very crazy situation! can anyone help?

hi , i met my girlfriend on the net .on the 19th june 2005 she came to see me from the states , i live in the uk , she got denied entry but the IO allowed her 3 days temporary admission . She didnt go back and is still with me now . She is an illegal alien and my name has also been handed to the police. What can we do to stay together ? can we get married here altho she is illegal ? Will i be allowed entry to the states now i have this on my criminal record (also 2 cases of drunk and disordely)? what will happen to her when she decides to go home. How long will she be banned from this country for and if we got married in the states would she be allowed back in as my wife?
I understand theres a lt of questions but i hope someone can take the time to try and whelp me as we are both very worried at the moment and  would like to know what we can do .

Thanks in advance

You're not going to get a lot of advice here about how to do things illegally.  Your girlfriend should have returned to the US as soon as her 3 days were up.  She should return to the US immediately.  You cannot marry her in the UK.  She must return to the US and get either a fiancee visa or a spousal visa.  You can take your chances and throw her on the mercy of the Home Office before they seek to remove her from the country.  Again, good luck. Because she overstayed after being denied entry, she may never be allowed back in the country.  Garry is more qualified to answer that than anyone else here.  Even if you marry her, she may not be allowed re-entry to the UK.  Those are the consequences when you choose to break the law.  You can marry and try to settle in the US but you may find that difficult with a criminal record. 

Sorry if this is harsh but you won't find a lot of pity from those of us who worked hard to find a way to legally immigrate to the UK and play by the rules. 

Your situation isn't crazy.  It's illegal.  You both knew that when you decided to have her overstay her 3 day admission.  Many people are denied entry and leave, only to go home, get the proper visa and be allowed to re-enter the UK.  Several posters here have had that happen.  So, your situation isn't that unusual, except for the fact that you didn't bother to pay attention to the 3 days she was given to stay.

I suggest that if you want to mitigate the situation your GF should not make matters any worse by staying here.  She MUST return to the US immediately and try and sort things out from there.  There are no guarantees that she will be granted a visa in the near future, however. In fact, I would say it is pretty unlikely unless there are good reasons why she overstayed (eg very ill in hospital), but there is still some chance.  However if she waits until she is deported she could be be banned for 10 years.

You appear to be aware that your criminal record could affect any visa application you make for the US so there is not a lot you can do except make the application, cross your fingers and hope for the best. 

Well put, Kristi and Britwife.

I agree 100% with the posts above.  Do yourself and your gf a favour and contact an immigration advisor.  Then the very next thing you need to do is get her on a plane home.  The longer she stays here illegally, the worse it will be. 

I'm sorry we don't have any better news for you! 

If you love this girl at all you will get her to the airport as soon as possible. You're both committing a crime. Get her back home and try to straighten things out legally.
Good luck!

Everyone here has HAD to follow the rules.  Get your woman to the airport -- ASAFP.  If your feelings for each other are real and true -- then the distance thing won't be unbearable.

>Just jumping in here to say, that we have established that the poster and his girlfriend have done something illegal. No need to keep going over that.   Please keep it to legal and practical advise.  Thanks.  

On a  different note, did you mean to say 19 June 2005?  If you did perhaps you should give this a little more time before you jump into marriage.  Perhaps she could return to the US, you could write and phone, and visit(legally) before taking such a big step.  

All due respect, Mindy - even though it seems *obvious* to us we've established they've done something illegal - the fact that they did it first and are asking for help afterwards in my mind shows that they might need it drummed in a bit that things are SERIOUS - not "crazy."

If she was denied entry, she doesn't have a passport on her.  I'm surprised, quite frankly, they haven't come to your house (providing you DID give them the correct information about where she would be staying...) and deported her b y now.

I was denied entry - given 10 days - and left at the end of it.  With two children in tow.  It was heartbreaking and expensive and time-consuming and painful - but we did things as we were told to.  I went to NY, got visas, and returned and have now lived here nice and peacefully without any fear of the police for almost 3 years.

I repeate the above advice.  Your girlfriend needs to get back to the US.  Now.

I'm new here and don't live in the UK but I'll chime in anyway, I hope that's okay.  

I agree with the others as well. We've had similar situations here in Sweden with people meeting on the internet and coming to Sweden as a tourist. Then they stay longer than they are supposed to and in the end are "persona non grata" in Sweden. Do yourself a favor (as well as for your girlfriends sake) and have her go back to the US. She can apply from there, or perhaps you can apply to go to the US. I don't know if a criminal record will make things worse since they have gotten much stricter post Sept 11th. Maybe you or she could contact an immigration attorney about the facts and your options.

I also agree with Mindy. Did you say June 2005, or did you mean 2004? If it's 2005 that seems like an awfully short time to know someone and to be talking marriage. Maybe you could cool things down a bit and get to know each other better before making a huge step such as that.

AIf she was denied entry, she doesn't have a passport on her.  I'm surprised, quite frankly, they haven't come to your house (providing you DID give them the correct information about where she would be staying...) and deported her b y now.

Perhaps this is what he means about the police having his details.  Good point about the passport, so she needs to contact the authorities to arrange to leave the country.

I don't think meeting on the internet has a lot to do with it. There are many couples on this site who met online and who didn't have any such problems.


I think we've established that  the girlfriend should front up and leave the UK asap. Does anyone have any different advice?

I think we've established that  the girlfriend should front up and leave the UK asap. Does anyone have any different advice?

Nothing different to say from this end 

Just to add that in the situation described here, she's not an overstayer in the way we use the word, but rather she's actually an illegal entrant.  It's a few steps up the ladder in terms of gravity.

When they refused her entry, they would have given her an IS98NW form explaining the conditions of temporary admission, and it lists out the address of where she is supposed to reside during that time.  And if she's not at that address, she's got TWO problems.    So if she leaves and the IS makes their house call and she's not there, then he could draw an entry in the Sponsors Database.  It's also their going-in assumption that she would have supported herself doing something illegal, like drugs or prostitution, which is an additional violation of the terms of temporary admission, although it is only implicit.   Because if she tries to get an entry clearance in the future, the question will come up - that's for sure.

So when she leaves, it's a good idea to be accompanied through the port by an advisor whose objective is to assure all the bureaucratic bits and bobs are sorted.  It doesn't help the situation, it just keeps things from getting immeasurably worse.

But that's optional.  So nothing more to add M'lud...

I came back to add as an afterthought, that they don't usually book for drunk and disorderly unless there was violence or aggravation of some sort.  rosscopecotrain, is there something about violence in your police record?

If she was denied entry, she doesn't have a passport on her.  I'm surprised, quite frankly, they haven't come to your house (providing you DID give them the correct information about where she would be staying...) and deported her by now.

i was wondering about this as well....

i was wondering about this as well....

We don't have that many IS field officers to go chasing each case individually - it's not cost effective; cases are batched up by region and when they have enough, then a field officer is assigned and attached to the local police.  It's the local police who are in charge and who actually do the raid, but they get to wear the yellow IS insignia. 

How about taking Garry's advice and getting her to an advisor immediately and getting her on a plane out asap?  B/c if you have been booked for drunk & disorderly AND you know how this sort of thing on your criminal record, your chances of being allowed to even visit the US grow slimmer and slimmer.