In some need of advise! ANY advise will help!!

My situation is a little complicated. I moved here almost four years ago. I came over on a fiancée visa in June 2004. We were married in November 2004. Unfortuently I applied for my visa online and didn’t get much in the way of information. I did call the British Embassy in California to ask what I did after we got married. I was informed that as long as we got married within our time deadline everything would be fine. WRONG!! I found out about 2 years later when I called to ask about visiting home, and how I would proceed back into the UK that I should have immediately after being married sent all my identity forms i.e passport and marriage certificate off and apply for a settlement visa! I immediately went to a lawyer in my town explained the situation, (forgot to say at this point we had already had a son together) and asked for some advise. She told me this happens a lot and that things aren’t really explained as much as they should be when applying for a visa. She told me that I need to send off all my information which I did, including my passport, marriage certificate, sons birth certificate and all of our income statements showing that I wouldn’t need any financial support. This has been almost two years ago!!! I have not gotten a response off the home office and in the mean time I am stuck! I have family that haven’t even seen my son yet and I can’t even get back to visit! To make things worse, my grandmother has fallen ill, and my lawyer wrote to the home office stating that I need a decision as a matter of urgency to get back in time to see my ill grandmother, and  they sent a letter telling us NOT to contact them again as this delays matters. I couldn’t believe it! I feel I have hit a brick wall! Please can someone give me some advice?
Thank you,
Jenny

Just wanted to say Hi and Welcome... sorry its under such horrendous circumstances that you are posting.  Someone will come along with more knowledge than me, but 2 years you've been waiting for a decision? Something is defiantly not right with that!!!!

You will probably get more responses if we can move your query to the Visas board but if your lawyer has not been able to get them moving, I'd say it's time to see your local MP. It's ridiculous they should hang onto your passport for that long. Have you had ANY communication from then in that time, or just the letter advising you not to contact them?

I've only had the letter saying not to contact them, well actually two letters. I think it is just a standard response to any queries. Unbelievable really. I just waited and waited but now I really need to get home and don't know what to do.

OK well hang in there, we have a few people on the board who know a bit about how the system works who can probably give you some help getting your passport back.  Keep checking back for replies in case they don't see your post right away.

Perhaps a mod could move this to the Visa board, so Vicky might be more likely to see it?

I think the reason it is taking so long is that you didn't have any valid leave when you made the application, so it would not be considered straight-forward. My guess is that those applications end up at the end of the queue.

Have you discussed with your lawyer the idea of withdrawing your application in order to get your passport, and then applying for a spousal visa at the British consulate Stateside?  If this is to be done, you would have to leave the UK before October 1, after that, they are implementing mandatory bans for those that have overstayed.

I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother, and I hope you can get things sorted quickly.

Perhaps a mod could move this to the Visa board,

We are waiting for a global mod, none about at the moment. 

We are waiting for a global mod, none about at the moment. 

I thought it was something like that

Thank you all for your replies! This is the most help I've gotten since applying! I have discussed with my lawyer about going back to re-apply in America, but my husband couldn't take off work and I have a two year old son who is about to start nursery. The Lawyer said it could take up to six months for a response back in America and I just couldn't be away from my son six seconds much less six months. I just don't know what to do.

getting yourself in the Daily Mail seems to help some people!! 

Hopefully someone will have some good advice for you this afternoon.  I do think your MP might be the way to go though because it would likely take a ministerial intervention to get around the usual policies, however I'm not really up with how the home office goes about things these days.

Welcome to the board!

A few things....on what planet does a spousal visa from the US take six months?   

I sent a client in almost exactly the same situation back to the US last month...they were back with their husband in the UK in six days.

If you get the application refused but it has passed the end of September, you may get a ban from the UK for 12 months.  I would SERIOUSLY consider talking to your lawyer again and asking why she thinks that going back to the US to make the application is not an option, and asking why she didn't advise you to do this two years ago, as you would have had ILR by now.

N.B.  This doesn't happen a lot.  Most people realise from the end date of the visa in their passport that a fiancee visa only lasts for 6 months.  You are certainly not the only person in this situation, but it is not common as stated.

Vicky

(thanks Mort for pointing this thread out to me  )

Is it usual for an application like this to take 2 years though??

Welcome to the board!

I would definitely consider getting some different representation from what you have told us about the advice your lawyer has given you (which seems very poor), and the fact that they have watched this drag on for 2 years.

It's not unusual, put it that way.

Basically, this was an application made outside of the rules at a time when the Home Office was in chaos. As far as they are concerned this is not a priority application, so they have stuck it to the back of the queue, as I think someone has already said.  Really, the application was entirely without grounds at the time it was made, and the ONLY thing jenmnky has in her favour is that it has taken so long.  But...assuming that it is refused (which I am sure it will be) she will find herself with no right of appeal, as she was without status when she applied.  There is a chance that she will be granted exeptional leave, but it still make take more time to get it considered.  Going to an MP may get the decision sped up, but this may still be a refusal, so it is a chance.

All of which her solicitor should have made very clear in the first place.

One thing - when you say there is no response from the Home Office, does that mean that they haven't even acknowledged the application?


Vicky

So what would be the best idea now? Withdraw the application and see about applying from the U.S.? Actually replacing her lawyer with someone who knows immigration law would be a good first step, I think, as kate_mate suggested.