Domestic violence concession and ILR

And, theoretically, if it were successful I would then receive recourse to public funds due to having ILR. Is that right?

If you are granted ILR you could claim benefits, but it isn't much anymore as that is ending. It will be a fixed amount of money for rent, which likely won't cover all the rent of your room as they only pay at the 30th percentile of rents in that area. If you are under age 35, it will will be the room rate and over 35 will be the 1 bedroom rate. Plus about £74 per week Jobseeker's Allowance, but you would need to use that £74 to top up any rent shortage, pay your Council Tax, pay for heating, water, food and clothes. Not paying your rent and then getting evicted, is seen as intentionally making yourself homeless and then there is then no help from your council as they have already given you some rent money.

However, all the income based benefits are being replaced by the One Income Based welfare payment called Universal Credit and that is being run by the DWP. It is likely that UC already in in your area for new new claims and UC will be in all areas by the end of next year for exisiting claims too. About 70 DWP job centre areas are already going onto UC every month from 2017.

For Universal Credit, the UC conditions are that you would be required to job hunt for 35 hours a week, visit the job centre, go on any work experience, go to a work provider, apply for any jobs they tell you to etc. There are tough sanctions too (loss of benefits): 3 months for the first sanction and something like 3 years for a second sanction.

The only way to avoid the Universal Credit these conditions, is to earn at least 35 hours a week, every week, at the hourly national minimum wage. Parents too will soon have to meet these new welfare requirements of earning a minimum amount each week, to avoid the Universal Credit conditions mentioned above.

As you are in a women's refuge, ask them about asking for Public Funds because the staff there they will know if you are likely to be allowed to get that and how little that amount will be while you await to see if you can have ILR on DV. 

If I apply for ILR based on DV and am rejected, what happens? Is my spousal visa cancelled immediately and I have to leave the country? Because I've just told UKVI that I no longer meet the conditions of the spousal visa.

UKVI will give you a date to leave the UK by. The Immigration Act 2016 ended all in-country appeals. They might let you appeal from inside the country, but they don't have to. I assume you could ask for a Mandatory Reconsideration, where they look to see if they (UKVI) have made a mistake when they refused you ILR.

Constant abuse just gets things shut down and these people will always make it harder for genuine claimants too, and not just for immigration. i.e. the going to their doctor and claiming "stressed and depressed" to get sick benefits, that became so popular on "UK benefits' forums. That then brought in the 2008 change of, medicals must now be taken for sick benefits; the reduction in their sick benefits to the same rate as the jobseekers; The MAC reporting what UK benefits are popular with foreign natioanls/those who were a foreign national when they first applied for a NINo and those benefits ending or being changed;  etc

See your GP. Tell them of any physical abuses or any anxiety/depression.

No, you will normally be given a certain amount of time to either reapply, appeal the decision, or leave the UK (I think 14 days). I’m not sure if there are any differences for DV applications.

All in-county appeals ended under with the Immgration Act 2016, including Human Rights appeals. This seems to be why on a  refusal letter, UKVI have already looked at any Human Rights claim too, even if the applicant hadn't asked for that yet.

All in-county appeals ended under with the Immgration Act 2016, including Human Rights appeals. This seems to be why on a  refusal letter, UKVI have already looked at any Human Rights claim too, even if the applicant hadn't asked for that yet.

Ah, I didn’t realise that - I thought I’d seen people considering making in-country appeals recently.


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All in-county appeals ended under with the Immgration Act 2016, including Human Rights appeals. This seems to be why on a  refusal letter, UKVI have already looked at any Human Rights claim too, even if the applicant hadn't asked for that yet.

So by applying, I am potentially going to get myself deported if my application is refused.
I'm not safe enough to see GP. Even posting here is a risk but I've tried to get help for weeks with nothing.

Btw do you know if any DV application here was successful? I think UKVI assumes it's fake.

You can’t be ‘deported’ unless you are an illegal immigrant who has been arrested and held in a detention centre before being physically removed from the country.

If your application is refused you will have the option to reapply or find another visa to apply for within the allowed time, or leave the UK voluntarily (this is not being deported).

If your case is genuine and you can provide proof of it your DV application should be approved. I don’t know of anyone who has applied for DV ILR in the last few years, so I couldn’t tell you if they were successful.

The thing is, what happens if you don’t apply for ILR based on DV? If you are genuinely in a bad situation and are trying to get out of it, do you have any other options other than trying to leave the UK?

- if you stay on your spousal visa and stay with your partner, you aren’t going to be able to change your situation

- if you separate permanently but you don’t apply for ILR, you are legally obliged to contact UKVI and inform them of the marriage breakdown... they will either cancel the visa and you will have to either leave the UK or qualify for another visa within 60 days, or they might let you stay until the visa expires, but then you will have to either leave the UK or find another visa to qualify for to stay.

- if you apply for ILR based on DV, you have the chance to get out of your current situation and stay in the UK without qualifying for another type of visa.


