Need Urgent Advice

coco · Post by **coco** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 5:04 pm

My husband and I have been together for 4 years, lived together for 3 and been married for almost a year. We have a daughter who is 2.

I am an overstayer (current visitors visa is for five years, however I have not been able to leave the country since my last entry in 2001), this was not my intention though as circumstances beyond my control made it so.

I have been adviced that the only to get a spousal visa or ILR is to go back home (ghana). However I have also been adviced that should the consular officer at the british consulate in Ghana refuse my application, it will take up to a year for an appeal to go through. This will be devasting as my husband and I will lose our house and everything we have worked for, we rely on both our incomes to support our family (ie, ourselves and our daughter)

Can I apply from within the UK? and what are the chances of my application being successful?

My husband is british and so is my daughter. We have all the relevant supporting documents, marriage certificate, bills, mortgage documents in both names etc

I will be most grateful for any good advice anyone has to offer. Many thanks

waiting_spouse · Post by **waiting_spouse** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 5:46 pm

dear coco,

I'm in the same boat as you. I lived with my hubby for almost 5 years, and was considered an illegal entrant (having re-entered UK without a marriage visa).

Was advised to apply within UK, and waited almost 2 years (could have been longer), and was refused.

Now I'm back with my British son, 19mths old, in my country of origin, Singapore, to re-apply for a visa. If only someone had adviced me to do so from the beginning, before I had my child, I believe I wouldn't have to go thru all this!

If u still wish to apply within UK, than be prepared to wait for years....and there's a very high chance of refusal. I don't think you would want this cloud hanging over your head. If you go back home to apply, and from the posts I've been reading so far in this forum, you have a much better chance of success, provided you show all the evidence necessary. Believe me, even if you have to wait a year for a hearing in the case of rejection, its still not as long as having to wait (quite indefinitely) for a decision if u apply within UK.

Just see it as a short-term inconvenience to achieve a long term goal.

coco · Post by **coco** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 6:02 pm

hello waiting_spouse,

Thank you for that imput. My worry is not going back home, my worry is that should I be refused, my husband and I will lose our house here in the UK.

If I have to spend all that time in my home county I will most certainly lose my job and that means not contributing to my family's upkeep, my husband cannot afford the mortgage repayments on his own together with other household cost council tax, electricity, water etc.

Also he will not be able to take care of our daughter because of his job. He is a pilot ( and a pilot's wages is not what people assume it be fancy job with poor pay)

If however I take my daughter with me, and I end up having to stay for year, than she will end up being an illegal, because she will only be permitted a visa for 3 months, my daughter is british and holds a british passport. I feel like I am stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.

boss39 · Post by **boss39** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 6:24 pm

Hello,

Having read your case, I think you have been advised correctly to go to your home country and apply for entry clearance. Have you heard of DP3/96? This is a policy set out by the HO to deal with your type of application.

Unfortunately, the chances to win on DP3/96 is a very difficult one. You need to prove that you case is an exceptional one. For e.g. you cannot go to your home country because you are having medical treatment from UK that is not available in your country or your life is in danger if you go back home. So it is infact very difficult to prove.

If you prepare your application correctly with all the supporting documentation, you should be granted a spouse visa. Remember to read carefully about the requirement and supporting documents you require to apply for a spouse visa in your country if you choose to go for that option.

Anyway, good luck with your application.

coco · Post by **coco** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 6:57 pm

Thank you boss39

I guess I don't have much of a choice. If i stay I will continue to be an illegal, if I go home even with all the require evidence, if I am refused, I will lose everything. Boy do I wish there was another way.

Post by **John** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:12 pm

this was not my intention though as circumstances beyond my control made it so

Coco, can you explain why there were circumstances beyond your control? Anything happening in your country to make return impossible? By the way, where is your country?

coco · Post by **coco** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:27 pm

I am from Ghana. When I re entered the UK in 2001 I my passport, was stolen ( I have the police report) between getting a new one issued and re applying to the IND for my visa to be re instated in my new passport ( this was refused by the way) a year had passed and I was already pregnant with my daughter. I didn't have the easiest of pregnancies, I had to remain in bed for the majority of the pregnancy.

Post by **John** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:09 pm

Coco, this Board has quite a number of topics such as this one (click) where someone has returned to their country and then returned to the UK complete with a new shiny visa!

I totally accept that leaving the country and applying to get back is a worrying procedure, but not taking that course of action is also fraught with difficulties.

If I have to spend all that time in my home county I will most certainly lose my job and that means not contributing to my family's upkeep

You are not allowed to work! Well not at the moment! The Government is cracking down on those employing illegal workers ... Fixed Penalty Notices at £2000 each are only months away.

Go for it! Return to Ghana complete with all the evidence you need to get a 2-year spouse visa ... and then you too can post a message like the one linked to above!

coco · Post by **coco** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:17 pm

Hello John,

Thanks for the advice. I have checked with the british consulate in ghana and waiting times just to get an interview after one submits an application for a spousal visa is 11 weeks. You see my predicament.

