Asked to leave the UK and reapply.

[stuffage]

Hello Members,

Any advice would be appreciated.

I am a British Citizen, my wife is from hong kong. In 2004 we decided to get married and have applied for permanent residence upon this basis. In September 2009 she was issued with a limited leave to remain for 3 years. During the last 9 years she has given birth to a son, trained to become an accountant and has been employed as a fund manager. 2 months ago we received an emergency call from her parents who live in Hong Kong and decided it was necessary to fly out. At this point we realised that her visa had expire. At the time we thought nothing of it and said we will will deal with this upon our return. She was allowed entry back into the UK with a 6 months visitors. We contacted the HO straight and explained our oversight with the expiry and wanted to apply for a indefinite stay. We were told that due to her Visa expiring, she now has to leave the county and apply for the Visa from Hong Kong and wait and remain there until "if" it is approved. She is also no longer allow to work. This was the only option given to us!

Is this the only option? I can not see the logic in this. If she does this, not only will she lose her job, she will also have to take our son back to Hong Kong as I lack the ability to look after him whilst working on a single income. Then there is the additional cost of flights and the time we will have to wait until we are/if reunited.

Please any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[ali_asad_pk]

They normally allow temporary 6 month stay on airport if they think there are grounds someone can secure the stay which was in your case (also happened with one of my friends) but if UKBA has refused and asked to go back and apply then it seems that will be case.

You are right that according to situation, this is not logical but that is how it is technically as (if I understood it right) you have spend 6 years over staying as initial visa was for 3 years and How could have you ignored this

GOOD LUCK

[stuffage]

They normally allow temporary 6 month stay on airport if they think there are grounds someone can secure the stay which was in your case (also happened with one of my friends) but if UKBA has refused and asked to go back and apply then it seems that will be case.

You are right that according to situation, this is not logical but that is how it is technically as (if I understood it right) you have spend 6 years over staying as initial visa was for 3 years and How could have you ignored this

GOOD LUCK

Hi,

Sorry if i was not clear. her Visa had only expired by 3 month/ish. Limited remain was issued from Sept 2009 till Sept 2012. Before then her place of work helped with a work Visa.

[Manka10]

UKBAs stand is correct as per their rules. The visa, which allowed work, expired while she was out of UK so you will need to get fresh entry clearance

This also breaks continuous residence in UK

[cs95tdg]

I am a British Citizen, my wife is from hong kong. In 2004 we decided to get married and have applied for permanent residence upon this basis. In September 2009 she was issued with a limited leave to remain for 3 years. During the last 9 years she has given birth to a son, trained to become an accountant and has been employed as a fund manager. 2 months ago we received an emergency call from her parents who live in Hong Kong and decided it was necessary to fly out. At this point we realised that her visa had expire. At the time we thought nothing of it and said we will will deal with this upon our return. She was allowed entry back into the UK with a 6 months visitors. We contacted the HO straight and explained our oversight with the expiry and wanted to apply for a indefinite stay. We were told that due to her Visa expiring, she now has to leave the county and apply for the Visa from Hong Kong and wait and remain there until "if" it is approved. She is also no longer allow to work. This was the only option given to us!

It's unfortunate that your wife wasn't aware of her visa expiry date in advance in order to act before it expired/she left the UK. I have a few questions which may help understand your circumstances better:
1) You mention above that you applied for indefinite leave to remain in 2004 after you got married. Is this correct? Or did you mean your wife applied for a spouse visa?
2) I know this may not necessarily help you now, but I'm curious as to why your wife didn't apply for ILR several years ago (i.e. as the spouse of a BC), as you say she has lived in the UK since 2004? Or have I misunderstood something? Having a clearer picture of her complete immigration history may help others comment further.
3) What application did the HO suggest your wife make from HK, now that her current Leave has expired? Was it a new Spouse visa or some other? With the family immigration rule changes that came into effect in July 2012, the residence period for spouse settlement has been increased from 2 years to 5 years. But whether or not this affects your wife is not yet clear. If your wife has already spent 10 years in the UK lawfully, then a long residence ILR application may also be a possibility. Your answers to the above questions may help determine the best course of action for your wife.