Passport issues - how long did a Right To Remain application actually take?

[ChocolateBiscuitCake]

So sorry - this is not an AIBU but not sure the travel section gets much traffic!

My nanny applied in august for a right to remain visa/passport and had to send in all her current travel docs etc. £950 taken from her bank account.

She is due to fly home at the beginning of January and the Home Office will not tell her where they are with her application. She can however, request her valid passport back again but forfeit her £950.

I am totally disgusted as she is essentially imprisoned in this country (but that is another thread).

I spoke to them today and they WILL NOT commit to ANY timescale as to how long the process will take - 3 months? 6 months? a year? If you have applied for this type of visa, please could you kindly give us hope that the application will be processed shortly. How long did yours take?

Thanks so much

Can I suggest you try an immigration forum where there will be lots of people in the same boat. I think it'll get you answers quicker. There's UKResident.com for starters, and then depending on your nanny's nationality there may well be an website dedicated to expats from her country. Good luck.

My husband and I had a similar problem a few years ago when he was applying for British citizenship. The Home Office kept his passport and other documents for months and we were told that we could find out where he was in the queue, but this would delay his application (I.e. It would go to the bottom of the pile...!)
Like you say, we were essentially trapped in the UK as we had no passports and had no idea how long this would be the case.
We eventually contacted our MP with an exasperated letter about our case, and within a week we had our documents back and not long after that, the citizenship letter arrived! I can't guarantee that it would work in your nanny's case, but might be worth a try? The immigration department at the HO seems to be in such a shambles, you need all the help you can get! Good luck!

QueenVic thanks for responding - I agree with you but lots of the forums are not up to date. There appear to be lots of non-UK mums who may have personal experience so thought I would give it a go! I appreciate that AIBU is not ideal - am being cheeky - apologies.

Notaclue thanks for your reply. I will contact the MP today because she needs 15 working days to have her passport returned, which over Christmas only give a couple of weeks to decide what to do. It is disgusting that they can take nearly £1000 and not tell someone how much longer they have to wait (whilst taking 5 months to process an accurate application - I checked it so it is definitely all correct ). The HO is a disgrace.

Notacluetoo There is now a system by which the local council will inspect your passpord and send on copies to the HO - for a modest fee - so that you can apply for naturalisation without surrendering your passport. OP Not sure whether that applies to RTR applications and in any event too late for you. Good luck!

Thanks notaclue - have just sent an email to local MP. Fingers crossed.

if she leaves the country they might not let her back in sometimes it can takes up to a year and she moght have to start all over again and pay 950 again best to get mp involved some are quite good out of interest what country she from

Have you been to ukresident.com? It is definitely up to date and has forums on which immigration lawyers give free advice.
You will get far more information there and more accurate.

hi

my husband is currently waiting for his citizen ship visa....previosuly had a indefinate leave to remain. they said up to 6 months for the process of visas and yes if you want your passport back in the meantime you do loose your fee

applied for citizenship in october and the check service we used warned us the home office are extremely busy atm for some reason more than usual

What do you mean by 'right to remain'? I'm an immigration lawyer, if you give a few more specifics, like exactly what kind of visa she's applied for, I might be able to help you, or point you in the direction of a law firm in your area that can.

It took my H 4 months to get his back, it varies. She shouldn't have booked a flight while she was waiting. The system is shit but it's at least predictable.

My stepmother was stuck in this situation for nearly a year although im not sure of the circumstances (there may have been a reason that i dont know about i didnt ask about it too much!)

Thank you so much for all your responses so far - especially as I really appreciate that this is not an AIBU!

She has been here for 5 years and this is the last visa application for indefinate leave to remain and as I understand it, get her british passport.

My local MP has got back to me already and is going to look into it. Am a bit gobsmacked really, and fingers crossed

Argh, I'm sorry for you and your nanny. However, 3 months doesn't seem a very long wait to me TBH. I waited much longer than that and I know people who waited for a good 18 months. It was awful for them as they had a new baby and couldn't visit their home country with the baby. There were slight anomalies in both our applications and both of us had to ask our MP to intervene. Getting help from the MP is the only way to speed things up as far as I know. It's not guaranteed to work, but you should keep going back to the MP and keep asking him/her to intervene on your behalf.

