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I'm posting on behalf of my wife. We just a few weeks sent off the Set(M) application for ILR. Her visa runs out on June 6.

I'm starting to get worried about when we get our stuff back - not just the confirmation of ILR, but our passports and so forth. We waited as required until 28 days before her spousal visa runs out on 6 June before sending off Set(M), but haven't got anything back beyond a letter confirming our stuff was with a 'case worker' (sent to the wrong address next door - the only reason we got that was because the postman recognised our names and put it through the right door!)

Is it ever the case that confirmations of ILR and so forth arrive *after* the end of a spousal visa? And if so, what the hell do we do? Especially given once her visa runs out, she won't even be able to work anymore.

Your documents will be returned to you only after a decision has been made on the application.

If a valid application has been made in-time, then your wife can continue to work beyond the expiry date of her spouse visa (section 3C).

As I finally learned (phew) after asking the *right* question of the Home Office when I called them. It seems the visa does continue on after the expiry date until a decision has been made.

My wife was also concerned because her employer for whom she interprets (the NHS) had told her she couldn't work beyond the current expiry date of her visa, 6 June. But I was given a number for the 'employer's verification sponsorship programme' to pass on to her employer. It's 0300 123 4699. You give that to whoever you're working for, if they have the same concern, and they presumably vouch for your legal status as someone able to work for them.

On the other hand, the NHS have been a bureaucratic nightmare, so let's wait and see...

And thanks sushdmehta, for your reply.

sushdmehta wrote:Your documents will be returned to you only after a decision has been made on the application.

If a valid application ahs been made in-time, then your wife can continue to work beyond the expiry date of her spouse visa (section 3C).

Hi again. My wife's continued to work for the NHS under some kind of extension to her work permit, given to her by her employers at the NHS. Except now that's run out and they're again saying she can't work for them - in direct contravention of the Immigration Boards own rules - until she gets LTR documents, which still haven't arrived (she just did her biometric thing a couple of weeks ago though).

Rather than type everything out again, I'll copy and paste a letter (below) I sent to my MP the other day, explaining everything and asking for help. Does anyone here have any idea what the hell the NHS (Scotland) are playing at?

The letter:
"Hi. My name is Gary Gibson and I'm writing on behalf of my wife, Emma, who is from Taiwan. Emma has been working for the NHS Interpreting Service since October 2011, and is currently awaiting the results of her application for Leave to Remain. Even though she is legally entitled to continue working in the UK, the NHS is refusing to offer her work after Monday.

She came to the UK with me in March 2010 under a two-year spousal visa. She made an application for permanent Leave to Remain on May 10, at a cost of £991, within 28 days of her spousal visa expiring on 6th June 2012, as required under the rules of the UKBA. I spoke to the UKBA on the phone, who assured me that Emma could continue working and living here until such time as a decision had been made regarding her application.

However, at the time she was making the application, the NHS insisted that because her two-year spousal visa was about to run out, and she did not yet have any documents showing she had Leave to Remain, they could not offer her continued employment. I spoke to a UKBA representative on the phone who said, in so many words, that the NHS were talking nonsense, that Emma was perfectly entitled to continue working. However, we were able to negotiate a twelve-week extension for Emma that allowed her to continue working for the NHS, ending on the 15th of August this year. This extension, however, is now running out, and the NHS are again claiming my wife cannot continue to work for them.

What is especially peculiar about this is that when I describe these circumstances to UKBA representatives on the phone, they appear genuinely baffled by the NHS's refusal. According to them, the rules are very simple. The UKBA provide a phone number of employers to call (The UKBA Sponsorship and Employer's Helpline, 0300 123 4699) to verify that an employee has the right to work for them in this country - and yet the NHS Interpreting Service have literally refused to call this number and appear unaware that the conditions of my wife's spousal visa continue to apply until a decision is made; and since the spousal visa includes the right to work, the NHS should therefore not be querying Emma on this point and, worse, actually refusing to offer her work she has every right to ask for.

We are aware that Leave to Remain decisions can, according to some reports, take six or even in some cases nine months to be decided. I feel that the NHS's position is untenable and counter to the law. We urgently request your help in finding out why the NHS continue to treat my wife as if she has no legal right to work, when the truth - that she is perfectly entitled to keep working - can easily be found on UKBA's own website."

...and that's the essence of the problem. She spent a lot of money on her application and needs to get it back, and that she can't work when she wants to is just untenable.

See also Sponsors, paranoia and unfair dismissal.