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Hi there,

I have a couple of questions. I'm in the process of divorcing my soon to be ex husband, and once it's done, I will be applying for retained residency rights. I was wondering if it is better to get a lawyer to deal with it. The form is enormous and confusing. Last time I did something myself, I missed the part about having a health insurance for our students years, and my ILR naturally didn't happen even though I've been here for almost 10 years. I theoretically can pay for a lawyer, but I can think of a few other ways to spend that money. It's not cheap. Or perhaps a consultantation and then checking my documents would be sufficient?
Also, I'm in a serious relationship with a British man, we are not living together yet, but we will soon. Can I not get a visa as his partner or does it have to be 2 years together? Alternatively, can I use him as my 'sponsor' or something along the lines? I mean, he makes quite a bit of money. Me - way less, and there will be proof in my bank account that he had been giving the me money.
I hear stories about getting rejected for ridiculous reasons like "your income is not high enough" or "you haven't integrated well with British society". I am quite worried.
Would much appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

Also, I'm in a serious relationship with a British man, we are not living together yet, but we will soon. Can I not get a visa as his partner or does it have to be 2 years together? Alternatively, can I use him as my 'sponsor' or something along the lines? I mean, he makes quite a bit of money. Me - way less, and there will be proof in my bank account that he had been giving the me money.

If you are only boyfriend/girlfriend, then no, there is no visa for you based on your British partner. If you are not married, you will have to prove that you have been living together in a 'relationship akin to marriage' for at least 2 years. If you are married, then yes, you can apply for a spouse visa (Postal cost is £811+ £500 immigration health surcharge) and you will have to wait 5 years (2 x 2.5 year visas) to qualify for ILR under the UK immigration rules.

Financial requirement to be met is £18,600pa and you need English A1.

How do you mean use him as your 'sponsor'?

If you have been in UK for 10 years you may have acquired PR already. (Note its PR if you are on EU route not ILR).
Are you sure you have not?
Were you refused previously due to lack of CSI?
What have you/sponsor done in UK for rest of those 10 years?

If you do get RoR you can still go on to acquire PR in your own right (that is the point of getting RoR).

Thanks for your replies.
Yes I was denied on the grounds of not having had the the CSI. My ex was a student/PG student, so needed to have it. He is in a full-time employment now.

Can you please advise regarding a lawyer? Cheers

CR001 wrote:

How do you mean use him as your 'sponsor'?

well, like say that he would support me financially or something along the lines. He could write a letter and give his bank statement. I don't know.. He does give me random chunks of money, so I would be able to prove it with my bank statement too.
I'm just worried I will get denied for some stupid reason like "you don't make enough money". I pretty much work only for pleasure. I'm more or less an eternal student planing on doing a PhD soon-ish. I'm currently working part-time in the company I'm going to eventually do my research with. It's a 0h contract, which is totally fine by me. Plus I get monthly money from my flat I rent out in my home country. Basically, I don't really need to work much. Unfortunately the home office might not see it that way

You get most of your EEA rights on the basis of what your husband has been doing, not on the basis of what you have been doing. For PR, I believe you can use the period up until the decree absolute. For retained rights, you have to be exercising treaty rights in order to retain EEA rights. It sounds as though you will need CSI in order to retain those rights, if you're going to exercise them as a student or as self-sufficient.

He is in a full-time employment right now and will be at the time of the divorce. However, he did not have a CSI during his student years. If he did, I would have a PR now as we were married for 7 years.
Would that be a problem?

I've got a CSI.

Explain your situation in a very simple way.

1, When you apply for PR in the past and got refused, did they issued you with another RC for years or not?

If the answer is yes then you may apply for ROR as you already married for more than 3 years but very importantly don't use the period that your EEA was a student without CSI as part of the 3 years. Because your right start again from when your EEA start demostrating new treaty right again.