ILR - late application due to confusion from home office

[Zcabaam]

Hi everyone,

I hope you can help me.

I am a British citizen. I married my wife about 1.5 years ago in a religious ceremony. She has been in the UK for over 14 years on a different leave to remain family visa.

Her visa expired at the end of March.

They were applicable to apply for ILR at the time however due to finance issues, my wife's family applied to extend their Leave to Remain visa. My wife's mother then applied for a fee waiver, but seems to have made a human error, in selecting to just apply for a fee waiver for herself and not my wife and her sister, as this is what she has always done previously, as they are both her dependents.

The home office replied giving a fee waiver for my wife's mother, saying it isn't applicable for my wife and her sister and that they have overstayed all this time, as there was no fee waiver application for them in the first place. They also mentioned that they have now overstayed for a few months and their application would be viewed as an out of date application.

Is it ok for us to just apply to ILR now even though it is an out of date application if we explain the human error which is what caused this problem or will it automatically be rejected?

Should she apply for a fee waiver even though it is out of date and try apply again for LTR?

Or what other options do you think we can use?

My wife has lived here legally for 14 years, more than half her life and this overstaying has only occurred due to a human error because of confusion.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Zcabaam]

Can somebody please help