pm

http://www.ukvisaexpert.com/

Anyone heard of this guy? How can he get ILR for you the same day for Â£300?

Sounds fishy anyone heard of him?

rajivilr · Post by **rajivilr** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:25 pm

I think this is just his fees not including the home office fees
he will charge you the home office fees which lets say its 700 and his fees lets say 300 and make it 700+300=1000

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:36 pm

ah well.. he can go and jump. lol..

anyone had any success in claiming back lost visa fees?

Post by **geriatrix** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:11 pm

Did UKBA ask you to apply for naturalisation, when clearly not eligible for it? If it is someone else who gave you the "advice", you cannot blame UKBA for that person's "expert opinion"!

regards

CMAL11 · Post by **CMAL11** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:37 pm

You're missing the point, it does not cost UKBA Â£700-Â£900 worth of man hours and resources to review a visa application and have the visa made.

How can it when you can have a same day service within a couple of hours? Or have a new passport made for Â£70 or have a biometric card replaced for Â£30?

It's extortion and if you know anything about common law it's not even legal. How can you even begin to sympathise with them? Do you work for them?

Post by **Greenie** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 5:53 pm

You cannot compare a passport application or the replacement of a BRP to a full blown visa ((leave to remain) application as a visa application does involve a significant amount of administrative costs for the UKBA to consider.

Yes the actual 'unit cost' of the application is less than the fee, and I believe the fees are very high, but I'm sorry I don't agree that it is extortion and I certainly do not work for the UKBA. The cost of applications are clear and it is also made clear that you don't get a refund if you are not succesful.

If each person who made an application that was refused was entitled to a refund then this would only encourage people to make applications even if they were very likely to fail.

If you had gone through the NCS they would have told you straight away that your wife was not eligible for naturalisation before she had ILR and you would not have lost your fee. Unfortunately you have recieved bad advice and have learnt the hard way, but I think you need to move on from that now and accept you are going to have to pay for this application.

bani · Post by **bani** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 8:35 pm

I'm going to be blunt here. You lost the Â£700 because of your own stupidity.

If you read and understood the UKBA website, and also the letter your wife got on her 1st spouse visa and subsequent FLR, you would know the next step is ILR. Nobody skips ILR and gets to citizenship. Instead you are blaming some website that you probably filled out wrong anyway.

Yes, you are a taxpayer, but you should have done some research before making that silly application.

And most of us are taxpayers on this board too. It does not reassure us that someone is about to get ILR and become eligible for benefits when they can hardly afford Â£900.

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