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Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:25 pm
by Minh2002
Hello everyone,

I need your help to be clear with my action to apply ILR.

Here is my situation:
- I work with Tier 2 General visa
- My passport was STOLEN a while ago. I have a crime reference number
- I should make effort to get accurate exit and entrance records
- I requested my travel history data to Home office
- I used this https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... mmigration to obtain basic information
- It turned out that Home Office didn't hold almost all of my records
- They had just a few of my landing cards. I travelled more than four times in the past five years


I got this answer from Home Office:
Thank you for your Subject Access Request which we received on DD/MM/YYYY. We have now possessed this and enclose copies of the data we hold.
You have only requested IT records. The data enclosed will include records from our case working database (including caseworker notes, a summary of immigration history, decisions and details of any appeals), Entry Clearance and Landing Card Records.
Please note not all Landing Cards are retained by the Home Office - for example, those cards for foreign nationals who are simply re-entering on their existing long-term permission to remain are not retained. This may explain why we do not hold card copies or records for each time you have travelled.

Question:
[1] Has anyone experienced this (your entrance/exit records are not saved by Home Office)?

[2] Is there anything else I can do? I want to make my application as accurate as possible.

Items that I can submit are:
- PDF of my old passport. Luckily I have a copy of my stolen passport pages, but not all of them. Some stamps are missing because I didn't scan the pages and because I didn't receive stamps from some countries.
- Purchase records of my past trips

Re: Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:13 am
by zimba
You do not need to provide proof of your exit/entry dates. Just answer the questions as accurately as possible but you do not need to worry if you are nowhere near the absence limit

Re: Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 9:37 am
by Minh2002
Thank you for the comment. My concern is that I have one year that I spent a lot of time outside UK. Possibly, close to 180 days including paid holidays and business trips. Is there anything else that I can do other than submitting a good cover letter to case workers? I want to do my best.

Re: Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 11:21 am
by bizman
Yes just explain your situation in a detailed cover letter and I think you should be ok.

Re: Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 3:36 pm
by Minh2002
Thank you very much! I will write a good cover letter.

Slightly different topic: The Home Office said they didn't hold my travel history. Is there any way for case workers to check my records?? I wish I could add the data to the application...

Re: Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 4:54 am
by Frontier Mole
For the avoidance of doubt the Home Office does not routinely cross match the travel information it does hold from third parties to your personal record. If you have done your SAR and got the response you did for all intents and purposes that is it.
Declare to the best of your knowledge and you are covered.

Good luck

Re: Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:50 pm
by Minh2002
Thank you!

Will Home Office question about my lost passport? It happened about a month ago while I was preparing for my ILR application. I was thinking to submit my documents to HO in a week from today before I lost it.

I am wondering if I should wait for a while before applying ILR. I have been feeling extremely anxious.... please help.

Re: Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:52 pm
by bizman
Have you reported it to police

Re: Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 9:01 am
by Minh2002
Yes I have. I reported to the police immediately when I found my passport was gone. I have got a crime reference number.

Re: Home Office DIDN'T have my travel history - what should I do?

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:30 am
by bizman
Great, that solves the problem. However you need a new passport
To go with your application. You can do that with your country’s embassy in UK . I think it’s still a basic requirement for your application to be valid. I’m not really sure about this anyway.