Private Life Rule Questions

[MM54321]

Hi everyone,

If anyone has any info on the following, I'd really appreciate the help because researching these visas and conditions is not going so well for me. Basically my situations is this, I'm a British citizen, my partners (non EEA) application (one made without reference to being in a relationship) was refused and there's not much grounds for appeal as far as the paperwork is concerned. However, we're in a serious relationship and have been planning our wedding (for next year) since before we got the refusal letter. However, and I've since been told we can claim professional negligence to explain the lapse in time, our lawyer passed us the letter with just days to go before my partner became an overstayer.

Now we're in the process of working out which application to submit but there's a problem. We've been together for over 2 years but only living together officially for one year, which rules out the 2yr unmarried partner, so we decided private life 10yr route except he's been here for just over 9 years. Does anyone know if there have been successful claims to the 10 year private life if you fall short on the time? I would have assumed not, but I just want to check if there's a discretionary allowance for things like this if we took any rejection to appeal?

Ultimately in the long run where we end up is not a problem, but for now we just need a way of staying here for the big family wedding and for saving up a bit. Getting really stressed out, any help would be appreciated. Thank you!