Post by **John** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:39 pm

Hmmm ... that same webpage you refer to say that in Bangkok there is a 7 week wait. However since they started using VFS there many settlement visa applications are accepted without interview, and the visa is in the passport in 7 to 10 days.

The BHC in Accra also use VFS. That tends to mean that applications supported with lots of good evidence are processed quite rapidly.

Do accept that I am not saying that there will not be a 11 week wait ... simply you should not assume that there will be.

coco · Post by **coco** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:37 pm

Hello John,

I went to see my solicitor today, he has adviced my strongly against going back home. He said that the consulate officer can refuse my application even if I have all the approperiate and relevant documents, even with a case as strong as mine, because I have been in breech of the immigration rules.

I understand I was not suppose to work, however how was I to survive without job? I understand I have breeched the rules, however the possibility of losing everything I have worked so hard for is scary and very worrying.

badboyz2006 · Post by **badboyz2006** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:44 pm

Your solicitor is talking crap a lot of people has gone home to apply and get through if they met all the rules. LOOK AT THIS

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=5452

AND there are many more on loads of different sites he is only trying to rip you off. Your going to pay him and then appeal and then still have to go home to apply i tell you i have seen it many times. And these application will take years.

Read http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIAT/2005/00066.html

This deals with returning to your home country to apply from there and is used many times. http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2000/315.html

Post by **John** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 7:38 am

Your solicitor is talking crap a lot of people has gone home to apply and get through if they met all the rules.

I would put it slightly different. I would ask .... who exactly gains .. financially ...... through you staying in the UK and fighting to get a visa issued in the UK?

Coco, BadBoyZ is correctly pointing out that other members of this Board have reported being reported being successful! And as for working ... this is going to get a lot tougher. It is only a question of time before you will find it totally impossible to work in the UK on your current status.

Come on ... "bite the bullet" ... do what you know you have got to do!

ilm · Post by **ilm** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 1:31 pm

We were advised by a solicitor not to go back as well and our local MP advised us not to go against their advice. Our solictior said he had successfully made applications from the UK but I have yet to hear of a single one has been successful but there are many reports of success from those going back to make the application.

Our solicitor also frightened the life out of us with things that 'could' happen, none of which actually did. In the end we sorted out the application ourselves and found out as much as we could about the settlement visa process. We read all the relevent posts on the forum and especially looked at those which were unsuccessful. The reoccuring issue was lack of, and quality of evidence. Not one refusal I read about was down to previous overstaying and the rules certainly made it clear this was irrelevent as a point of law. For this reason we put a very organised, very comprehensive application together and just went for it.

We had similar concerns as yourself regarding working, our home and a potential delay so this was all mentioned in the application and we turned the fact my wife was working into a positive to show she integrated with life in the UK and submitted her employement contract. We detailed our relationship together and mentioned we just wanted the situation resolved so we could get on with our lives as normal; that, irrespective of the final decision, we intended to stay together, even though being refused would cause us considerable hardship and disruption.

This is all history now as the visa was granted in two days and the ECO appologised that he couldn't arrange the interview any sooner.

I understand more than most how scary and worrying your position is as we were in exactly the same position and were very scared! Looking back on it we just wish we had done it earlier.

Post by **John** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 2:19 pm

On another board an OISC-registered adviser has posted today :-

I have just won a similar case, but it took nearly three years to get a decision. I would recommend that you go the correct channel and let him go and apply from (name of country), unless there are seriously mitigating circumstances as to why this cannot happen.

So yes, it can happen in the UK, but usually it does not, or at least involves years of waiting and anxiety.

ILM, posted :-

we put a very organised, very comprehensive application together

Coco, I cannot emphasise how important that is! The application abroad will succeed or fail dependent upon the supporting evidence, or lack of it!

Now if you came from a small volcanic island and the volcano has just erupted and is doing to continue erupting for the foreseeable future, well yes an application in the UK might be justified ... but none of that sort of thing applies to you, does it.

coco · Post by **coco** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:43 pm

Dear all,

Thank you so much for all the advice give. Somehow I feel really confident about going to make my application back home. The relevant documentation I have put together is over 100 pages, I have not left anything to chance.

John, I also found out from the BHC in ghana that I don't need to summit my application myself, I only need to attend the interview, which a date will be given once my application is summited.

ilm, you are right the solicitor really do give you a fright.

Thank you all once again, and I will let you know how it all goes. By next week I should have received other supporting documents from the bank etc ( my application is thicker than the davinci code

) All things being equal I should make my application by the middle of July and hopefully know the outcome by Sept/Oct.

badboyz2006 · Post by **badboyz2006** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 5:07 pm

Good luck just imagine you are trying to convince a very difficult ECO and you will get through.

coco · Post by **coco** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 8:08 pm

Hello all,

I am not panicking just trying to cover all the basics.

Just so you have all the facts, when I was offered a job with my employer, I had a working holiday visa so I was working legally with them for 2 years, however the question of my working status never came up and I guess I buried my head in the sand for the last 3 years.

What are the chances that the BHC in ghana will contact my employer here int he UK and let them know of my current status? Thank you

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Need Urgent Advice

Need Urgent Advice