Bad situation... tempted by irresponsibility

GooliesOfFire

You are clearly not telling us everything. You've been living in the UK for 6 years as non-EU member married to a British. As far as I know in normal circumstances you would be entitled to obtain British Citizenship after 3 years. Not normal circumstances are when you i.e. scrounge off the state and that is what you were accused of by UKBA (indirectly through your wife, you see she is entitled to all sorts of benefits/supports as British citizen). Why would they give you a visa or British Citizenship when your wife cannot support your stay?

Well done UKBA. The less people like you and your wife in this country the better. Good bye.

Uberwilbur

GooliesOfFire wrote: »

You are clearly not telling us everything. You've been living in the UK for 6 years as non-EU member married to a British. As far as I know in normal circumstances you would be entitled to obtain British Citizenship after 3 years.

Well, you clearly don't know very much about the regulations. Why don't you do a bit of research before emitting some completely unfounded assumptions and casting suspicion on my situation? The UKBA site has all the info you need on this, and it doesn't correspond to your ideas.

You need indefinite leave to remain (ILR) before you can obtain citizenship. It used to be the case that you could get ILR after 2 years on Further leave to Remain (Marriage), but as of this July, that's now been extended to 5 years. Furthermore any time spent on a student visa is considered invalid for settlement purposes. I looked into this about 2 years ago when I thought I was eligible for ILR and thereafter citizenship. I was told that the years during which I was in Britain on a student visa simply didn't count. To make matters worse, the visa scheme under which I was working when we first got married doesn't exist any more, so the time spent on that doesn't count either.

So that's the big secret I'm trying to conceal from you... that I've been a graduate student for half the length of my marriage.

Joshua_Wilson

If a debt has not been acknowledged and there hasn't been any contact for far to long then you can't legally be chased for it...

victoria797

Uberwilbur wrote: »

Well, you clearly don't know very much about the regulations. Why don't you do a bit of research before emitting some completely unfounded assumptions and casting suspicion on my situation? The UKBA site has all the info you need on this, and it doesn't correspond to your ideas.

You need indefinite leave to remain (ILR) before you can obtain citizenship. It used to be the case that you could get ILR after 2 years on Further leave to Remain (Marriage), but as of this July, that's now been extended to 5 years. Furthermore any time spent on a student visa is considered invalid for settlement purposes. I looked into this about 2 years ago when I thought I was eligible for ILR and thereafter citizenship. I was told that the years during which I was in Britain on a student visa simply didn't count. To make matters worse, the visa scheme under which I was working when we first got married doesn't exist any more, so the time spent on that doesn't count either.

So that's the big secret I'm trying to conceal from you... that I've been a graduate student for half the length of my marriage.

If you had gotten your marriage/spouse visa before the new rules came into effect ie 9th July 2012,it does not apply to you when you renew your visa,which means you could apply for ILR after 2 years.

I understand you never changed your status to that of a Spouse of a British citizen even though you were married to one?.If it is the case,you have made a really huge mistake!

I would suggest you seek legal advice from an immigration solicitor.

Uberwilbur

My immigration issues aren't really the point of this thread. My situation is complicated by the fact that I've spent some time out of the UK while we've been married, and I've been on a student visa for part of our marriage. Of course I registered my status as being married to a UK citizen, but have also been incredibly unlucky in my timing with regard to some of the rule changes - it seems like I'm always completing an application a month or two after everything becomes more complicated and/or expensive.

With perfect hindsight, I would have handled things differently a few years ago, but there's little I can do about it now. I didn't post this topic in search of visa advice from people who know nothing of my immigration history. There are lots of other people affected by the rules who may be less easy to criticise as deceptive or incompetent, such as the cases raised in the House of Lords while they were debating the subject.

Can we move on please?