Discretionary Leave (DL)

[obanzu001]

My wife was granted 3 years DL in July 2010- (she had an ongoing student visa); had applied for ILR due to my settled status, but was granted DL instead; In July 2013, she applied for an extension on the DL form, with a request to be granted ILR on special consideration. Home Office confirmed receipt of the application but failed to formerly acknowledge the receipt. In December 2013, Home office sent an email to claim there has been an internal misplacement and loss of the application and asked for a copy or a new form to be completed.

We kept a copy of the application but it was in a minimized 2x a page, so we completed a new DL form in January and returned it to Home Office. Home Office has now returned the application claiming it was invalid, and asking her to complete a FLR(O).

My understanding is that as of July 2013, the DL form was the appropriate form for the extension application; Home Office apparently changed this rule in October 2013. Hence in a case where the application was lost internally, Home Office should be accountable for that and consider my wife's application resubmitted in January 2014 as valid.

Please advice on the right course of action for us to take, and direct us to changes to DL rules since July 2013. Thank you.

[Amber]

DL would only have been correct if she'd been granted leave after a failed asylum application I'm afraid it's FLR(O).