My wife recently applied for ILR but this was ruled to be invalid as she had:
1) applied too early - having applied on 30 March 2019 while her visa expires on 12 June 2019, she was ruled to have only completed 58 months rather than 60 months required under Section E-ILRP.1.3(a)
and
2) had not completed her Life in the UK test (we mistakenly thought that was only required for Citizenship) - an expensive mistake!!!!
In the letter saying her application was invalid because of those two reasons, it also said the application would be treated as a limited leave to remain for 30 months so long as she paid £1000 immigration health surcharge and she could continue on the 10 year route to settlement instead.
The letter didn't say we could reapply for ILR but we decided to do nothing on that and forego the Limited Leave to Remain/10 year route and instead to put in a new application for ILR as she still had time to get the Life in the UK test done and reapply within the 28 days of the expiration of her current visa (ie between 15 May and 12 June 2019).
She took the Life in the UK test on Tuesday (21 May 2019) and passed - yay! - and now she is in the process of filling in the ILR web form again for the new application.
However, today (24 June 2019) she received a heavily worded letter from the Home Office (dated 15 May 2019) saying that because she didn't pay the immigration health surcharge, the limited leave to remain application is now invalid and "if she doesn't have any other legal basis to remain in the UK she must leave the country" - it was accompanied by a scary looking "Annex A - Information Notice" with her name and a reference number and wording around "Liability for Removal" and " "consequences of illegally staying in the UK".
We just wanted to check with you guys that her existing visa is indeed still valid until the 12th June? If so presumably we are still ok to put in a new application for ILR - as now she has done 60 months less 19 days (which is within 28 day window prior to visa expiration for her to apply for ILR) and has her Life in the UK test pass, so she should be eligible for ILR.
We'd really appreciate your thoughts and comments on this. The posts on this Immigration Boards website around reapplying for ILR after an invaild decision because of applying too early or not having done the KoLL tests seem to have worked out ok but it's still very worrying -
Are we ok to put in a new application? Do you think she should be successful on the new application now she satisfies the two reasons they gave for saying the original application was invalid?
Thanks so much
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