Please help, ILR issues

[Blue2017]

Hi Vinny

Thanks for your recommendation as other solicitors said but as I mentioned before, I need a miracle for those things to happen now as my visa is going to run out soon.

My wife was rejected with entrepreneur visa last December and there is no chance for me to do the same thing now.

Any advice please?

Hi

How about your kids. if they are here for 7 years then you can apply on the basis of child here for 7 years.
It may help.

good luck

[CR001]

[Hi

How about your kids. if they are here for 7 years then you can apply on the basis of child here for 7 years.
It may help.

good luck

The OP has already stated that the children are not 7 yet.

My children were born in the UK. By Oct this year, one is 6 years old and another is 3 years old.

[sonrock]

Hi

anyone please?

Also I have another old question, if I have a job offer with Tier 2 sponsorship which the starting date is September this year.

I can apply for the Tier 2 general visa with the CoS this July before my current visa expire?

I read elsewhere before saying that I can extend/apply for the visa 60 or 90 days before the starting date. Could anyone please confirm me this?

I'm still trying everything I can at the moment until we reach June and apply for my wife ILR. I just hope that I'll still be able to apply for the ILR because my current leaves cover the 28 days period before I reach 10 years.

many thanks

[sonrock]

Hi there

I met another solicitor yesterday - also head of immigration of a big law firm - and he said that I can apply for the ILR although it's a bit tricky as he 'prefers' my current leave totally cover the 10 years period.

Nevertheless, he said I'm eligible to apply 28 days before I reach 10 years because I fall short of 3 days only, so the application process perfectly cover this.

He also suggested to apply for FLR not sure which type for my 2 children instead of just leaving them out of this expensive application fees + NHS surcharge to avoid any hassles in the future.

Above all, he gave me so much confidence in our case and he showed sympathy + enthusiasm with us because his wife had ectopic pregnancy as well although not as serious as what my wife had been through.

He said that we clearly have a case for ILR and I should avoid the Tier 2 route by now as it's also really tricky if employers won't bring me in this July.

I'll keep you updated when seeing another one next week.

Many thanks.

[vinny]

It's not tricky when applying within the 28 days prior to the completion of your qualifying period for ILR. It's tricky because of your long break of over 180 days. If they don't use discretion in your favour, then this break resets your qualifying period, taking you outside the 28-day window.

See also Early applications.

[sonrock]

very many thanks Vinny

[sonrock]

Hi Vinny and others

I've just recognised that my wife may be eligible for 10 years continous period without breaking more than 180 days at any 12 months counting backward from the date of application. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

As you're aware that our current visa will expire by 02/07/2017 which is Sunday, so if we use RMSD to send the applications by post on 26th of June, UKVI will receive by 27th of June which is Friday.

My wife left UK on 28/12/2008 and came back to the UK with me on 28/09/2009.

If we count the 10 years with 12 months periods backward from 27/06/2017, she has not broken 180 days?

27/06/1017 - 27/06/2016 : 1 month away from the UK, reason applying for Tier 1 Entrepreneur
27/06/2016 - 27/06/ 2015: no break
27/06/2015 - 27/06/2014 : no break
27/06/2014 - 27/06/2013 : 1 month away from the UK, reason for my PhD data collection
27/06/2013 - 27/06/2012 : no break
27/06/2012 - 27/06/2011 : no break
27/06/2011 - 27/06/2010: no break
27/06/2010 - 27/06/2009: break for nearly three months, reason medical treatment
27/06/2009 - 27/06/2008: break for six months but less than (or)180 days
27/06/2008 - 27/06/2007: no break

I have not had a chance to check this with a solicitor, but mods and experienced members please confirm this?

I read elsewhere from the forums regarding similar cases which applicants broke more than 180 days but when spreading them over 2 years period, it still fits the law and they received ILR.

Very many thanks and best regards,

Sr

[CR001]

You are mistaken. For long residence ILR there is no option to 'split the absence' over two separate 12 month cycles.

ANY single absence of 180 days or more breaks continuity of residence.

