10 Year ILR Refused. Help! Appeal? Judicial Review?

Hello,

In August, I applied for ILR-SET on the basis of 10 years of continuous lawful presence. This application has been refused, and I am trying to discern whether an Appeal or Judicial Review are options for me.

I am a US citizen, and I have been in the UK legally since 2004. I have been here on student and student Tier 4 visas. I have received an MSc and I have worked towards a PhD during this time.

I was absent for an extended period in 2006-2007.

Long Absence: 275 Consecutive days
Total absences in the 10 year period: 646 days

However, during this time I was abroad doing field-work for my PhD at a British university. I was funded by the UK government and by my university to do this work. There is an analogy to people who are absent due to work requirements.

There is precedence for people in such circumstances to get ILR. I have been directed to a solicitor’s office who has previously won such a case on appeal after it was rejected. I am waiting to hear back from them.

* In my application I included a number of letters from friends, my place of worship, and support groups, to establish that I have strong ties here.

* I also stated that I am largely estranged from my family in the United States and that my social and mental health support is here. I had a p-doc’s letter attesting to this, too.

I am trying to discern my options now. I am writing this post to get any information and advice I can about the following options:

1) Appeal? My Refusal letter says that I have the right of Appeal. I thought this was what I was going to be doing. However, in reading the letter, I believe that the grounds for appeal which they offer to me do not apply. Or... they aren’t perfect.

As I read it, in an Appeal I cannot challenge their judgment about my long absence, I can only make a “human rights” appeal. Is this correct?? While I have established a life here in the UK and I do have ties which I can document (friends, social, and institutional ties) I don’t have a partner. I do have medical and compassionate grounds (mental health issues, my support network is here), but these to me should be secondary grounds for an award, in consideration with the primary argument that my long absence was justified.

However, in their decision against my "human rights claim", they did so based on the fact that I could get mental health care in the USA. However, my main issue is that my support network is here. I could probably get my doctor to attest to that.

2) Petition for Judicial Review?

I feel like there is a decently strong case here, primarily on the grounds that my long absence and my total days absent were due to my doing field work for a British university, funded by the British government.

But what is the cost for Judicial review?
What is the time frame?

3) Apply for an extension to my lapsed Tier 4 visa. I currently still am a registered student, but my Tier 4 visa lapsed during the ILR-SET application process. I am still enrolled as a PhD student... I just got an extension from my university approved through Aug 2016 on the basis of health problems and other concerns.

This would probably work. However, the additional time I would get would not put me past the “gap”, so a future ILR application would run into the same problem. I would also have to incur the cost (and waiting) of an additional ILR application. If there is a chance of prevailing with an appeal or judicial review, I might want to proceed with that.

Thanks so much for anyone who can offer me insight.

Nathan

fyi - HO guidance - may be of interest/help:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... .0_EXT.pdf

BadgerSet wrote: * In my application I included a number of letters from friends, my place of worship, and support groups, to establish that I have strong ties here.

Did you also submit evidence that your leave out of the country was field work for your PhD and also include evidence of the funding?

BadgerSet wrote: I was absent for an extended period in 2006-2007.

Long Absence: 275 Consecutive days

Did you leave and return on the same visa?

ouflak1 wrote:
Did you also submit evidence that your leave out of the country was field work for your PhD and also include evidence of the funding?

Yes, although not in huge detail. I submitted a letter from my Ph.D. supervisor describing the purpose and essential nature of the field-work, the UK funding source, and how I maintained British institutional and social ties throughout. ("Mr. ____ was very much 'my' University of ______ student throughout this period and we had regular supervision contacts.")

ouflak1 wrote:

BadgerSet wrote: I was absent for an extended period in 2006-2007.

Long Absence: 275 Consecutive days

Did you leave and return on the same visa?

Yes, it was the same student visa. The visa was valid for several years because I was a Ph.D. student.

In the refusal letter, they said that I made a "plausible case" for justifying the long absence, but that they nevertheless could not consider it.

The solicitor I spoke to on the phone suggested that my current option is to appeal on humanitarian grounds, because that is a reason that is still open to Appeal. (He confirmed my understanding that the grounds for Appeal have been curtailed recently.) He said I could not file a Petition for Judicial Review until all my options have been exhausted.

I'm guess I can make secondary reference to the justification for the long absence in the context of a humanitarian appeal.

I was quoted a flat fee of £1500 for him to prepare the appeal and go to the court date.

Hi,
Could you please advice me the solicitor's name? Since I am in the same situation as you are and it would be really helpful. Thanks.