to feel utterly blessed that Ive fallen in love with someone local?

[MortifiedAdams]

My friend is in, and has been for years, a relationship with a man from Nigeria. He was in the UK for years, studying, educated to a very high level, however he has since been deported.

They speak every single day, and are almost fruitlessly trying to arrange to see each other again. His origin makes it nigh on impossible to meet anywhere in the world.

He has earning capacity of around 60k in this country, yet could only get over here (optimistically) on a Fiance Visa. Part of that means that DF has to earn a set amount every single year for a minimum number of years. Irrespective of how much money he brings in.

So, as we are all doing, settling down and having babies and taking time off, all of this will not be an option for her. She is incredibly down about the whole situation. She was once bubbly and vivacious and now is almost a recluse.

I took for granted that my DH was born round the corner!

Does anyone have any experience of the above? Is there any advice I can give? She and he have already read round and roubd the topic but I would love to be able.to help in some way.

I have been living in Nigeria for five years (I am white British and my husband is Nigerian, although also has UK citizenship). Our youngest two children are here with us. I am privileged in that we live in a beautiful campus with all necessary services and good security. It is true that infrastructure is somewhat lacking here in general but this can be overcome. Where is your friend's partner based? There is a large and thriving ex pat community in most of the big cities and it is relatively easy to move around if one is sensible. We even have a national body providing support for foreign women married to Nigerian men. Before writing off Nigeria as a place to settle please encourage your friend to visit! She may be pleasantly surprised.

The laws changed in July Kids. It didn't occur to us either.

"Better get that form done" we thought! We couldn't believe it and we thought it was a mistake but it isn't.

Seconding what Chunderella says, the situation is probably fixable. I trained in immigration law before qualifying into a less upsetting area. A decent solicitor will be up to date and will be able to explain options quite quickly. There are some complete sharks of immigration advisers out there who often mess things up. Try the Immigration Law Practitioners Association for safe sources of advice. www.ilpa.org.uk/pages/find-immigration-advice.html on phone sorry for link. Or I know some very kind people if you want personal recommendations. PM me.

Savoy, did your DH not qualify for indefinite leave to remain? Is the problem that you left for two years without applying first, or was he not eligible for some reason? (I have no idea what the rules are, but think my non-EU-passport-holding other half has everything sorted.)

Have found the answer to my question, did not know that indefinite leave to remain gets cancelled if you leave for two years.

If she really loved him, she would follow him to the ends of the Earth.

this is a sad result of one of the Tories stupider policies, not extending visas for foreign students who are extremely likely to be high earners and contribute in areas lacking in British-born employees. Sigh.

I'm a bit puzzled by all of this, I live in an area with a huge West African population, predominantly Nigerian and Ghanaian (sp?), who in the main are certainly not earning much, if anything, at all - they can't all be illegal, can they? It's about 85% of this part of town!