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Okay, looking at the immigration statistics for how many ILRs were granted based on DV over the last few years:
2016: 812 (796 women, 46 men)
2015: 657 (596 women, 61 men)
2014: 759 (689 women, 70 men)
2013: 906 (787 women, 119 men)

Not sure how many refusals there were because we only have total approvals and refusals for ALL ILR applications...  but in 2016, there were 60,670 approvals and only 5,354 refusals overall (91% approvals, 9% refusals).


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Ah, I didn’t realise that - I thought I’d seen people considering making in-country appeals recently.


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The in-country appeals for those on points based visas, was shut down under part of the Immigration Act 2014 and for all the rest, under part of the Immgration Act 2016. It was widely expected because the internet was rife with all the abuse that could be used.

Now an in-country appeal seems to be if the UK decide to offer it, but they don't have to anymore because of these two Acts. About the same time, the mandatory reconsideration was brought in for if the applicant thinks the UK (UKVI and Benefits) made a mistake on the information they were supplied with.

Since then, it's reading like some try to go for a JR to try to delay their removal, but they then find out that this dosen''t give them protection under 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 (gives them legal stay, allows them to work, can use the NHS bill free, keep a UK bank account etc) because a JR is outside of the immigration rules.

Plus those using a JR to try to delay their removal, now have to pay their own JR legal fees and when they lose, they now also pay the thousands of legal fees it cost the Home Office to defend the case: all part of the "those that use the service, pays for it" that the UK has.

You can’t be ‘deported’ unless you are an illegal immigrant who has been arrested and held in a detention centre before being physically removed from the country.

If your application is refused you will have the option to reapply or find another visa to apply for within the allowed time, or leave the UK voluntarily (this is not being deported).

 
To deport, the UK seems to send an IS96 notice, liable to be detained and deported. It's reading on forums like these are sometimes sent just days after a refusal letter.

Those who don't leave by the date stated in their refusal letter or who don't have a valid application in for another visa, are often told to report to a centre every so often ie. fortnightly. As long as you are reporting every time, they won't detain you while they are preparing to remove you, but people can arrive to report as usual and find they are detained and returned to their own country a few days later.

As ksand said, if you don't want to return to your own country and you can't get any other UK visa (i.e. a work visa from an employer) then trying for ILR under DV, might be your only chance to remain in the UK? Any future application for a UK visa might be affected by a refusal.

Thank you, ksand and Sirius. I wonder if ILR has a high approval rate because Dv applications are a tiny percentage of them?

I guess I'm working from American bias in that abuse is rarely taken seriously and certainly not without concrete proof. I talked to an official today (can't specify) who completely dismissed me and in fact blamed me.

Do either of you (or anyone else) know if I can get documentation of 999 and 111 calls? I'm grasping at straws for enough evidence and don't want to throw away money on an application without enough proof.

Okay, this is where it sounds as if DDV is required for ILR:

Eligibility
Your last visa (or permission) must have been:

as the partner of a British citizen, a person settled in the UK, or a member of HM Forces who has served for at least 4 years
given to you so you could get public funds to be able to apply (called the ‘Victim of Domestic Violence Concession’)

It's here:

https://www.gov.uk/settle-in-the-uk/y/you-re-the-family-member-or-partner-of-a-british-citizen/no/partner/you-re-the-victim-of-domestic-violence [nofollow]


Isn't this right? Or is it really bad wording?

I think it’s just bad wording - I believe you only have to meet one of those requirements. I.e. you either need to hold a valid spousal visa OR you need to have been granted permission to stay for an extra 3 months (DDV) after your spousal visa has been curtailed.

If you click on the guidance link on that page, it says, for spousal visa applications made after July 2012:

Eligibility
 - to meet the eligibility requirements for indefinite leave to remain as a victim of domestic violence the applicant must meet all the requirements of paragraphs E-DVILR.1.2 and 1.3

- the applicant’s first grant of limited leave under Appendix FM must have been as a partner (other than a fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner) of a British Citizen or a person settled in the UK under paragraph D-ECP.1.1., D-LTRP.1.1. or D-LTRP.1.2. of Appendix FM and any subsequent grant of limited leave must have been one of the following: 
o granted as a partner (other than a fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner) of a British citizen or a person settled in the UK under paragraph D-ECP.1.1., D-LTRP.1.1. or D-LTRP.1.2. of Appendix FM 

o granted to enable access to public funds pending an application under DVILR and the preceding grant of leave was granted as a partner (other than a fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner) of a British citizen or a person settled in the UK under paragraph D-ECP.1.1., D-LTRP.1.1. or D-LTRP.1.2. of Appendix FM o granted under paragraph D-DVILR.1.2 of Appendix FM

- the applicant must provide evidence that during the last period of leave as a partner the applicant’s relationship with their partner broke down permanently because of domestic violence


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