Uk Indefinite Leave To Remain

[lee70]

Hi

Just wandered if anyone can give me some advice on my wife's visa application.We were originally going to apply for indefinite leave to remain but my wife failed the LIFE IN THE UK test.So we decided to apply for a visa extension at the start of May.Her visa expired on 29th May and on 1st June we received a letter from a lady at the UKBA saying we could vary our application to Indefinite Leave To Remain as my wife had studied Trinity College London ESOl Skills for LIfe Level two and if we could prove(through a letter from her college) that it was taught with citizenship materials for ESOL learners she should be able to vary her appliaction to ILR.

Anyway we got the letter from the college ,sent the letter 15 days ago and since then nothing...We have already paid for an extension so I am presuming if they are happy with the letter we will need to pay an extra fee.

I originally called the UKBA as the letter we received from this case stated that if you have any queries regarding this letter,please do not hesitate to contact me on the above number...not surprisingly the number on the letter was out of date...I called them again after finding the correct number and was given some pretty usefuly information by another lady.However when I called again last week I was told by a man that I could not speak to anybody until the case was 11 weeks old..When I mentioned what the letter we received stated the guy just said well you will have to write a letter to the lady asking why she stated we can contact her....when you cant!!

I'm presuming that we have sent a pretty decent application in the first case or we wouldn't have been offered a chance to vary the application,but the letter we received was vague at best and didn't mention anything about paying any extra for the visa etc.

Just wandered if anyone has been in a similar situation or has any advice to give.I am going to write a letter to them shortly and to my MP who happens to be the PM!

[7by7]

Normally ILR applications can take up to 6 months to be resolved and, as you were told, applicant's cannot contact the UKBA until after 11 weeks. However, this is when applicant's are phoning to check the progress of their application. You have a specific query following up information and advice given to you by a UKBA employee.

Phoning them, anyway, can often be frustrating as the phone lines often appear to be operated by junior officers who do not know as much as they should and often give contradictory advice!

You should definitely write to the UKBA ASAP to ask what is happening and what, if anything, you need to do next. Explain exactly what has happened so far and including the names of everyone at the UKBA that you have dealt with so far and copies of all correspondence to and from them. I suggest sending it by recorded delivery, for the obvious reason.

Sending a copy to your MP may help, though at this stage there is not a lot he can do provided the UKBA are following proper rules and procedures.

[lee70]

Thanks for the advice.

Got home today,still nothing in the post.I have drafted a letter and will send it and will heed your advice of sending photocopies of all correspondence.To be honest we were surprised to get the offer from the UKBA offering us the chance to vary our application to ILR.I only included my wife's certificates just to prove that she had studied Enlish.But we thought we might as well go for the ILR as it's only going to get more difficult to get it especially with the new government coming in and the thought of paying another grand or so in a few yearsif we decided to stay here.We were just asked to provide the letter from the college.We have done so, and have heard nothing.Should they have wrtten to us to confirm that they had received the letter?If we cannot go for the ILR,can we still get the extension?

My wife has studied very hard since she got here, but was sick before she took her Life in the UK test.She was so pissed off when she failed the test and the centre she took the test at were far from helpful.It just seems to me that these test centres are a shambles and are just in it for the money.She tried on a number of occassions to book her test earlier.We sent emails and left messages for them but they never replied.So she took the test late and couldn't book another in sufficient time to apply for the ILR.

She has worked since she got here and paid Tax,NI etc and we have sufficient funds to live here.

We would just like to know where we stand so we can plan our future.She also wants to get another job if possible and that involves having a passport...It just seems to me that these applications could be handled in a better way than they currently are.

[bobrussell]

There is no need to take the 'Life in the UK' test if your partner has studied and moved up one level of an ESOL with citizenship materials course. There is now a standard form for the college to fill in. It is available via the UKBA site but I am sure they know this at the college.

The UKBA does seem to be happy with advising applicants for FLR to change to ILR - it has happened to a Thai girl in my wife's ESOL class. She went for interview and came out with the ILR instead of the FLR she expected.

This does seem to be an example of staff using common sense!

