Spouse visa UK - please help!

[Lenalatte]

Hello. I am in a really tough predicament. I came over to the UK on a visitors visa to see my husband for the second time this year. We have been married since November last year and in a relationship since January 2004. He came over to the UK with the intention of earning pounds to give us a head start in South Africa. This time I brought the children with to have a holiday. My ex instigated a Hague convention application and my youngest daughter was sent back. (He has no interest in the other two children.) He made criminal charges against me in South Africa for abduction and other things that I am not guilty of. I can't prove that he is lying about him giving consent. The court case was on the day and at the time that our return tickets were booked. I am now in the UK on a 6 month visitors visa and cannot dare go back to SA as he is refusing to drop the charges. If I go back I get arrested and who knows what will happen to my two children that are with me. I have made enquiries and so far it seems as though I cannot apply for a spouse visa from here. As I cannot go back to SA to do it I am in a Catch 22 situation. Please help.

[John]

Doesn't it hinge on this? Whilst :-

I can't prove that he is lying about him giving consent.

-: he cannot prove that he didn't. Is that right? Have you sought any legal advice about this? Contact by phone or email with a lawyer in SA?

Your husband's nationality? His current UK immigration status?

[Lenalatte]

Thank you for responding. I really appreciate it!

I have had legal advice about the situation and was told by solicitors here and lawyers in South Africa that I do not have irrefutable proof of his consent as it was verbal. I very much doubt that he will drop the charges and therefore need to make a contingency plan in order to stay here until such time as what it can be sorted out in SA. An immigration solicitor that I spoke to today said that the English authoroties would frown on me applying for a spouse visa here based on this because there is a possibility that I could be guilty of the abduction.

My husband is a British born and bred citizen. His parents immigrated to SA when he was in his teens and he returned to England last year.

[John]

An immigration solicitor that I spoke to today said that the English authoroties would frown on me applying for a spouse visa here based on this because there is a possibility that I could be guilty of the abduction.

Sorry to say, I think that sums it up completely. The Immigration Rules do not permit you to make an application in the UK. A no-switching rule was introduced on 01.04.03 to stop people switching from visitor visa to spouse visa in the UK. OK you could make an outside the Rules application but especially against the background you have mentioned I fear this is doomed to fail.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Shame you didn't come here on a spouse visa. If you had you would not be facing this situation now.

Any extradition treaty between the UK and SA? Especially if there is it maybe best to go back to "face the music", to get this sorted out, then apply for your spouse visa in SA.

[Lenalatte]

Thank you for responding John.