Please Help - At our wits end... MP involved...

[Mercyknight]

Hi all,

Please forgive me for the length of this post, but I need to explain the situation in full.

I am British and my wife is South African (we've been married since 2009).

In 2008 she had been classed as an over stayer as the home office had not replied to her application to stay in the UK since 2006 even though she had chased this up on numerous occasions.

So in 2008 we took the case to tribunal and we won and the judge granted discretionary leave to remain on humanitarian grounds.

She was granted LLR (Discretionary Leave) for 3 years which expired in October. We followed the guidance on the UKBA website and were advised to send a HPDL form.

We had a letter back saying that it is invalid and that she needs to pay £550 for some other visa. We completed the new VISA application which is FLR (O) after hearing back at the end of December 2011 that we'd sent the wrong form (even though their website stated that because my wife's visa was based on Human Rights she could apply via the HPDL form. They sent us a letter simply requesting a payment for the correct VISA. We promptly completed the application for and sent the payment. Done and dusted by 3rd January 2012.

So the beginning of July my wife was offered a new job and required her visa asap. We were able to ring the home office up because it was past the 6 month deadline who advised us to contact the Sheffield Home Office via fax (Which we did twice but with no response).

The company also required my wife's passport. We spoke to the Home Office who advised that we could have our documents back as they were just for verification purposes. And my wife specifically asked them "Will this effect the application?", to which they replied it would not. Since then we've received our marriage certificate and her passport back, weirdly they've still got my passport.

So because of the desperation of my wife needing the visa to support our family which includes our 18 month old boy we decided that we'd exhausted every avenue after writing, faxing and phoning the home office and them not being able to provide an update, we decided to contact our local MP.

Our MP has now got involved and spoken to the Home Office numerous times on our behalf, they keep fobbing him off without reason. Today our MP contacted the home office and emailed my wife this:

____________

I have just spoken to someone at UK Border Office and she says that Mr. Barron’s letter is currently being looked at. I have asked if she can try and speed things up, but she says although she will try and argue the case that you have a job offer on hold which you may lose if you do not get your visa soon. However, she did not seem that confident that you would get your visa, as you were out of time, despite the explanation given, and also that you have applied under a different criteria, (human rights) which would need looking into. She also told me that you had asked for your passport back to give to your potential employers, but that if this happened you would be asked to leave the country. If you are refused the visa, she says you would probably be asked to return to South Africa and apply to return to the UK as the wife of a UK citizen.

________________

As you can understand this is an extremely disconcerting email to receive back. I can't believe that my wife is being treated like this. Threatening that she'll have to leave the country, especially when she has an 18month old baby, is married to a British Citizen and this is clearly in breach of her human rights:

1. Right to respect for private and family life
2. Right to life (as previously ruled in 2008 by a judge against the home office)

It's become extremely costly in finance and time pursuing this. Does anyone have any help, guidance, or direction.

We're considering going to the press because the case is so ludicrous. Also we're considering suing the Home Office due to miscommunication causing loss of earnings, potential job oppurtunity loss (job offer expires next week)...

Anybody, please help...

[Mercyknight]

Anyone?

[peppekalle]

Your mp has said your wife's case is being looked into.They will certainly be looking into the case and hopefully she will be given status.

Do you really want to incur extra legal costs with no guarantee of success?I understand your frustration but involving the press won't get your wife's matter sorted any quicker.

Trust your mp and let him or her do all the chasing for you.

[asim72]

Where did you get the information or what made you think that form HPDL was the correct form for your wife's application?

I am afraid that it was your fault and your fault only to use an incorrect form. UKBA is not to blame for this at all.

[Mercyknight]

Asim, I've copied and pasted this directly from the Home Office website:

Discretionary leave
If we do not recognise you as a refugee or a person who qualifies for humanitarian protection, we may give you another type of temporary permission to stay in the UK. This permission is called 'discretionary leave to remain'. How long you are allowed to stay will depend on your circumstances, but it is unlikely to be more than three years initially.

We will only give you discretionary leave to remain in limited circumstances. If you apply to renew it when it expires, we will review your circumstances before deciding whether to give you further permission to stay. See Active review for more details. You will not be able to apply for permanent residence until you have lived in the UK for at least six years (or 10 years in some cases). To extend your residence permit or apply for permanent residence, you will need to complete application form HPDL - see Extend your visa for more information.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/asylu ... toremain/#

As you can see the outcome of our judgement was given Discretionary Leave to Remain on the basis of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) arguing that my removal from the UK will result in breach of the UK's obligation under Article 8 of the ECHR and that interference of the UK Authorities in a person's private and family life will be an unreasonable and disproportionate interference.

That's where Asim, how can you possibly say that we were wrong on this basis? UKBA are to blame for this...

[asim72]

Did your wife every apply for political asylum in UK?

[Mercyknight]

No,

She was going to be deported and then we took it to a AIT. The judge ruled in her favour under human rights and she was granted discretionary leave.

[asim72]

I know that not everyone is an expert. But I just wanted to point out where you got it wrong, and filled up the form which was totally wrong for the type of application.

On the very first page of form HPDL it reads:

Application for an extension of stay in the United Kingdom or settlement in accordance with the Home Office policies on Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave by a person who, following refusal of asylum, was granted one of the following:
• Less than four years Exceptional Leave • Humanitarian Protection • Discretionary Leave


Now please read the above carefully, and see if you can work out where you got it wrong.

[Mercyknight]

So conflicting info on the Home Office website? So like I said, their fault...

[asim72]

I do not see any conflict of info. They have mentioned what the form is for in the simplest english that exists.

Inform police, following an accident.
Inform insurance, following an accident.
Warn other road users, following an accident.

Its clear that above advice is, following an accident.
For something to be following an accident, the accident has to occur in the first place.

So what could following refusal of asylum mean?

It would mean something that happens after the refusal of asylum.

Refusal of asylum could only ever happen if asylum has been applied for.

[Mercyknight]

Do you understand the word conflicting?

Discretionary leave
If we do not recognise you as a refugee or a person who qualifies for humanitarian protection, we may give you another type of temporary permission to stay in the UK. This permission is called 'discretionary leave to remain'

- So to break it down for you Asim... If we were not recognised as a refugee or looking for humanitarian protection, which was the case. *tick* - we get discretionary leave...

"you will need to complete application form HPDL" *tick*

So on their website we cover both areas. On the HPDL form it also states exactly what you said, however the form is from 06/2009 and the website info is from 20/07/2011 so therefore the info on their website trumps the form...

Surely you understand that?

[asim72]

Now,
I must say you are a person who has a tunnel vision, and tend to do jumbled and disorganized selective reading.

You have been clicking and reading on the asylum section of the UK website from the beginning.

Your whole plan from the applications process, talking to your MP, and then asking and then giving counter arguments on this forum has been entirely based on you looking at the information contained in asylum section of the UKBA website.

So basically your plan was to do a research on apple. But at the end of research, someone correctly told you that what you have been researching on is not an apple, but an orange.

Check the link you yourself provided. Its a link from asylum section of UKBA website.

Now, the question is, why did you click on the asylum section of UKBA website?


You read some information which has nothing to do with you, and then superimposed that information into your brain. Its your who has been at fault from day one.


Anyways, I ain't wasting my time anymore

Good Luck.