Please help! Evidence of continuous stay - 20 year route

[NoGameNoLife]

Hi, I’ll keep this to the point.
My mother is going to be applying under the 20 year indefinite leave to remain. She came to the UK about 30 years ago with a visa, got married due to pregnancy and since then has overstayed her visa. She has no other family members alive and for 30 years has been taking care of us three siblings. We are now all at the ages where we are finally working with respectable jobs and she has now decided that she wants to apply in order to live a more comfortable life in the UK. We are struggling hard to find evidences of her continuous stay in the UK baring in mind that she’s been under the radar. Everything has been under my dads name or my brothers name when he was of age e.g house rental contracts. Would i be able to include those contracts with landlord details who have been in contact with her to settle rent through the years? She’s previously been registered to a doctors which can be used for the initial 10 years. She doesn’t have a bank, she pretty much has nothing and I am constantly in blame for causing her to live life this way. She has suffered without being able to go doctors and has been in hiding just to see us grow up and allow us to live respectable lives.
What are the chances of her being accepted under the 20 year rule? And what happens if it rejected?
Please help us.

[CR001]

What form are you completing??

[NoGameNoLife]

What form are you completing??

The form on the gov website on the basis of a right to a private life and with her being ‘25 or over and... been in the UK continuously for 20 years’.

[CR001]

It is not ILR though. It is FLR FP which is a 10 year route to ILR, 4 x 2.5 year visas.

[NoGameNoLife]

It is not ILR though. It is FLR FP which is a 10 year route to ILR, 4 x 2.5 year visas.

You are correct it is not ILR but as she is an overstayer and therefore not here legally, only the 20 year rule applied to our case. I’m just struggling on the evidences that would need to be provided as obviously she hasn’t been able to get a job or put her name on anything.

[CR001]

She really is in fairly precarious position and if you think like HO, she might have a difficult fight on her hands. So I will ask some questions that are relevant to how HO might view any application she makes.

My mother is going to be applying under the 20 year indefinite leave to remain.

As mentioned already, it is FLR(FP) 10 year route.

She came to the UK about 30 years ago with a visa,

What visa did she have when she came to the UK? How long was its validity for?? What is her nationality?? What is the husband's nationality??

got married due to pregnancy and since then has overstayed her visa.

How did she get married, with HO approval or an Islamic marraige?

She has no other family members alive and for 30 years has been taking care of us three siblings.

Did she use free NHS or did she pay for the ante natal, birth and post natal care for herself? HO have clamped down on huge amounts owed to the NHS and it can be a reason for refusal if there is no plan in place to pay the money back. Application forms now ask about NHS use and evidence of paying the bill.

We are now all at the ages where we are finally working with respectable jobs and she has now decided that she wants to apply in order to live a more comfortable life in the UK.

Are the children all British?? She would have had a far better chance if she had applied while ALL the children were still minors.

She doesn’t have a bank, she pretty much has nothing and I am constantly in blame for causing her to live life this way. She has suffered without being able to go doctors and has been in hiding just to see us grow up and allow us to live respectable lives.

What prevented her from returning home to apply for a spouse visa to regularise her stay or further leave to remain prior to now when the children are all adults??

What are the chances of her being accepted under the 20 year rule? And what happens if it rejected?

As I said, she likely faces an uphill battle and possibly a refusal. HO could likely take the view that there are no obstacles to her returning to her home country to apply for a spouse visa.

Does she have a valid passport??

[NoGameNoLife]

She really is in fairly precarious position and if you think like HO, she might have a difficult fight on her hands. So I will ask some questions that are relevant to how HO might view any application she makes.

My mother is going to be applying under the 20 year indefinite leave to remain.

As mentioned already, it is FLR(FP) 10 year route.

She came to the UK about 30 years ago with a visa,

What visa did she have when she came to the UK? How long was its validity for?? What is her nationality?? What is the husband's nationality??

got married due to pregnancy and since then has overstayed her visa.

How did she get married, with HO approval or an Islamic marraige?

She has no other family members alive and for 30 years has been taking care of us three siblings.

Did she use free NHS or did she pay for the ante natal, birth and post natal care for herself? HO have clamped down on huge amounts owed to the NHS and it can be a reason for refusal if there is no plan in place to pay the money back. Application forms now ask about NHS use and evidence of paying the bill.

We are now all at the ages where we are finally working with respectable jobs and she has now decided that she wants to apply in order to live a more comfortable life in the UK.

Are the children all British?? She would have had a far better chance if she had applied while ALL the children were still minors.

She doesn’t have a bank, she pretty much has nothing and I am constantly in blame for causing her to live life this way. She has suffered without being able to go doctors and has been in hiding just to see us grow up and allow us to live respectable lives.

What prevented her from returning home to apply for a spouse visa to regularise her stay or further leave to remain prior to now when the children are all adults??

What are the chances of her being accepted under the 20 year rule? And what happens if it rejected?

As I said, she likely faces an uphill battle and possibly a refusal. HO could likely take the view that there are no obstacles to her returning to her home country to apply for a spouse visa.

Does she have a valid passport??

When she came to the UK it was a working visa. Regarding validity, tbh I can’t answer that. I’ll have to check with her. But my dad is British. All of us children are British. She’s of chinese nationality but and was married with HO approval which we still have the marriage certificate. I believe that she was using the NHS as a free patient because my dad was receiving benefits and as was she. We were pretty much living in very tough conditions back then near homeless therefore, I think she was afraid that she wasn’t able to come back to look after us (there’s three of us). My dads very useles tbh. A huge gambler at the time so I think she didn’t want to run the risk of us losing us and not being able to come back into the country especially because she probably wouldn’t have had the money to come back. Also, her family members had all passed away or moved. She’s lost contact with them all so idk where she would go if she was to be sent back. And yes she does have a passport but not a British one. Just her old one that she came in with. I’m very worried that the chances are low now. Am I better of getting a solicitor to fight the case for us?

[Frontier Mole]

What is the 20 year rule on long residence?

What kinds of residence qualify for the 20 year rule?

The 20 year rule on long residence is contained at paragraph 276ADE(1)(iii) of the Immigration Rules. Under the 20 year rule, a person does not have to have lived in the UK lawfully, but simply “continuously”.

The definition of “continuous residence” is almost the same as for the 10 year lawful residence route. However, time spent in prison will not break continuous residence. Instead time in prison will simply not be counted towards the period of residence. Time before and after imprisonment can be aggregated to make up the full amount of time.

What prevents a person from qualifying for the 20 year rule?

The only requirements to meet under the 20 year rule are:

not falling for refusal under Section S-LTR.1.2-2.3 and S-LTR.3.1 of Appendix FM, known as “the suitability grounds”;
making a valid application for leave; and
having lived continuously in the UK for at least 20 years
Therefore, where an applicant has had 20 years continuous residence in the UK, their application may only be refused on suitability grounds (generally on grounds of public good) or if their application is not valid (for example, they did not pay the correct fee).

What kind of status does the 20 year rule lead to?

If the application is successful, an individual will be granted limited leave to remain for a period of 30 months. It will usually have a condition of “No Recourse to Public Funds” attached to it.

A person will then be eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain once they have accumulated a period of 120 months (i.e. 10 years) lawful residence. So, under the 20 year rule, it will be 30 years from entry to the UK before the person is eligible to apply for settlement.

Extract from Freedom of Movement web pages