ILR with over 800 days absences

My friend will soon be able to apply for ilr on tier 1 having completed 5 years since he was granted his first tier 1 general visa. This was granted in the country and he left one month after to work in his home country. He returned twice for a week each time, and finally 8 months before his visa was due for extension. He has been out of the country for more than 2 years with the longest continous period being 18 months. In his home country he made deal with immigration official not to stamp his passport on entry. He will therefore be claiming 2 months absences in his application for ilr. I am not happy about this because it makes a mockery of honest people who work hard and are still denied ilr, but I cannot rat him out. How can ukba discover his deceipt?

I know of quite a few people who plan on doing similar things to get ILR. Remember UKBA comes down hard on those who try to obtain visas by deception. Your friend will definitely struggle to prove his economic activity IN THE UK over the last 5 yrs and may also struggle to score the points required work employment in the UK.

Also do not forget that as a non-EU passport holder each time you touch down in the UK you MUST fill in a landing card and i am quite sure that is the "real way" absences are verified.

quantum1 wrote:My friend will soon be able to apply for ilr on tier 1 having completed 5 years since he was granted his first tier 1 general visa. This was granted in the country and he left one month after to work in his home country. He returned twice for a week each time, and finally 8 months before his visa was due for extension. He has been out of the country for more than 2 years with the longest continous period being 18 months. In his home country he made deal with immigration official not to stamp his passport on entry. He will therefore be claiming 2 months absences in his application for ilr. I am not happy about this because it makes a mockery of honest people who work hard and are still denied ilr, but I cannot rat him out. How can ukba discover his deceipt?

wow..I wasn't aware you can make a deal with the immigration officers to not stamp the passport.

hsmpengineer wrote:I know of quite a few people who plan on doing similar things to get ILR. Remember UKBA comes down hard on those who try to obtain visas by deception. Your friend will definitely struggle to prove his economic activity IN THE UK over the last 5 yrs and may also struggle to score the points required work employment in the UK.

Also do not forget that as a non-EU passport holder each time you touch down in the UK you MUST fill in a landing card and i am quite sure that is the "real way" absences are verified.

That is the real way entries are verified, but they do not track departures. I travel a lot and I have never had my passport stamped when leaving the UK. The person mentioned above can say that he spent just 2 months outside the UK and they would not know.

I have been reading this board for days and I get impression that they care more about absences than economical activity. I can not recall any case where an application was refused due to economic inactivity other than during the last year unless on Tier 2 visa or WP. There are plenty cases where applications were refused due to breaching 180/90 days rules.

If one would want to cheat the best way would be to lose passport and get new one. Get SAR file and base application on their records. It seems that they don't have complete records of absences.
I have many absences but I will not do that - that is not my thing... but I will be paying for those who want ILR just to live off benefits.
I have paid a lot of tax during the last 5 years and did not use even NHS. I am not bringing heaps of dependents and do not have intention to misuse any of the services... but I will probably not get ILR because I spent more than 180 days outside the UK. Plus there are minimal cultural differences from where I come from, it's not like I have to adopt completely different culture so that another 180 days in the country would mean something.

There are many lazy people who come to this country with bad intentions and they are making it more difficult for all of us. The visa rules are becoming ridiculous, I do not want to be treated as a criminal when I am not one.

hsmpengineer wrote:I know of quite a few people who plan on doing similar things to get ILR. Remember UKBA comes down hard on those who try to obtain visas by deception. Your friend will definitely struggle to prove his economic activity IN THE UK over the last 5 yrs and may also struggle to score the points required work employment in the UK.

Also do not forget that as a non-EU passport holder each time you touch down in the UK you MUST fill in a landing card and i am quite sure that is the "real way" absences are verified.

Ecoomic activity was not an issue for him because he managed to get an accountant and set up company on paper but no real business. Cycled his money through his accounts and made fake invoices and qualify under self employment. He can just do this again for ilr. I try to advise him to get another extension before apply for settlement with full 5 years, but he says there is no point since they cannot prove he has the absences. Also guidance say, you should give the benefit of the doubt in such cases. It seems only honest people are penalised.