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criminal conviction and uk spouse visa?

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shanade
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criminal conviction and uk spouse visa?

Post by shanade » Sat Jun 18, 2011 8:55 pm

Hi All,

My apologies for this very long post, it's just that the case is a little complex.

Background:

I am a dual British woman married to an Egyptian national.

My husband was married in Sweden in 03/2002, and has a daughter from that marriage.

In 12/2004 his then wife brought domestic violence charges against him and in 01/2005 he was convicted in the abscence of any evidence solely her testimony, and word of mouth 'witnesses' who simply relayed in court a somewhat 'second-hand' testimony, simply confirming what she had relayed to them and all 3 of these'witnesses' stated they had never seen the 'victim' with any kind of injury.

My husband was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment 12 of which he would actually serve.

Also his permanent residence in Sweden was cancelled which would mean he would be deported to Egypt upon completion of his sentence.

He appealed to the Court of appeal in Stockholm but the judgement was upheld.

In 07/2005 My husband entered the UK on a tourist visa that had been issued at the British embassy in Stockholm.

He was divorced in his absence in 12/2005 for which we have the divorce certificate.

We met in 05/2006 and were married in an Islamic ceremony in 07/2006 and in the Church of England in 05/2008.

In 03/2010 my husband surrendered to an EU warrant issued by Sweden and was arrested by appointment and subsequently extradited to Sweden to serve his custodial sentence.

Whilst incarcerated, my husband & I wrote to the EU court of human rights as well as the EU courts of justice and the supreme court of Sweden to request a re-trial on the grounds that he was trialed without any evidence, but it was to no avail.

My husband was released in Sweden in 02/2011 where I joined him and we relentlessly tried to obtain help from lawyers but again to no avail.

In 04/2011 my husband purchased tickets and returned on his own accord to Egypt and I returned to the UK.

I have joined my husband in Egypt on 24/05 and we are at present preparing all relevent documents to lodge an application for a UK spouse/married visa whilst we await the result of his cambridge esol exam.

We have extensive evidence of our relationship as well as several letters/cards from/to each other and of me travelling from the UK to Sweden to visit him whilst in prison.

My husband has no other criminal convictions in any other country and there has never been any domestic violence within our marriage.
He has several glowing character references from friends, members of my family, and colleagues from the hotel that he worked at as a chef in London.

I would like to know will the fact that he has a criminal conviction practically guarantee us a refusal?

And if so, what kind of chances would we stand of winning an appeal?

We don't have any children as of yet but can document that we have been in a relationship for 5 years.

Any help much appreciated

Many Thanks

PaperPusher
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Post by PaperPusher » Sat Jun 18, 2011 10:54 pm

A person's testimony is evidence. God forbid you were ever attacked or something like that and it came down to your testimony and that you told friends close to the event.

Luckily, unlike some countries, women's testimony still counts as evidence. As does hearsay evidence in some cases.

I read loads of immigration appeals, and one thing that does not count in someone's favour is a lack of remorse.

Character statements that take absolutely no account of the fact that someone has spent a lengthy prison sentence for violence aren't particularly credible because they are self serving and obviously not the complete truth.

You say he has a reference from a hotel he worked at in London. If that was while he was on a tourist visa or had overstayed, working illegally is a criminal offence.

I also wonder if he declared his conviction on any UK visa applications? If not and he was asked, that is also a crime.

I could go on, but I think he should get legal advice rather than ask on a forum.

shanade
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Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2010 12:11 pm
Location: london

Post by shanade » Sun Jun 19, 2011 12:31 am

I understand that in some cases testimony would be the only evidence available.

But it's deplorable that if God forbid I was raped in Sweden today, I could not convict my attacker with solely my testimony.

A few years back the supreme court of Sweden set a new precedence that an alleged rape victim could no longer convict her attacker without some form of technical evidence, and as a result of that precedence 2 convicts previously found guilty of rape were acquitted released and compensated. That alone is a terrible law to pass, and it's unfair that in a rape or sexual assault that can occur in avery short space of time, that a victim is required to produce evidence, and yet in an alleged 3 year campaign of domestic violence not one doctors report or previous police reports even exist.

And in our case this is a woman who has harrassed us subsequently by telephone at 4 and 5am requesting money constantly and asking my husband by text message to 'forgive me, as I made the biggest mistake of my life.' etc.

But that is not what i'm here to debate, I was not a party in their marriage and I only confirm facts that I have seen heard, and the fact that we have had the whole case translated and it was an extremely weak case.

The character references are neither false or self serving, they are peoples statements of how they have genuinely found my husband to be as a person.

Solicitors have told me that working illegally is no longer relevant when applying in the spouse category.

PaperPusher
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Post by PaperPusher » Sun Jun 19, 2011 12:23 pm

A character reference from someone who knows your husband through his criminal activity (illegal working) possibly written from someone who is a criminal themselves (an employer knowingly employing an illegal worker) should not be totally glowing, if it is, it is what is called self serving. If it doesn't mention his conviction, then either the person doesn't know your husband very well and therefore how can the statement be relied upon? Or even worse, they know about the conviction but don't think a lengthy prison sentence is even worthy of mention, then should that person's statement be taken any notice of?

In the UK studies have shown that women who are victims of domestic violence only report it after being attacked on average on 36 previous occasions.

I certainly know women and men who never ever reported it to the police or went to their GP.

Just remember that you will be most at risk when pregnant. That is when domestic violence often either starts or escalates.

If he has a solicitor then you should listen to them.

Illegal working doesn't result in an automatic refusal for spouses, but it certainly could be relevant as part of a bigger picture.

shanade
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Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2010 12:11 pm
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Post by shanade » Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:06 pm

http://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article10816223.ab


Lack of evidence and closed trials are a very common problem in Sweden.
This is a newspaper article in Sweden about 15 solicitors that have written to the minister of justice complaining of the lack of evidence used in many trials involving males and domestic/family crime.

Unfortunatly we don't live in a world where no-one ever lies, where there has never been even one wrongful conviction.
Not everything is that black and white.

My husbands ex-wife is that stable that during a visit to the tax office in Stockholm we were presented with paperwork showing that she has had 2 other children and registered them as his under his surname despite the fact that around the time of their conception he was living as an illegal immigrant in London. And had no contact with her until recently when she begged his family in Egypt for our landline number.

I would never condone violence against any gender on any scale, it is always inexusable, but that does not mean that every single person convicted of a crime is guilty, and I fail to see how one can be proven guilty 'beyond reasonable doubt' on solely testimony. I once accompanied a friend of mine to the police station in the UK as she wanted to report her husband for hitting her in the past, and the police officer told us straight away that she would need to bring a log from her gp detailing visits she'd made with injuries and also asked us why she had not telephoned the police at the time of the assault, now whether that's right or wrong, that is what happened.

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