[sonrock]

Hi

Thank you for your prompt reply and correcting me with this. I did hope because as stated, I read elsewhere from the forum when members said they splitted their absence over 12 months period, I might be wrong then.

I'll come back to see the solicitor who said that we can do ILR with all the paperworks and initial payment this Friday. Hopefully things are gonna be ok.

One more question I have but still not answered, please help me if you know it:

If I'm lucky enough to get a job offer with Tier 2 sponsorship, but the starting date is let say 10th of September 2017.

Can I apply for Tier 2 visa before my current visa runs out this July?

Many thanks

[CR001]

Hi

Thank you for your prompt reply and correcting me with this. I did hope because as stated, I read elsewhere from the forum when members said they splitted their absence over 12 months period, I might be wrong then. This options of splitting absence is only available for ILR applications based on PBS routed and 5 years residence.

I'll come back to see the solicitor who said that we can do ILR with all the paperworks and initial payment this Friday. Hopefully things are gonna be ok.

I am not sure on your Tier 2 General questions. You would be better asking those in the Tier 2 General sub forum further up the main page

[sonrock]

Hi Char

Thanks for your recommendation. Actually from the official UKVI website, it says you can apply for the Tier 2 90 days before the starting date but not allowed to go to the UK 14 days before that.

I'm already here so it's a bit confusing. Anyway, I still need a miracle for this to happen with a Tier 2 sponsorship taken into account I have only 2 months left until my current visa expires.

Many thanks

[sonrock]

Hi again

I've read through the Section 3C - 3D leave issued by the HO and I have questions which I need your help to clarify please.

As far as I understanding, an intime application will be covered by section 3C until the appeal right is exhausted, am I correct?

So let say if the HO refuses my initial application, the FTT refuses our first appeal and we'll get the UT. Now I have several scenarios as the followings:

1) if the UT also refuses our appeal, the 3C leave will cover until we hear the decision, am I correct?

What happens next after this?

Will they give us 14 days to apply for a fresh application or what?

If we make a fresh application and presuming that time will be around August 2019 when we can apply for the 2nd 10 years without break, do they consider all the previous time spent on 3C or we'll be overstayers?

Or if it's before August 2019, we'll apply for family visa because my daughter will be more than 7 years old and if we're lucky enough to have 2 and a half year more, do they consider all the previous time spent on 3C or we'll be overstayers?

2) If the UT is still considering our appeal but we reach August 2019 already, can we withdraw the appeal and apply for a fresh ILR application based on our 2nd 10 years without break and all the period covered by 3C is counted?

"Where permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal has been granted a party cannot withdraw their appeal until the Upper Tribunal agrees to the withdrawal. Where the Upper Tribunal agrees to the withdrawal it must notify the parties. The appeal and any section 3C leave will continue until the Upper Tribunal notifies the parties that the appeal is withdrawn. The effective date of the withdrawal of the appeal is contained in the notice issued by the Tribunal."

Very many thanks and best regards,

Sr

[sonrock]

Good afternoon

I really hope one of you could please help answer my question that I'm not successful in finding out online.

We submitted our ILR (LR) and our children FLR (FP) applications last week. NHS health surcharges have been taken and all fees paid from our bank accounts.

Now we're waiting for the outcome and we want to invite my wife's mother who is living from Poland to visit the UK.

As far as I know, our visa must be valid at least 3 months for this but I can't find elsewhere about information regarding visitor visa relates to ILR application.

In this case, what should we do in order to my in law to come here on the visitor visa basis? Can we write an invitation letter like we used to do many times before or what categories of visa should my in law apply in this case?

Very many thanks for your help.

[sonrock]

Hi everyone

After more than 4 months waiting, the HO finally refused our ILR applications. They used 2 main reasons to refuse us:

1. They said that during the time spent outside the UK between Nov/Dec 08 and Sep 09, we could not secure an Entre Clearance visa to go back even if we wished to. It's not because of my wife's treatments the preventing us but my setbacks with PhD applications to get the Tier 4 general visa from going back on time.