Contrary to what a lot of the popular media would indicate, getting indefinite leave to remain in the UK is becoming tougher and tougher, and more and more expensive. Nor is it likely to become any easier in the future.

If leave to remain in the UK is important to your nanny, I wouldn't advise her to pull her passport out. She should wait for the HO instead. It won't be any easier the second time round, and she will have to pay all that money again. It's hard to remain trapped in the UK but there are lots of people in the same boat.

It's great that an immigration lawyer is on this thread BTW; you should get any advice from them that you can! Good luck.

She could have gone through a document checking service, typically through her local registrar for a fee in the region of £50 - £100. This would have meant that she walked away with her documents while her case is processing, and would be free to use her passport.

They are pretty up front about this in the application process, afair.

I waited about 6 months for my settlement / indefinite leave to remain visa.
Wish I'd thought of getting help from an MP.
I found the department dealing with it especially unhelpful.

First they charged me the wrong amount when processing the payment. So when the application went through they rejected it on the grounds I hadn't paid enough money {They were the ones who had processed my credit card so were responsible for the amount charged}.

They don't keep the slip where you indicate which amount you need paid on the credit card slip, so I couldn't prove it wasn't an error I had made, but the amount they did charge was totally unrelated to my application, so clearly their mistake.

So I then had to start all over again. You can't actually even ring up to enquire how it is going until it's been something like 3 or 4 months, they'll refuse to take your call before then.

The British passport would be if she was applying for citizenship though, that's the next step on from leave to remain.

I am due to apply for my citizenship but haven't yet for just this reason, it's so stressful when you have travel plans.
In my line of work, my job requires regular travel, so in my case, it literally means I can't go back to work until it's all sorted. {I'm currently at home with the kids}. How people who do travel for work at the time they apply manage I have no idea.

This is the third country I've lived in as a permanent resident and the first time I've ever come across such ridiculous lead times for approval of such things. You can understand a couple of weeks but months / years is completely unreasonable / untenable.

It just seems so grossly unfair that you forfeit £950 to get your passport back so you can travel. She hasn't been home for 2 years as flights are expensive etc. I just really want to help fight the battle for her as I think the HO can exploit the language barrier.

MindtheGap - I completely agree that a checking service would be the best way to go but to her £100 is a HUGE amount of money.

Marfisa - I think the Leave to Remain is important becasue she has to pay £500 a year for a visa! I think she would prefer to not have to as well as travel more freely throughout Europe.

I just really hope that the MP can make a difference

I've checked a couple of registrars, and the fee is more like £50.

It's not a lot on top of £950, and, imo, well worth it for freedom travel as you please and for peace of mind that the application is in order.

Immigration fees are, apparently, in line with the costs of the service.

Mine was done in a day

I paid the premium though

mine was several years ago, and a slightly complicated case to decide. It took almost a year before they granted indefinite leave to remain. I was without a valid passport for all that time, and it was extremely stressful having no way of knowing how long it would take.

In the four years prior to that, when I applied for one year 'exceptional leave to remain' statuses, it took months at a time, and again, no notice of how long it might be, so I was in travel-limbo each year, not able to make plans in advance. Very difficult when you are alone in another country with no family.

MindtheGappp, I just googled the checking service because I had never heard of it before for indefinite leave to remain. It's clearly very new - was only instituted in late 2010. That is a great development and would have spared people a lot of misery if it had existed earlier.

It's not new - my DH used it in 2006 and it was already well-established then.

It might have been called the 'Identity checking service' in those days.

Apparently nu lab decided that the immigration arm of the uk border agency needed to be completely self funding. So the huge visa fees cover the costs of asylum seeker applications etc. I know it's a huge pita but non eu immigrants are hardly a priority.

Yes the checking thing was available in 2009 too. H couldn't use it cos he accidentally overstayed his visa!

Here is the reason why you are waiting.... this was posted by the main UKKBA union BEFORE the current scandal. 25% of an understaffed part of the Home Office is being sacked, 1500 gone this year, 3500 due to go by 2015, net migration at historic high, simply not the staff to cope with the increases in applications.

www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id/362FC656-3C27-4568-AAAE9541DD1431F1

Before you all trash the HO other countries do it too.

Have had friend basically stuck in the US, Canada and Australia waiting for visa's.

It isn't great but that is the joy of emigration.