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

£950 is a HUGE sum of money. I applied am a SAHM and DH is a higher rate tax payer, when I applied for ILR at the beginning of the year we struggled o find the fee and I didn't use the priority service because although the cost is minimal in comparison, we just didn't have it.

As I applied as a spouse, they took DH's passport also and although I had made no travel plans as I was aware of the uncertainty in timings, DH had to travel for work 4 months after we sent it in. We had the same answers when we rang to ask whether he could get his, British, passport back. It is incredibly infuriating but hey-ho, it is beaurocracy at it's finest.

Just checked - the EEA Family Permit is free, so all the costs are borne by other visa applicants.

£950 is a lot of money, but another £50 or £60 for document checking is not a lot to pay for relative freedom over the next year or so.

As has been mentioned, the immigrant cannot leave on an expired visa, but when the UK spouse has to surrender his/her passport, it is more than a moot point.

Thank you so much for all your really valuable (if not as positive as I had hoped!!) feedback.

Her visa is valid until June next year so yes, hindsight is wonderful and the checking service would have been great. I suspect the language barrier would have made it difficult to see the real benefits of this service at the time! Had it been me, then I would have forked out for the same day service. But it is not me and saving a few hundred pounds is obviously important to her at the time.

It would be fair if they charged £100 to have the passport returned (after all, she sent it with plenty of copies!!). But forfeiting the £950 is outrageous by anyones standards.

It is also the unwillingness to give any progress reports that infuriates me (when they have sufficient staff, seemingly, to take the payment within days of the application being received!!).

pisses me off though that they charge so much and then take so long. They don't do that in any other area of government that I know of - but they know they have immigrants over a barrel and it looks good in the Daily Mail.

Couldn't put it better.
Relieved I have citizenship now.
I got ILR back when it was quick and FREE.

ILR was free? I can't remember that. How much was LTE/LLR?

Yes, completely free, and even I (supreme skinflint that I am) thought that was too generous at the time. So now it's gone to the other extreme. Damn... when did I get it, when was it still free? 1996, I think? Free for a while after Labour govt. came in 1997, I'm sure. ILR application Charges came in 2001 or so, I guess.

Not sure what those acronyms mean, but applying for citizenship was 245 quid or so until April 2006 I think, and I thought that was almost too much at the time. 785 or so now, I think.

I don't feel comfortable about getting MPs involved, though, just because I'd rather MPs concentrated on more important issues.

DH did his in 1989 or 1990. I can't remember paying (we came on a company move) but I would be flabbergasted it the entire process were free. Why would it?

ILR was definitely free before Labour came in. TLR may have had a charge. Labour introduced the concept of huge fees for settlement.

I imagine much of the cost was loaded onto Leave to Enter with the assumption that LTR would follow.

CBC when DH was applying for his fiance visa at the Canberra High Comission the Home office/HC advice was not to telephone to request a status report until the application had been submitted for at least 6 weeks. Then when you telephoned (after six weeks) they took at $10 payment from you for answering your queries then told you that they cannot give status reports over the telephone. It is theft basically and abuse of people in a vulnerable position.

At least however the position with regard to passports and ILR the position is very clearly set out (and why we went through the priority application process). TBH, I doubt there will be anything your MP can do. Sorry.

Just an update in case someone searches and this comes up...

MP got back to us two weeks ago saying that rules were rules and that she would have to lose £1000 for the passport or cancel her flights. Basically she couldn't help and sent a letter written by the home office saying "tough".

My nanny decided to recall her passport (she hasn't seen family for two years and didn't want to let them down by not going home - lots of reunions, weddings etc). She put in the call last Monday to get the passport back as she needed 15 working days notice and travels 1st Jan 2012.

Her indefinite leave to remain arrived today!!!!!! Can't believe it - am so over the moon - she can travel and not lose her money.

So there is hope and maybe the MP did make a difference? Who knows. I hope others can get some hope from this

Hi there,

I hope someone can advice me on what to do with my case.
I applied for my ILR for over 6 months now, I haven't heard any news from the HO. Me and my husband are very worried as we need to book our holidays to go to my brother's wedding in the USA. Today I have emailed them to ask for some news.
any advise on what I can do to speed up the process or anything?
Thanks!

Please I need advice on what next to do as I applied for Retain Right of residency after four years of marriage with my EEA partner. I summit my application five months ago to the home office but have not received a single letter as to what is happening to my application, if it has been received or not. Please does anyone have same issues. Any advice will help.

Hi I'm having a similar issues my husband applied for something to remain in this country he was in a hurry to apply only because the fees where going to increase mine and my sons passport were sent along with all the document me and my son are British from birth I have been told by so many people that mine and my sons passport should of come 4 to 6 weeks after sending the documents every year I take my son abroad on holiday during the summer I feel soo disappointed and upset not knowing what to do it's been 4 months I mean they keep photo copies of all the documents so why is it taking them such a long time I feel so trapped I was told by a friend since my husband has given his finger print I should go and get new passport made that's the thing easy to say but it may affect his application I don't know if theirs anyone that can advice me on this