ilm wrote:Here are my none professional thoughts from someone has been here for a while and had first hand exprience of a spouse who was an overstayer.
1, If you are married you can apply for a spouse visa, if not it is either a fiance visa or any other visa that leads to settlement in the UK if you qualify. The time you have lived together in the UK won't cound for unmarried partners BTW.
2, I don't know how you can chase the application, read how others having one about it on these boards. Based on the 'facts' though it is very unlikely your application will be accepted anyway as you will see if you read posts on this board about overstayers. Also overstayers can't study and can't work.
Obviously you feel there are 'compassionate grounds' which may make a difference but as you havn't mentioned them I assume they are not very strong. Everyone in your position, I know from experience, feels their case is special and should get special treatment. The simple fact is overstayers in the UK get very little sympathy and have to follow the rules just like everyone else.
Best of luck with whatever you do. Read up on your situation and come back with more specific questions about you options, you are far more likely to get helpful replies. It is posible to resolve you situation but it won't be easy.
Thank you for you thoughts, I do appreciate that.
With regard "the compassionate ground of my application" they are as follow:
Reasons for the application
i). I am precluded from making an application under paragraphs 295 of HC 395 as amended because I do not have limited leave having overstayed my leave.
ii). However, I am the unmarried partner of a person present and settled here in the United Kingdom and we have lived together in a relationship akin to marriage for over two years and would have benefited from the Home Office policy DP/3/96.
iii). X my partner has a highly paid job in the United Kingdom and she is unlikely to find a similar job in my country and it would be unreasonable to expect her to leave this job as it would drastically affect her earning power. Moreover my partner X is a Christian, does not speak French or Arabic and as a woman will find it difficult to adjust in a strange culture.
iv). I was genuinely unaware that I needed to do anything about my leave to remain assuming that cohabitation with my partner, a British citizen, in a relationship akin to marriage was enough. Before then I had a good immigration history.
v). Because of my conversion from Islam to Christianity, it is risky for me to return to my country even for a very short time to apply for entry clearance under paragraphs 295D of HC 395. The current political climate means that such conversion would be seen as a sell out and I could be killed or at the very least the punishment which could be from non-state actors (in circumstances where the state is either unable or unwilling to interfere) is likely to be inhuman and degrading within the ambit of Article 3 of the ECHR and consequently the United Kingdom would be in breach of her treaty obligations.
vi). I am not aware that the Secretary of State has initiated enforcement action which would stop the clock.
vii). The fact that me and my partner have lived together for over two years means that there are human rights considerations within the ambit of Article 8 of the ECHR. Whilst it is conceded that the right to private and family life is not absolute, it would nevertheless be a disproportionate interference to refuse the application on the grounds that it is unreasonable to expect my partner to go and live in my country given the economic and socio-cultural disadvantages, but more importantly if I return to my country to seek entry clearance, I run the risk of being killed or at the very least subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. This set of factors would tip the balance of proportionality and satisfy the high threshold of truly exceptional compassionate circumstances set by the House of Lords in cases such as
Huang and
N.
viii). I have a very good relationship with my partner's adult children and I currently look after her father who is very ill.
Home Office Policy in marriage cases outside the Immigration Rules – DP3/96:
The Policy as far as is necessary for this case states that action to force a foreign spouse to leave should not normally be started:
“where the subject has a genuine and subsisting marriage with someone settled here and the couple has lived together in this country continuously since their marriage for at least two years before the commencement of enforcement action and it is unreasonable to expect the settled spouse to accompany his/her spouse on removalâ€
