ILR-refused for wrong reasons

Hello! every body, I am looking for some advice regarding ILR.
I have recently applied for ILR based on 10yr long residency. I couldn't send my old passport as it was lost. I have send as much information as I could. I am on a new Passport from july 2004.

I have received my passport few days back, and my application was refused on the basis and I quote " no valid leave between 9 march 99 and 14 march 99 and 26th march 2004 and 30 august 2004 the secretary of state is not satisfied that you have had a least 10 years lawful residence in the UK". No appeal right was given as i still have a valid VISA.

However, I have always been in this coutry legally and the case worker got it wrong. From 26 march 2004 till 30 august 04 i was in the UK with a valid VISA. Unfortunately since my old passport is lost I couldn't prove this BUT I have gone to my previous employer and luckily managed to get a copy of the VISA stamp for this period in question as my employer kept a copy of my VISA. Also recently I made a Suject access request(SAR) to home office and home oofice does have a copy of my VISA for this time period. I can confirm this, as I have received a copy of the same VISA from home office in response to my SAR. Also from 1st Sept 04 I was on WP. once again in the home office documents I could see that they wrote that i was previously on a valid visa and now changing to WP. also I have a letter from my employer that I was in employment during that period. So I have more than one evidence to show them.

Regarding the other period in question ( i.e from 10th march 99 till 14march 99). At that time my VISA was expiring on the 10th march 99, I made a intime appplication in person at the PEO at Glagow. However, the case worker took my application and kept my application and passport at their office and suggested me to and get some more documents. when i returned with this additional document on the 14th march and I was given the VISA from 14th March. I dont have any acknowledgement to confirm that i have made an in time application. BUT once again, when I went through the documents that i have received from home office as part of SAR, luckily I have found the copy of my application which clearly shows the date stamp of 9th March. Hence, I could argue that it was an application made in time and i can show the copy of my application witht the date stamp.

Now, that I was not given the appeal rights, I was a bit confused to what best can be done. I have contacted the home office general enquiries and I was suggested to write a letter, and send it to the address on the covering letter from home office. obviously they have suggested me to send all the supporting documents along with the letter.

I am writing basically to see if any of you guys will come with any ideas or suggestions to go about my application for ILR. Please feel free to post some suggestions.
Many thankls
Suni

Well, you would have to prove you have leave. Luckily for you, your SAR says when the application was submitted therefore you were covered by section 3C. I suggest you google BIA's website for the IDI on 3C Protection.
Send all the documents that you have listed in your email and also the pages from the SAR and your copies of visa's from your work HR.

You need to write a letter for reconsideration since there are no appeal rights when there is an existing leave. Address the letter to the Senior Case Worker of the team that refused your application (Cc: Senior Executive Officer – Deputy Chief Case Worker).

All the best.

chavva, when does your current visa expire. You can apply for reconsideration for free but it may take some time and does not benefit from Section 3C protection (that extends your valid leave in case your visa runs out).

Otherwise a new application does give you Section 3C protection and may be marginally faster.

Thanks for the response. I do have VISA up until July 2010. I became eligible for ILR following a 10 year long residence on march 2008. Since the refusal was made on wrong grounds, I want to get it looked at again. I am more inclined to write to them for reconsideration. not sure whether I should do this by myself or whether I should employ a lawyer /OISC adviser? any suggestions? thx
Suni

Many thanks to Jes I have managed to download 3c protection ammendment. do you think I should contact a OISC adviser for the letter to be drafted?

Chavva, your case seems pretty straightforward with the new evidence that you have gathered. I would only involve an OISC consutlant if you don't have a clear idea how to argue your reconsideration, but it seems you do.

yep agree with paul, this is pretty straightforward. You can easily get this reconsidered and get ILR. Make a little booklet with the SAR notes, caseworker notes, etc. Good luck.

Do you have any idea how long they might take for reconsideration? hopefully not as much as they take for an appeal. jut being curious. If they agree will they give the ILR from 10th April 08. I have made the application on that date and i have completed 10th anniversary on 8th March 08.
cheers

chavva wrote:Do you have any idea how long they might take for reconsideration? hopefully not as much as they take for an appeal. jut being curious. If they agree will they give the ILR from 10th April 08. I have made the application on that date and i have completed 10th anniversary on 8th March 08.
cheers

Reconsideration does not take long (but it depends on the evidence). It can be a week, 2 weeks or more but I don't envisage to take more than a month if your case is as straight forward as it says.

Please note, this is very important: Whatever evidence you present, make make a set of copies of that bundle/evidence and send this to the deputy chief case worker of that team that dealt with your application. Whilst he/she is reviewing your application, the case worker too would look at it. I am telling you this from what I know!

jes2jes wrote: Reconsideration does not take long (but it depends on the evidence). It can be a week, 2 weeks or more but I don't envisage to take more than a month if your case is as straight forward as it says.

