Advice on best way forward UK national/Turkish national

[nixxy7]

Hello, this is the first time I have ever asked for advice on a forum and I hope I am not repeating a question someone else has asked before.

I am a UK national and my partner is from Turkey. He has been in the UK for 8 years and is an overstayer (for about 5 years). We have a 5 and a half year old daughter and I have a 12 year old daughter from prev. relationship. We have been together for 6 and half years. I am looking for some advice on the best way forward to help him stay with us legally pref without him leaving the UK. We do not live together as always scared about any trouble we might get into. I work part-time and receive working tax/child tax credit. He has a NI number and has worked legally and cash in hand before. He now has his own business for about 6 months as we thought that he could apply for visa this way due to EEA assoc agreement but have been told that isn't a good way to go as rarely works. He has registered with accountant and paying tax but business not doing fantastic. We would like to get married and do everything properly as a couple but I have looked on the home office web site and although it looks like we can apply for a certificate of approval, it says that if you are an overstayer they may try to deport you anyway (not those exact words but i guess thats what they mean. Thought about going directly to Church of England but as he is Muslim, not sure if they would marry us anyway.

The problem is that we are scared to draw any attention to ourselves in case its makes our situation, that is already fairly stressful and upsetting, worse!

Any advice would be very gratefully received. Thank you in advance.

[John]

nixxy7, welcome to this forum.

The first thing I have to say is that because he is an overstayer he has no right to work in the UK, and that includes his self-employment. You say he has a NINO but that, by itself, has never been sufficient to allow someone to work. After all someone might have been legally in the UK, on say a Work Permit or student visa, and been allocated a NINO, but now their visa has expired = no right to work!

To make matters worse he really does need to leave the UK in the near future, and certainly before 01.10.08. If he is still in the UK at that time then when he does eventually apply for a visa he will be banned from coming back for a period of time.

I think the plan needs to be :-

• he returns to Turkey forthwith
• you fly to Turkey and the two of you get married there
• he then applies for a spouse visa to permit his return to the UK

[nixxy7]

Hi John

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me. I understand what you are saying to me and I was hoping that we would not have to go down this route. I have known people to go this way, and it takes a long time and they have had to go backwards and forwards to turkey, etc. Both my kids are school age, the oldest has ADHD/learning difficulties and mixed behaviour disorders and is just moving to High School - any major disruptions/upsets in her life cause tremendous upsets and have a massive impact on her emotional well being. This was one of the reasons why I was hoping to keep things as least disruptive as possible. This child is also not my partner's daughter and she has a relationship with her own father that needs to be maintained as much as poss. I do not mean to sound selfish as I know from reading some of the posts that lots of people have been through much worse and are separated for long periods of time.

I have a few questions, which I hope you don't mind answering if you can:

Is it worth applying in country for a COA and would it make any difference that we have a 5 and a half year old daughter who has a UK passport?
Does apply for a COA automatically instigate deportation proceeedings?
Does it take a long time for a COA to be given and can they refuse a COA for an overstayer?
Does human rights come into this equation anywhere?
Can he apply in country under the rights of being a parent to child living; I cannot go to live in turkey as my other daughter has a relationship with her own father who lives here - or doesn't this count?

I am sorry to ask so much and go on a bit, but I didn't know that the rules were changing in Oct. and now I am starting to panic.

Also, I have a friend who is a member of the local church and the vicar is a good friend of hers, she has offered to speak to him and make an appointment for us to go and speak to him and see whether he would be willing to marry us. I will obviously tell him everything and he would have to decide whether he would be willing to do this. Am I right in thinking that a vicar from the Church of England can marry a couple without a COA as long as they believe that it is a valid relationship?

Thank you once again for any advice you can give.

[nixxy7]

I have just thought of something else that I don't know if it is relevant or will help or not. My partner has two brothers and their families living in the UK, they both have UK passports and families have ILR, poss citizenship now. He also has a sister and her family living here with Austrian passports. Most of his family, cousins, etc live in the UK - only his mum and dad left in Turkey.