ILR (SET LR) REFUSED due to absences - appeal - HELP!

[mcd2017]

Hi there,

My application for ILR (SET LR 10 year long residence) was yesterday REFUSED at the Premium Service Centre. They have given me 14 days to appeal. Reasons for refusals are too many absences (665) therefore not meeting the 276B requirements. Most of them (540) were justified, due to work/studies (MA/PhD fieldwork abroad and then conferences due to my academic post as a postdoc researcher). I submitted original letters from my previous universities justifying absences, but apparently this wasn't 'enough justification' for SET LR. So I would like to APPEAL.

Can someone please help me in terms of:
a) how can I make those study/work absences justifiable (the Home Office officer mentioned 'well your letters don't say that without these periods of fieldwork abroad or conferences you wouldn't have gotten your degrees....'). Apart from resubmmitting more emphatic letters, what else can I do? Don't I have a possible claim here about my right to private life in the UK as an academic and travelling/doing fieldwork abroad is the nature of working as a scholar! I can also think of 'excepcional circumstances' I have had over the past 10 years, which I hadn't originally included, i.e. a wedding, a death of a relative, etc.

b) a lawyer told me not to go for the appeal option as it's very clostly and time consuming. However, Home Office said it was a very straightforward online process that I can do myself. Shall I go this route, or it's not worh it?

Thanks a lot!!!

MC

[physicskate]

I don't think your appeal will be successful. They can exercise discretion for absences just above the threshold, but you are significantly above 540 and they have not exercised discretion. At the end of the day, you chose a field that requires field work... you cannot 'justify' those absences - they do give you 540 for a reason: so that you thoroughly demonstrate a commitment and ties to the UK. Again, they would have to apply discretion and have not chosen to do so, so there is no reason they will apply discretion in an appeal.

Is there any way for you to continue to extend your visas and stay in the UK for an extended period of time so that some of that absence falls out of 'the most recent' 10 years?

[mcd2017]

Many thanks for your quick reply. Would it be possible to appeal to the Home Office discretion by:

1) adding new legitimate reasons for those absences - three family weddings, sickness and death of a relative - for the appeal? If so, what evidence would be required apart from a cover letter explaining them?
2) providing more categorical letters from the universities ('without these absences she wouldn't have received her degrees, which is true)

Cheers

[CR001]

2) providing more categorical letters from the universities ('without these absences she wouldn't have received her degrees, which is true

You can't now change the letters. HO have already seen what you submitted and kept a record of it. Changing what they say now will cast doubt on the 'genuineness' of what you claim.

[mcd2017]

Thanks for your reply. What about adding new evidence? Such as a) above?

Is the appeal process expensive and time-consuming? (I was told it might take a year and would require spending thousands of pounds in solicitors - is this the case, or if I chose the 'paper' result the latter wouldn't be necessary?)

Cheers

[CR001]

Does your letter say you have the right to appeal within 14 days or does it give you the option to apply for Administrative Review within 14 days??

[mcd2017]

The letter says I can appeal to the First Tier Tribunal if I think they have made an error. I have 14 days to make an appeal application against the refusal of my human rights claim on the ground that the decision is unlawful under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998. Thanks!