2. They said that also they know my children were born and bred here all their lives, they speak English most of the time but they also can speak our own language. Therefore this is nothing exceptional in this case to differentiate ours to others which deserves discretion.

They issued the letters to refuse my application on 7th and my wife's on 8th November. So we had 14 calendar days to lodge an appeal and yesterday, I came to see the law firm who helped us prepare our ILR applications and asked them to do so.

I did write a detailed letter corresponding to the HO's arguments and reasons to refuse us and left at the law firm. Because the solicitor who had helped us prepare our case was not in the office yesterday but another one who is not familiar with. Hopefully he'll read my letter and let me know where to improve and then send it to the court before our hearing which will be confirmed in the future.

However, I'd like to ask for your opinion and experience, how long will it normally take until our hearing day? The solicitor who helped us fax all the form and refusal letters to the tribunal said it'll be around 5-6 months.

As we appealed in time, are our rights still protected accoring to the law?

Please take a look at a main part of our cover letter to the HO. This has not been sent yet and will be discussed with my solicitor later on. Please please feel free to share your own thoughts, it'd be very much appreciated.

The most important point here is the reason that HO used to refused our applications as outlined in point 1 is not correct and misguided. Because we could always apply for an entry visa to go back to the UK anytime during that period, either my wife or myself. We had at least 2 options as the following:

• I had completed my studies with the master course and was entitled to a 2 year post study work visa which was still eligible at that time. There was no restriction that I could not apply from outside or in the UK before leaving. I had and maintained adequate funds in my UK bank account all through the time, I did not commit any crime or default in any immigration rule so I was aware I was entitled and could use it if the health of my wife improved.
• My wife had a referral due to her ill health. She could not complete her studies and required an extra year to achieve this. She too had adequate funds, did not commit any crime or break an immigration rule and was entitled to complete the studies she had paid for. But again, this was only secondary to her health at the time.

I had started the application for a PhD before my wife’s health deteriorated. When my wife was healthy enough to return with me to continue our lives in the UK, the admission only came through in time enough for us to decide to use the visa this would afford as it offered longer term stability (4 years +) to enable me focus on my research rather than the (2 year) post study visa I was entitled to after completing a UK master’s degree or the (1year) extension my wife was entitled to, to complete her master’s degree studies.

The reason is my wife was so ill that she couldn’t do her dissertation properly so she failed in the first attempt whilst couldn’t submit another coursework. However, our university gave her referrals and a second chance to do those. We have her transcript and letter from the university to confirm this because her final results were decided on 23rd October 2009, even after when we came back to the UK.

That means she could always apply for a new Entry Clearance visa from our country to write her dissertation and another coursework in the UK in order to complete her master course; because she needed physical access to academic sources provided by the university such as books and journals in libraries as well as online articles which are only available via the university’s system. After all these done, she would also be able to attend her graduation ceremony held in 28 November 2009. This is within the immigration rule and regulation which is still valid until now.

However, due to her severe illness, trauma and particularly with the advice from the doctor in our country that she should not travel during her treatment with traditional medicines in the early days, we did not apply for the Entry Clearance visa which we were entitled to. In fact, her health conditions at that time didn’t allow us while we knew for certain that we would definitely go back as I received a PhD offer from our university quite early in March 2009.

Nevertheless, due to administrative issues that significantly delay the process, we could not get the Tier 4 general visa and go back within the six months period to start my research at this university, but later on in September with another university, one of the very best in the UK and world. By that time, my wife had already finished 6 months treatment with the doctor in our country and he was happy with her improvements so she could come back to the UK with me.

Please note that she had been close to death and miraculously survived after all these - every doctor said so after seeing her and knowing her medical record. When she first came back to our country in February 2009, she could barely walk and most of the time spent on wheelchairs as she was extremely weak. She had been on wheelchairs all the time after being discharged from the hospital in the UK and during her short time in Poland with her mother.

Not to mention that she felt sorry and horribly bad about herself all the time after our meeting with the consultant. She even thought of committing suicide as the pains, which she was suffering every day from both physically and mentally, were unbearable.

