First, Thanks to Almighty God for His Grace.
Secondly, thanks to each one of you who have contributed to immigration board and I also recently joined in June to start contributing towards immigration board (You got to be fair in life!). I got the confidence from this board to fight my case and win it without much help from solicitor/barristers which I have seen and not much hope. I prepared my own grounds and presented to Upper Tribunal. I would like to share my experience so far and happy to suggest.
Got Tier 1 in March 2011, extension in Feb 2013 and expired on March 2016
26.02.16 - Applied PEO in Sheffield and refused the same day 322(5) tax deception, discrepancy in income declared to HMRC and HO for leave to remain in tax year 2013.
11.04.16 Admin review refused – HO maintained their decision. I did not really understand the original grounds of refusal on 26.02.16 and did not quite address the refusal points in Admin review until I shown both refusal letters to solicitor who explained why I have been refused. Basically, I am a sole trader and also working as PAYE as well throughout last 5 years, ILR income was only from PAYE. I filed tax returns myself from year 2012 – 2015 on time and included allowable expenses from both employment and self-employment as an error for tax year 2013. Also, accountant filed tax return in 2011 and paye company wasn’t showing up in hmrc record for some reason. I only came to know about these discrepancies after I have been refused admin review on 11/04/16. HMRC income was below threshold for initial (2011) and extension (2013) for tier 1 applications.
I applied again on 22 April 2016 PEO in Croydon and refused same day referring to previous refusal decision on 26 Feb 2016 and retrospective income declaration. Along with the fresh application on 22 April 2016, the I provided documentary evidence in the form of amended tax returns for relevant periods (2010/11, and 2012/13), confirmation of tax payments for the amended tax returns, as well as bank statements and a breakdown of expenditure for 2012/13, to demonstrate the discrepancy between the amount declared to the HMRC and the amount declared on the application for leave to remain in the UK for the tax years ending April 2012 and April 2013 were genuine errors. I knew HO will refuse my application however I wanted to give enough evidence on my character to fight my case in JR for second ILR application. Filed admin review and HO maintained the decision on 07.06.2016 (as expected). I then applied for flr(fp) within 14 days of AR refusal as I was 3 months short of my 10 years in September and I have my brothers/sisters/friends etc here and have sort of developed private/family life.
Meanwhile, I had been researching on previous tribunal cases on deception and UKVI general grounds of refusal guidelines, HMRC regulation, taxation laws, Tier 1 (Guide) as well as been reading immigration board. Alongside, I filed PAP on 04.07.2016 to challenge tier 1 ILR and HO didn’t reply so filed JR on 18 July 2016 as I was getting closer to 90 days to challenge 2nd application decision of 22 April 2016 and subsequent admin review. HMRC updated my tax years and send revised sa302 for year 2013 and manual calculation for year 2011 on 26.07.2016.
Home Office lodged their defence grounds in August 2016 and requested Upper tribunal to refuse permission for judicial review. Weight of my grounds was too heavy for Home Office to challenge in court and Home Office decided to reconsider and negotiate employment and legal cost after Judge allowed my appeal and judge mentioned that 322(5) should be invoked and SSHD has relied heavily on earlier application. Judge allowed my appeal on 29th Aug 2016 to challenge both decisions of Tier 1 General ILR refusal made on 22 April and subsequent admin review refused on 7th June 2016.
On 4th Sep I got letter from govt legal department to reconsider application decision and negotiate costs. Home Office gave up at an early stage and want to reconsider however I do not intend for a mere reconsideration by Home Office which can take up to 3 – 6 months. If it’s the Home Office giving in, they should settle the dispute and grant ILR. I am still in communication with Govt legal department, if Judge thinks that it is arguable that 322(5) should be invoked against me and Home Office is not contesting this anymore so it would suggest that Home Office should invoke 322(5) and grant ILR. Home Office always start with as little as possible to offer but since I have a strong case I will persuade them to grant ILR first and negotiate on costs or pursue full hearing and make overstay period (5 months so far) legal towards SET (LR) application too as a backup and costs claim.
I got biometric letter for FLR (FP) application on 30th Aug and but will possibly withdraw it or home office will ask to withdraw depending on Home Office negotiation.
I had planned everything from 26 Feb 2016 and managed to persuade both Home Office to give up before full hearing. It had been mentally frustrating and had sleepless nights to have suffered loss of income, funds, and job with no extension of visa conditions due to changes in appeal right and unlawful ILR decision.
From my experience, anything outside point based system is arguable and winnable. I personally think there had been harsh refusals recently from Home office and I wish the very best to anyone who had genuinely been a victim of tax discrepancies and do not lose hope. Everything depends on the weight on your argument, documentary evidence and RESEARCH - You don’t fail until you stop trying!
God Bless you all! :
