Here is the oh so ever complicated story
So my husband non-EEA Colombian arrived with me to the UK on his Family Permit in September 2016. We then applied for Residence card, which was refused based on not having CSI. So we got it and applied again in April 2017.
Afterwards, he had to leave UK for medical treatment but as his FP expired by that point, Home Office refused to return his passport. The only way for him to get the treatment, was to Voluntarily Depart. After couple weeks, he got another FP and returned to the UK.
Once 6 months passed after April 2017, we contacted the HO for any updates about the application and first they said that it was decided in August 2017, but we never received any documents or letters. So we called again demanding to know what happened to our sensitive originals.
Then, they said the application was suspended due to the voluntary departure (even though at that time they said it wouldn't affect it). Finally in December 2017, they told us that the application was resumed again and they sent a new Certificate of Application.
Since then, we haven't heard anything. In April, we called up Home Office and to our surprise, we were told that there is no application in my husband's name!
My husband wrote our MP about this, as suggested on this forum, who replied asking about passport info but never contacted him again...
We tried calling again, just trying to find out whether there is an application (since there is a valid Certificate of Application from December) or there isn't one and we need to apply again. The phone adviser told us we have to wait until beginning of May to get to anyone. So then at the beginning of May, my husband got an email saying that there is an application and he has to wait. It didn't specify any time period.
It has been now 13 months since the original date of application and no communication whatsoever about how long it will take to get a decision.
Does anyone have similar experience? (I'm really sorry if you do) Is it worth getting a lawyer involved? If so, does anyone have a good recommendation?
I just came back from a talk about the new Settled and Temporary status. Apparently, even if my husband got the Residence card now he would have to apply for Temporary status to be able to stay up to 5 years. So I'm wondering if it's even worth involving a lawyer.
It would be really great to hear any thoughts on this and thank you for ready a rather lengthy post