Therefore, when we left the UK in late 2008, the only things existed in our minds were her health and wellbeing. What is the point if she could never recover and die later? Nothing else matters, absolutely not the visa or our continuous stay in the UK because as pointed out earlier, we could gain Entry Clearance visa to go back anytime.

You can clearly see that how tragically and miserably she had been through that period of time and we couldn't do anything more as everything was absolutely out of our control.

If those had not happened to her, both of us could have graduated in 2008, extended our stay within the UK by applying for Tier 1 post-study work visa without any difficulties then later on switch to Tier 4 general visa to conduct my PhD research; and she could have enjoyed her healthy and happy life with me without breaking our continuous stay for more than 6 months from the UK at one point due to her health and infertility treatment in our country. She also could not have had to worry about her chances of becoming a mother again or to cry every day when thinking about children until our first child was born. But all these could never happen, just our wishes.

The Home Office, mistakenly, when giving decisions only focused on the grounds of setbacks with PhD applications and the ability to gain Entry Clearance visa from my perspective, whilst disregarding all other facts as mentioned above which led us to that position.

Unfortunately, they are not only wrong with our ability to gain the Entry Clearance visa anytime during that period, but they also took the human rights matters very lightly and did not consider the rationales behind. It seems they simply used any reasons in order to refuse our applications and did not care about the Human Rights aspects at all in our case.

Please take a look at the above and let me know what you think, it'd be very much appreciated. The solicitor who dealt with us directly is the head of immigration at this big law firm and very busy. He works ony 2 - 3 days a week from the office now, so your thoughts and valueable contributions to us are crucial to win this fight.

I'm looking forward to receiving your feedback and advice soon.

Final point, I've just received an offer for one of the biggest firms in the world. I did not ask them for visa sponsorship in the beginning as I was in the middle of our ILR application. So I applied for my local office outside London which salary doesnt meet the Tier 2 threshold.

Do you think I should contact them and ask for visa sponsorship and swith to any location where it meets the salary requirement? I might need to go for another final interview and presentation with a partner at that location but it's fine for me.

I was in the final 3% who received the offer after an extremely competitive and long application process with 5-6 different stages for a grad trainee position at their firm starting next Sep. So I had the highest mark for most categories being assessed by the partner in the final interview and during the process. So not sure if they are willing to help???

Thank you!

[sonrock]

Anyone? Respected mods and experienced members?

I know my previous post was long so cut the story short: The Home Office used a wrong and misguided reason to refuse our application as mentioned above.

However, in the academic transcript provided by our university, it clearly says that my wife had 2 refferals for one coursework and her dissertation. That means according to the rule which is still valid until now, she could always apply for an Entry Clearance visa to go back to the UK any time to write those and finish her master course, and then graduate later in late Nov 09.

On another hand, I completed my master course and even received a PhD offer from our university in March 09, which was still within the 6 months time frame. So I could always apply for a 2 years Post-study work visa which was eligible by that time.

However my wife's health condition was too bad (she had been close to death and was still extremely weak when first came back to our country in Feb 09) and the doctor advised us not to travel during her treatment, whilst I had issues with my PhD administration, so we could not go back within that 6 months period. All these were totally out of our control.

However the HO didn't care about this but use the main reason as pointed out above to refuse us and they has made a mistake because they used the wrong one.

Not to mention that they didn't care about our children who are more than 6 and 3 years old now (born and bred in the UK) when giving decisions in our case.

So I hope all these will be strong enough before court to fight the HO's decisions in our case?

As I read from the forum that the HO has problems with their system, so someone submitted their appeal to the tribunal but the HO sent them a letter later with warning of deportation. This is confusing and scary really but I hope that when my representative faxed all the form and refusal letters to the court, they keep the record of the time and date so there will be no problem at all.

I'm looking forward to your opinions?

