As you will see from our Testimonials page, we generally only publish comments from former clients if they have given us permission to publish their name and photograph as well. Most people who have been in the UK illegally, however, are naturally reluctant to have their names and photographs published on a website; for this reason the identity of the people involved in all our case studies has been anonymised. The facts of each case are however true.
Luis is a Colombian national who came to the UK to study in 2009. While here he met Magda, a Polish national who was working at Luis’s college as a part of the reception staff. They soon fell in love, and some six months after Luis arrived in the UK they started living together.
When Luis’s visa was coming to an end he made an application to remain in the UK to work, not knowing that this would only be possible if his potential employers were registered sponsors with the Home Office, and permitted to take on overseas employees. The Home Office took five months to make a decision on his case, and then it was refused. Though Luis had a right of appeal he decided instead to put in an application based on his relationship with Magda. Though Luis was in the UK legally while his application was with the Home Office, once the deadline to appeal was over and he hadn’t lodged an appeal he became an overstayer.
Luis and Magda decided to lodge the application themselves, without seeking legal help, and so they mistakenly completed the wrong form and made the application under UK law. Seven months later, this application too was refused, because Magda is not settled in the UK. This time there was no right of appeal. It was at this stage that Luis and Magda came to us for help. They had been living together for close to three years by that time.
We explained their options to them, and they instructed us to act for them in an application under EEA law, on the basis that they were in a durable relationship. They had very few documents to show that they had been living together for three years, but we suggested alternative evidence which they were able to get together, and we submitted this, along with detailed legal representations setting out Luis’s immigration history and the history of their relationship, and making arguments as to why he should be issued with documentation under EEA law.
The application was successful and Luis was issued with a Residence Card valid for five years. We last heard from him when he sent us an email to say that he and Magda had twin sons, born on 01 November 2014!
