ILR--10 year residency may be unintentionally broken

[zinao]

hi
i wrote this on another thread but no one replied.

i came here in 2001 and i have had various visas form working holiday to student .

my main problem is that i applied for a visitors visa to extend my stay in may 2007 from a student visa, in order to attend my postgraduate degree graduation and i was granted one until dec 16th 2007. i was due to return to school for professional studies in february 2008 but when i wanted to swithch back in december 2007, i was told that i had to leave the country and come back in with a new visa . i went home and came back in february, cause the visa procedures in my country take a long time about three weeks to process due to the biometrics and outsourcing to application submittion process to an private agency.

it is just weird because someone else on this forum said that she was allowed to switch back to student status after being a visitor in the country and she got her ilr, without any problem. i am just preplexed because if i had submitted my application in december to the homeoffice, this would have been a minor issue. i still have the email from the homeoffice stating that i had to leave and may use that as evidence.

just reading all the revised laws, i just want to know if my stay has been broken?

this my new visa would take me to 2011 when i would get my stay, but i see this issues coming up and would like to tacke them head on now.

[vinny]

See also Updated (14/05/2008) Long Residence 'continuous residence' interpretation.

[zinao]

yeah i have read and dont understand all that legal terminology. could someone pls explain it.

[Wanderer]

Wasn't there a topic here recently about time on a visit visa not being 'residence' and therefore not counted in a 10 year application?

Search for it.

[zinao]

yeah but there was lady on one of these threads who was a student changed to a visitor and back to a student. she got her ilr with no problem. my problem was that i had a visitors leave to remain which i think counts as my previous visa was a student and immigration law say legal in any capacity.

[paulp]

IMHO your vistor visa does count but the gap between dec 07 to feb 08 may prove to be a big problem. If you get a lenient caseworker, they may exercise their discretion. Worth a try anyway.

If you had compassionate reasons why you had to be home during that period (family ill, etc.) then it may help.

[zinao]

to tell you the truth i am going to take it all the way if i am refused. probably tribunal. i might have to hire a lawyer for this.

my visit leave to remain for that 6 month period in 2007 was highly limited and the home office stated that if i left the country then i would have to apply for leave to enter even if i wanted come back within my current leave. how is that possible? a friend of mine, who was also a student was allowed to travel on her visit leave to remain.

if they had certain nationalities that this applied to then they should have informed the general public imho.

[paulp]

Good luck. There is now a large number of people who have been refused because of the HO's new interpretation of "gaps" like yours. As far as I am aware, a few good immigration consultants are saying that there's no way around these gaps without compassionate reasons.

[zinao]

i dont think compassionatle reasons will apply in my case.

like i said previously, i still have a copy of the email that the HO replied me in nov 07.

meanwhile on their site, it clearly states if you entered the uk on a student leave, which i did you could extend.
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/studyi ... extending/

it did not state that you had to be a current student or you could not come from another category. that is why that other person on this forum was able to get ilr, switching from student to visitor back to student.

there is a conflict with advice given by the HO and that on the site and that has clearly put me in a jam.