Thanks

[LJM17]

Hi Sonrock

What I can see from the people here that have more experience than us newbies, they already gave you the answer for your queries. From what I could understand about what had being replied to you is that you do not have 10 years of residence continuous, therefore you would not stand a chance. What the members here were suggesting to you and it appeared you probably have missed, is that you could applied for ILR to be able to then appeal and hopefully get lawfully time to cont for your new application of ILR in 2019.

Please ready carefully what this member advised you earlier:

Perhaps you can reach your 10 years by 2019. You can apply set LR on the last day of your visa expiry. This may take from 3 to 6 month or may be longer to be decided. If they refuse you which is most likely but you will get a right to appeal. If you appeal the decision it can take a year or more for hearing . You can also apply to adjourn the hearing which may take an other 3 to 6 month to reschedule the hearing. There will be a good chance of appeal to be allowed considering the length of period and having all of your family including children are here in UK. But it all depends if you present your case very well and hire a good barrister. But if your appeal is dismissed you can apply for permission to upper tribunal. During this period your leave to remain will be extended by section 3c. Hopefully you will complete 10 years legal stay and make a new application of set LR.

Hope things can work out for you in the best way.

[sonrock]

Hi mate

Thanks for your reply. Actually I did read all the responses in due care and with all due respect, the original advice that you quoted from another member posted few months ago is my plan even before seeking for help as you can see from my first post. I'll stick with the plan and hope that will work out.

However, what I'm asking is how much chance do we have when the HO used a wrong and misguided reason to refuse our ILR LR applications? Also they did not care about my children as they said we didn't raise anything exceptional about them in the first place?

As we lodged our appeal last Monday and today will come and see my solicitor to understand his views about our case, I'll let you know how things go later.

Cheers,

Sr

[micasa]

Hi sonrock,

Has there been any update with your appeal? I am curious to find out as a friend of mine might face a similar situation (i.e. Breaking a 10 year continuous period for being out of UK for slightly over 180 days in one shot due to a combination of family and health reasons). Although she has a T2 General visa at the moment but she is afraid she may lose it in the near future due to her company's situation, leaving less than 12 months to reaching 5 year mark with her T2-G. If she is made redundant and cannot find a new sponsor, she might need to argue a similar case to yours. Hoping to hear a success story!

[sonrock]

Hi sonrock,

Has there been any update with your appeal? I am curious to find out as a friend of mine might face a similar situation (i.e. Breaking a 10 year continuous period for being out of UK for slightly over 180 days in one shot due to a combination of family and health reasons). Although she has a T2 General visa at the moment but she is afraid she may lose it in the near future due to her company's situation, leaving less than 12 months to reaching 5 year mark with her T2-G. If she is made redundant and cannot find a new sponsor, she might need to argue a similar case to yours. Hoping to hear a success story!

Hi

Sorry for late replying as I've been really busy recently with my professional qualification exam and new year etc.

As you're aware that we lodged our appeals last Nov, in the appeal form I put down both my and my wife names and stated that I'd pay for both of us. However, the Tribunal didn't list our cases until early Feb.

They treated my appeal as in time but not the same to my wife. It's funny and ridiculous when they sent me a letter asking for payment to my hearing but they took £140 directly from my account to pay for my wife's appeal but sending her a letter saying that she appealed out of time (I provided my bank details for payment in the appeal form which was faxed to them 3 days before deadline by our solicitor).

Our solicitor is now dealing with them as it's unacceptable. They've got all the proofs with confirmation from the Tribunal saying that they received our appeals via fax last year. They didn't list our cases until being chased last month, so they cannot treat my wife like that.

Our children hearing date is 22nd of March this year. We are not sure whether the Tribunal will combine our hearing date with them but until now, we don't know yet whilst they are working with our solicitor regarding my wife's appeal matters. I hope our hearing date will be later on and the solicitor will ask the court to combine their hearing to ours.

I've just read another topic from the forum regarding someone who was also seriously ill and couldn't go back to the UK after 11 months but won his case in the FTT. But he was given only 30 months instead of ILR. Anyway, it's still a win for him and hopefully our cases will be handled by a good judge.

