vg1aes wrote:Hello to Everyone,
I am new to this forum and thought of sharing my life in UK and the time line of the application, to get some relief from this agonising wait to get ILR.
I am a Srilankan refugee granted five years leave to remain in Jan/2011 and ended in feb/2016, Since granting leave to remain i have worked hard to get a bachelor’s degree whilst working part time during my entire study, i got a fantastic opportunity to do a master’s degree from one of the Russell group of universities with a full scholarship which I took and graduated with a MSc this September, since graduating I have been actively looking for a graduate scheme job whilst working in a restaurant, During my entire stay in UK I have lived clean without getting into trouble by any of the UK government Departments yet my time line is:-
Date of Application Sent: - 13/01/2016
BRP enrolment done: - 14/02/2016
I received a letter from the HO dated 04/05/2016 stating that they cannot conclude my case with in the standard of six months because they were waiting for some information about my application from a another government department and they would hope to conclude my case by 13/10/2016, on 16/10/2016 I received the same letter saying that they would hope to conclude my case by 10/02/2017.
I hoping that someone who was or currently in my situation would direct me towards taking the next step or to continue to wait.
Many Thanks
Vg1aes
Hi Vg1aes!
First of all, congrats on completing both Bachelor's and Master's degree as many Sri Lankans i know have given up half-way through the course due to financial burden, and other issues.
I am a Sri Lankan refugee too, and I got refugee status in June 2011 and I applied for ILR in May 2016 and got ILR in October 2016.
Based on your time line, your application has seems to have passed the following stages
1. You have met the eligibility criteria - 5 Years since granted and no revocation of status in between, and have not travelled back to home country
2. You have submitted your application On/in time
3. You have submitted all the necessary documents
4. Details filled in the Set P form are valid
So it means your application has gone through all the initial stages of the processing workflow successfully and the following are two most likely scenarios why they are delaying the decision
1. The case worker who handles your case at Liverpool office has made a decision but not sure about it so waiting for Senior or other higher officers to check and approve it
2. The case worker is not able to make a decision so passed it on to Status Review Unit - which does a deep review of the case - This takes longer due to nature of the in-depth review and number applications in the queue for deep review.
If your application falls within the first scenario, you might get a response sooner than if its yours in second scenario.
If the application goes to deep review, they will mainly check the following
1. If your fear of going back to Sri Lanka is still well founded
2. They would also check if the reasons for you become refugee cease to exist
3. And they will also check the country information guide to check if there are significant changes to the situation in Sri lanka
Personally, i think your case is with Status Review team for Deep review. I do know few of my friends have not received response even after 1.5 years. Since the UKVI now considers Sri lanka situation have improved a lot, they started reviewing more and more cases. If your asylum case is strong, even if it goes through DR, you would get positive outcome as you do not have any other negative or criminal records.
Not sure what documents you have submitted with your ILR application, if I were you, i would have sent my degree certificates, and any tax contribution documents as well to increase the weight on good character part and also how useful you would be to this country and economy as a skilled worker.
Now, about next steps your could take i would suggest the following
[ ] You could first write to your local MP - (You could do that here online first :
https://www.writetothem.com/) and get an appointment, meet them in person, explain your situation saying that you cant go back, also mention you have been a good character in the UK, you could also show your BSc and MSc certifications and other achievements. The MPs will always be in helpful attitude as they normally would not like to upset their constituents. What the MP will do is to write a recommendation or enquary lettter to Home Office - This will force the HO to give you a decision faster. And this process will never have any negative impact on the outcome of your case - So I would say you could try this straight away so that they wont delay again in Feb.
Now, with all the hope and luck, your outcome would be positive.
Even if you get a negative outcome, you should be able to get through appeals.
I would also suggest that better to get the ILR sorted first to get into any graduate job as even if you successfully complete telephone interview and full interview and get an offer, they will be unwilling to proceed after seeing the Visa letter as it does not clearly say how long you are allowed to stay here. You could prepare or lean more in the mean time so that when you get the visa, you will get the job easily.
Note : I do not visit this forum much anymore as I got my ILR but I will try and check on Sunday if you need any more info.
Not sure if you have seen these videos :
Weblink 1 removed by moderator
Weblink 2 removed by moderator - This happens only on very rare cases but just giving the link here so that you are aware of them.
Best of luck