[lee70]

We received a letter from the UKBA today this time from somebody based at Croydon to say the application was invalid because we haven't paid the extra amount of £365.00....Even though we weren't told to.The letter doesn't state whether they have received the letter from the college my wife attended the course.<BR><BR>It also stated that it had returned all our original documents and the original application.Funnily enough we haven't received anything.They basically told us to apply again using a SET(M) form within 28 days if my wife still wishes to apply for indefinite leave to remain rather then extending for two years.<BR><BR><BR>The incompetence of these people is staggering. The Uk Border Agency...making it up as we go along! <IMG class=bbc_emoticon alt= src="http://static.thaivisa.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif"> <BR><BR>I will write another letter tomorrow asking if they have really sent our documents back!Ias I can't phone the case lady to talk about it and I have no other way of communicating with them.<BR><BR>Any advice out there would be appreciated!<BR><BR><BR><BR>

[bobrussell]

I agree this is a complete mess. I presume it was all straight forward for the girl on the ESOL course because she went in person. I did not realise the FLR and ILR were different prices. Perhaps this is why they are making this suggestion. Presumably it helps the UK's cash flow!!!!

[lee70]

Hi again

We were totally aware that the price was different and mentioned it in the accompanying letter to the UKBA.The original offer of varying the application stated that I could contact the lady who wrote us the letter.I did because the they didn't mention cost,when we needed to let them know by or whether my wife needed to fill another form in.I was specifically told that we would not have to fill in another application form.

The letter we received yesterday stated that we had to fill in the SET(M) form but as he we haven't got any documents it may be a little difficult.I think we may just go for the extension and be done with it.The likelihood is we will return to Thailand and it will be my turn to apply for a visa and it will be a lot cheaper.

[lee70]

I called the UKBA at 9 am today and they told me that I would need to wait for a reply to the letter we sent last week which asked whether they had definitely  returned our original application and documents.I sent the letter to them last Thursday and  hadn't had a reply and the post man didn't deliver it today.<BR><BR>So this afternoon we went to the Citizena Advice Bureau and spent two hours there getting to the bottom of it.Eventually the lady who was helping us spoke to somebody and they admitted that they had not sent the documents and apologised for the error.<BR><BR>We were told to fill in a SET (M) form and send a covering letter explaining what had happened again....<BR><BR>I am still waiting for a response in writing from the UKBA but we will probably go for the Indefinite leave to remain as it cuts out all the hassle and we don't have go through all this <A href="mailto:B@LL#CKS">B@LL#CKS</A> again fingers crossed...

[lee70]

Hello again

We sent the SET(M) application with payment instructions last Wednesday 14th July 2010.As we were given 28 days to respond I presume we had to get the application in by 20th July 2010.I sent it recorded delivery and they received it on 16th July 2010.They have not debited the money from my account and they still haven't responded to the letter asking whether they had returned my wife's documents although they have confirmed over the phone that they never sent them!!

Does this mean that they will now only give my wife an extension or did the fact that we sent them a letter complaining about their poor service hold things up.If someone can help it would be appreciated.I am sending a letter to my mp tomorrow.Hopefully he can give them a much needed kick up the back side.

[lee70]

The UKBA have yet to take the additional payment for my wife's ILR although they received our documents and payment instruction form over a month ago.Is this normal?

They have also yet to confirm in writing whether they are in receipt of the documents we sent to them in May although they have confirmed that they have them when I and somebody from the CAB spoke to them in July.

I have had a response from my MP and he has promised to contact the Minister of Immigration regarding the UKBA.

Any advice out there please??

[7by7]

As your MP is taking an active role in this, the only advice I can offer is to wait and see what results he comes up with.

[Petergreet]

The UKBA have yet to take the additional payment for my wife's ILR although they received our documents and payment instruction form over a month ago.Is this normal?

Hmm, this is not normal, no, not at all. The first thing they do is take the money then pass it through for processing

[lee70]

Just received a letter from the Home Office which is addressed to my mp.

The letter dated 16 August apologised to my mp for the poor quality of service.

They also apologised for the letter they sent to my wife stating that my wife's case had been rejected (when it hadn't been)and admitted for the first time in writing that were in possession of our documents.

They still haven't processed our payment though....apparently they will work on it as soon as possible.

[lee70]

The UKBA have now taken the remaining amount to cover the ILR fee.

We will see how long it takes to get a decision!

[lee70]

To my amazement the UKBA have returned my wife's passport and she has been granted ILR.What a relief!!!

Its taken just over three weeks since they took our hard earned money and shes already thinking of when she can go home to see her folks and eat som tam and spicy frog legs each day.

Thanks for the advice given and if you are ever in the same position as me -Write to your MP!!!

[bobrussell]

To my amazement the UKBA have returned my wife's passport and she has been granted ILR.What a relief!!!

Its taken just over three weeks since they took our hard earned money and shes already thinking of when she can go home to see her folks and eat som tam and spicy frog legs each day.

Thanks for the advice given and if you are ever in the same position as me -Write to your MP!!!

We found our MP very helpful and got the UKBA to jump when he warned them he was going to raise our case in the House of Commons later in the week!!! Some have reported MP's have not helped so perhaps it depends on the MP!