I did spend time on reading hundreds of cases about UTT decision and I was horrified when found out that the law is truly controversial and not straightforward. Even Lords/Dames at Supreme Court who are handling JR also used their own judgement and cited many other cases to favour their own decision, nothing is truly absolute.

If they like you and your case, you'll get their favour, otherwise it's opposite. The only thing matters is one of the partners is settle or British; or one of the child is Bristish and still under 18. Otherwise they don't care. Please correct me if I'm wrong as based on what I read, I acknowledge that hundreds of cases are still very limited, but I didn't see the other outcome when appealing in court.

Fingers crossed and keep fighting until the very end, hopefully fairness and luck will be with us.

Cheers,

SR

[sonrock]

Hi again

I couldn’t sleep and need your advice here quite urgently, please kindly share your knowledge and experience about similar cases.

My new employer now has decided to sponsor my tier 2 general visa, they checked with the HO and confirmed that my ILR application is still pending. The HO didn’t let them know that they had refused my application and I’m appealing, I haven’t told them about this yet.

It’s quite ridiculous to tell you that the tribunal did confirm the listing of my wife’s case and allowed her for the “necessary extended period” of her appeal to be lodged, but they now are treating mine as out of time appeal like they had done to her. My solicitor was furious and he’s sorting things out and I’m confident that this will be ok.

However, as far as I read from the HO guidance, in order to switch to Tier 2 general visa in the UK, applicants “should” do that before his/her current visa expires. So I’m wondering whether it’s possible for me to withdraw my appeal and apply for the Tier 2 visa 14 days before I start working for my new employer this September?

If it’s not possible then I’ll stick with my ILR appeal as they cannot sponsor visa for me when having to apply outside the UK because this is for a graduate job.

We had confirmation from the tribunal regarding the adjournment of our children hearing as well as the listing of my wife’s case. Now they’re sorting the mess out with my case and we’ll find out about the family’ hearing date after that.

According to my solicitor, the potential date would be in late September or even longer as they seriously lack of judges. Nevertheless, it’s not a guarantee and we’ll have to wait and see.

It’s truly disastrous for me as after 3 years trying, I finally succeeded in securing my dream job in one of the biggest firms worldwide. I don’t want this will be jeopardized just because of the ILR mess that the HO deliberately did for us.

It’s ironically that my new employer wants me and they are willing to sponsor my visa but I might not be able to use this.

My solicitor, the local MP and ones who know our case are really confident and convinced that we’ll win in FTT. But I’m not sure how my new employer will react if they hear about the appeal. I fear that they won’t take the risk, just my thought.

Any advice or ideas please?

[micasa]

Hi sonrock,

Has there been any update with your appeal? I am curious to find out as a friend of mine might face a similar situation (i.e. Breaking a 10 year continuous period for being out of UK for slightly over 180 days in one shot due to a combination of family and health reasons). Although she has a T2 General visa at the moment but she is afraid she may lose it in the near future due to her company's situation, leaving less than 12 months to reaching 5 year mark with her T2-G. If she is made redundant and cannot find a new sponsor, she might need to argue a similar case to yours. Hoping to hear a success story!

Hi

Sorry for late replying as I've been really busy recently with my professional qualification exam and new year etc.

As you're aware that we lodged our appeals last Nov, in the appeal form I put down both my and my wife names and stated that I'd pay for both of us. However, the Tribunal didn't list our cases until early Feb.

They treated my appeal as in time but not the same to my wife. It's funny and ridiculous when they sent me a letter asking for payment to my hearing but they took £140 directly from my account to pay for my wife's appeal but sending her a letter saying that she appealed out of time (I provided my bank details for payment in the appeal form which was faxed to them 3 days before deadline by our solicitor).

Our solicitor is now dealing with them as it's unacceptable. They've got all the proofs with confirmation from the Tribunal saying that they received our appeals via fax last year. They didn't list our cases until being chased last month, so they cannot treat my wife like that.

Our children hearing date is 22nd of March this year. We are not sure whether the Tribunal will combine our hearing date with them but until now, we don't know yet whilst they are working with our solicitor regarding my wife's appeal matters. I hope our hearing date will be later on and the solicitor will ask the court to combine their hearing to ours.