Can reconsideration be as quick as a week? Given the usual backlog and bureaucracy at the HO?

Dear all
If I get a favourable response following reconsideration, will I get ILR backdated to my application date of 10th April 08?

For re-consideration will they have to go through my whole application checking each and everything again or is it that they will confine to the reasons they have raised? Sorry, if you guys think I am a bit inpatient but I just want this saga to come to an end soon. any suggestions?
cheers

does any one know, What does GCID stand for. In my SAR I could see a lot sheets from this GCID ( I believe this is hoem office's database). these sheets from GCID also shows my VISA categories and various other information. Just wondering whether you could enlighten me on this acronym GCID.
thx

chavva wrote:does any one know, What does GCID stand for. In my SAR I could see a lot sheets from this GCID ( I believe this is hoem office's database). these sheets from GCID also shows my VISA categories and various other information. Just wondering whether you could enlighten me on this acronym GCID.
thx

General Case Information Database (GCID)

All your answers are in this post I posted about 8 months ago:

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewto ... light=gcid

Dear All, I just noted that there is an " Invalid" remark on my application copy which I made on 8th March 99 at PEO in Glasgow. This is written next to the date stamp. This is the copy of my application that I have received from home office following SAR.
you may recall that I am submitting this as evidence against home office claim that i didn't have valid from 9th march till 14th March 99. as I said I had leave up until 10th march 99 and i have made an intime application on 8th March 98. My application was taken by th ecase worker but asked me to come back later as the home office needed some clarifications from the reasonal postgraduate dean.

I am worried that this 'invalid' remark may be used by the case worker against me to reiterate that the continuity is broken although I have made intime application. I am worried now.
please avice
once again many thanks for all the help so far.
cheers

chavva wrote:Dear All, I just noted that there is an " Invalid" remark on my application copy which I made on 8th March 99 at PEO in Glasgow. This is written next to the date stamp. This is the copy of my application that I have received from home office following SAR.
you may recall that I am submitting this as evidence against home office claim that i didn't have valid from 9th march till 14th March 99. as I said I had leave up until 10th march 99 and i have made an intime application on 8th March 98. My application was taken by th ecase worker but asked me to come back later as the home office needed some clarifications from the reasonal postgraduate dean.

I am worried that this 'invalid' remark may be used by the case worker against me to reiterate that the continuity is broken although I have made intime application. I am worried now.
please avice
once again many thanks for all the help so far.
cheers

Well yes, invalid means it is not in time. Your only recourse is to explain that you were told it was valid and the office held your file giving you that impression. If you had known, otherwise, you would have returned that day with the additional info requested instead of the 14th

Thanks for the post. How come they treat this as a break in continuity, when I approached them 2 days before my leave expires and they only waited for some more Information. quite clearly this happens a lot of times in many cases, where home office asks for somemore info. some of these applicatns over run thier leave expiry date and finally when they get their extension, does it mean that these applicants ovedrstayed and broken their continuity? Any more suggestions please.
cheers

Chavva, if you had applied by post and got refused, you would have benefitted from Section 3C for 10 additional days while you lodged an appeal or another application.

Try to see if Section 3C also covers refusals at the PEO and if not, then you can argue than a personal application at a PEO has unfairly disadvantaged compared to a postal one.

Or you can try to argue that your application at the PEO was still under consideration (i.e. not refused) from 8th to 14th and thus benefitted from Section 3C.

Hope this gives you a few ideas.

dear all

thanks paulp for the advice.
Until now, I was thinking of sending the copy of my application page showing the date stamp as evidence that I made an intime application. If I send this it will be quite obvious that it was invalid. I haven't got any thing to prove that I have submitted my application on the 8th. It happened 10 years ago. How about if I just write to them that I did submit my application intime and I was asked to get some more supporting documents in the mean time they make their own enquiries with the deaneary? Will it work?

Hello Guys

I went through the "Home office copy of my file" several times, and I am quite sure my VISA in 99 was extended based on the application that I have submitted on 8th March 99, as I couldn't find any other application that I may have resubmitted when i went back with the requested additional documents. although I could see an invalid remark on my application, I am quite sure the basis of extension is this application only and I am wondering, I may be able to argue that the I made an in time application.
what do you think guys, any suggestions?
thx
c

paulp wrote:Chavva, if you had applied by post and got refused, you would have benefitted from Section 3C for 10 additional days while you lodged an appeal or another application.

Try to see if Section 3C also covers refusals at the PEO and if not, then you can argue than a personal application at a PEO has unfairly disadvantaged compared to a postal one.

Or you can try to argue that your application at the PEO was still under consideration (i.e. not refused) from 8th to 14th and thus benefitted from Section 3C.

Hope this gives you a few ideas.

hi
can you explain a bit more into detail as to why postal application is better in terms of rights of appeal?