Awaiting ILR decision for Spouse, can we travel?

[natty]

Hi

I will try and explain this in brief!

As my Husband (South African) has now been resident for over two years we recently applied for Indefinite Leave to Remain.

BACKGROUND INFO:
As we have arranged to visit South Africa for four weeks, from the 11th of Dec 2008, we chose to use the ‘fast track’ system to present the documentation.
Bren travelled, with all documentation and forms, to the Liverpool Home Office (as no suitable appointments were available at the Croydon Office) on the 7th of November 2008 and paid the fee of £950
When the information was being processed my husband was advised that there was a discrepancy with my address details. The documentation asked for evidence to show that both of us had resided at the same address for the last two years. This was presented and supported, as requested, by two pieces of evidence relating to each of the three addresses (i.e. six documents) that we have lived at during this time. However, the staff member at the Office stated that they required this evidence to be presented to reflect the address within a maximum of six monthly periods. We were unaware of this specific requirement as it was not stated on the application form guidelines and two of our documents were over a nine month period. Therefore, the Office declined to process the application on the ‘fast track system’ and forwarded the paperwork to the Croydon Head Office for their advice and approval in respect of this visa application being granted.

We have since tried to contact the Home office who will not give any info re: our application until we have been waiting for over 13 weeks, so we went to our MP, who is trying to help us get this sorted however we travel in 1 week and my husbands sister is not well and he is getting quite upset that we may miss the holiday, the reason we need to travel now is that we are also going on a 4 week trip around southern africa and its really a once in a lifetime thing.

My question is ...does any one have any idea whether it is possible to retrive my Husbands passport for the trip and continue with our application on return to the UK. Can he get a visa extension at all?

Thankyou...sorry its all a bit long winded!

Nat