I've just read another topic from the forum regarding someone who was also seriously ill and couldn't go back to the UK after 11 months but won his case in the FTT. But he was given only 30 months instead of ILR. Anyway, it's still a win for him and hopefully our cases will be handled by a good judge.

I did spend time on reading hundreds of cases about UTT decision and I was horrified when found out that the law is truly controversial and not straightforward. Even Lords/Dames at Supreme Court who are handling JR also used their own judgement and cited many other cases to favour their own decision, nothing is truly absolute.

If they like you and your case, you'll get their favour, otherwise it's opposite. The only thing matters is one of the partners is settle or British; or one of the child is Bristish and still under 18. Otherwise they don't care. Please correct me if I'm wrong as based on what I read, I acknowledge that hundreds of cases are still very limited, but I didn't see the other outcome when appealing in court.

Fingers crossed and keep fighting until the very end, hopefully fairness and luck will be with us.

Cheers,

SR

Thanks for the update. I can only imagine how tough it has been. It is truly upsetting when HO messes up something very simple - we had that one too... Fingers crossed that you and your family get an ILR in a few months!

[sonrock]

Thank you very much for your kind words and wishes, fingers crossed for that.

Today we received our hearing date for the family by the end of August on the 31st.

I forgot to let you know that they had considered my appeal as out of time like they had done to my wife but finally corrected it with the help of my solicitor and granted me extra time for listing the case.

On another hand, my new employer confirmed me that they’re happy for me to start working this September and no need to withdraw from the current processes. I guess they will sponsor my visa in the worst scenario only when my appeal rights exhausted but still not get ILR.

Hopefully everything will be over after the hearing this August.

With best regards,

Sr

[sonrock]

good evening all

We went to the tribunal by the last week of September and after a few days the judge decided that our appeal is allowed.

On the day at the tribunal, the HO's representative didn't ask me any single question and confirmed that there is no dispute with all the facts/evidence provided from us.

When the judge asked him why not granted us whilst we're speaking English and paying tax, he said our case is "unusual" but not "exceptional". That's the only reason he used to refuse our ILR.

Our solicitor said that the rules/regulations state that "compelling" or "compassionate", and nowhere you can find the word "exceptional".

So, that's pretty much on the day, around 15-20 minutes for everything, the judge was telling me about the procedures, etc. etc. and none question was asked from the HO or the judge himself.

So in the decision letter which was issued 2 weeks after that, he stated that our appeal has been successful due to unchallenged evidence and our case is not just only compelling but also compassionate.

Next Monday is the 14th day since the letter of decision received and my solicitor said that he'd be very surprised if the HO decided to challenge the judge's decision to go to the UTT.

Now, I'm hopping that the HO will grant us ILR instead of 2.5 years visa, so we won't need to pay extra £5k by the end of August next year when we have 10 years with no break. Until then, it's roughly 8-9 months from the point that the HO gives out their decision about our case, and less than 12 months from now, so I hope that the HO will be sensible although we all know how greedy they are and just want us (all immigrants) to pay as much as they want.

I hope that our case can be a reference and a stepping stone to anyone whose case is similar to ours and gain some confidence when going to court and challenging the HO's decision to refuse our ILR application.

The key things are prepare your document thoroughly and write a very detailed cover letter with clear points and presentation of your case to show the tribunal why the HO has broken your (family's) human rights and leaves should have been granted.

This must be done by you, not your solicitor, as they'll do their skeleton argument separately. You can ask them to slightly edit your letter to be more relevant to the case and give you feedback about the content. But this's your story and no one can tell the story better than you. If your case is legitimate and you believe that you have clear evidence and grounds to win then don't hesitate to go ahead.

Finally, please kindly remember, before luck comes into your life, everything is in your hands. You know your case the best, more than anybody else. So your preparations especially about evidence/proof and related documents are the key for your success when most judges are fair and sensible in dealing with immigration matters.

Good luck and thank you all for your kindness and support.

Sr