I am new to this forum for positng, however have checked for advice in the past. I was hoping that someone would have knowledge of the problem that we have and be able to offer some advice.
I am a British Citizen and my husband and I used to live in the UAE. We cam beack to the UK in 2010 when my husband got Spouse Entry Clearance. We entered the UK in Nov 2010 and have since lived within the rules. I have a good paying job and he is studying Engineering currently (however my salary is enough to cover us and children).
His visa expired on 26th Januray 2013 and prior to this, we planned everything for his ILR in September 2012 with an appointment in Nov 2012 at the Belfast PEO.
Four days before our PEO appointment on 29th November 2012, we were out for dinner when an incident occured at the Hilton Hotel we were in.
What happened was that I felt unwell and was sick. The bouncers came up and started to be abusive. They then out of nowhere dragged by husband by the back of the neck and dragged him through the lounge with 4 others beating him up in the lift down. They called the police and lied that my husband had intentionally bit one of the bouncers! (The only injury he may have caused would have been when defending himself).
Therefore my husband was arrested for GBH (yes GBH for suspected biting!!)
To cut a long story short, we then attended the PEO appointment on 29th November and everything was fine and accepted until he did his biometrics. Upon the checking they found that he had been arreseted for this incident and that it was a prosecution pending therefore they could not offer the ILR until the outcome.
The one problem was that we were travelling in eurpoe with my Employers the week after and could not get out of this therefore had to withdraw the application and lost the full £1377!
In the first week of January, the police had investigated the evidence and CCTV and found that my husband had not been in the wrong. They gave him a no furtehr action letter and cancellation of bail.
We called the UKBA PEO in Belfast to get an emergency appointment as they knew about our case and agreed for the 24th January (2 days before expiry of visa).
However, the rules have since changed on 13th December and this affects my husband in the category of mandatory refusal for people who have had a court fine within 24 months of application! He had a fine in August 2011 which will become spent in August 2013.
We were confused around this and at the PEO they said my husband would have to apply for FLR (M) instead until August this year.
So as we were at the appointment we asked could he then do the FLR M application and they said no because he would have to prove English language with a certificate which was accepted by UKBA.
He has City and Guilds Literacy Levels 1 and 2 and Life in the UK but none of these were acceptable.
So we had to return and I immediately booked him on the IELTS exam on 2nd Feb.
We are now waitng for his exam reults which I have no doubt he will pass and we will then have to apply for FLR(M).
Now, the problem is, we have an appointment in Cardiff on 19th Feb and the 28 days grace period after visa expiry is on 22nd Feb. I called the PEO office in Belfast and they said he will have to apply for the FLR (M) by post as they cannot do it there but when I asked the IAS for immigration advice they said it is possible in the PEO as long as it is within the 28 days.
I called the UKBA advice line (not that they ever give advice) and they said that yes it is possible. I called them again today just to confirm and they said that yes we can go to the appointment but they don't know if it will be accpted or not (not meaning approved but accepted for processing).
We do not want to waste time or money by going if they are just going to say it can't be done.
Does anyone have the telephone number for the Cardiff PEO to ask them directly or does anyone have any experience of applying for FLR after visa expiry date but within the 28 days?
Any advice or help would be highly appreciated.
Many thanks in advance!
