Lucapooka wrote:The three month concession is with exclusive regard to a period of leave that was granted for (and/or extended to complete) exactly five years, in the same category, and where the applicant can't complete the five years residence that are required for ILR because of a delay in their entry to the UK (and for no other reason such as early extension where previous unexpired leave was not added into the second grant). The period of delay is capped at 3 months. Anyone who can complete five years because they have sufficient time remaining in their current leave is required to do just that.
Come on guy's, this is not difficult to understand and lots of people (not in this thread, but certainly in others) are confusing the issue with guesses and hearsay!
Lucapooka,
There appear to be two scenarios where forum members are repeatedly asking questions & getting two different responses based on other forum user experiences and what the modernised CW guidance states:
In both cases the applicant has first entered the UK within 3 months of EC.
Scenario 1) An applicant has sufficient leave to remain to cover the 5 year residence required for ILR, both from the "EC date" and the "first date of entry" into the UK (This may be because they extended their leave several times, or switched immigration categories while in the UK which may have resulted in them being granted more than 5 years of "leave to remain").
Scenario 2) An applicant has sufficient leave to remain to cover the 5 year residence required for ILR, but only from the "EC date" (Because they were granted exactly 5 years of leave).
Now this is what the modernised CW guidance states:
Applications that fall short of the five year continuous period
In some cases, applicants may have been granted five years continuous leave, but due to delayed travel will not have spent five years continuously in the UK before their current leave expires. Caseworkers may count the period between entry clearance being granted and the date the applicant entered the UK towards the five years, provided this period was not longer than three months.
Based on my interpretation of the above statement, what I understand is that in
scenario 1) above the applicant can apply for ILR upto 28 days before their "first date of entry" into the UK. And in
scenario 2) above the applicant can apply upto 28 days before their "EC date".
But contrary to this there are certain forum members who state that in
scenario 1) above they have successfully applied for ILR upto 28 days before their "EC date". These members state that CW's have mentioned that they are not worried about whether you apply for ILR 28 days before "EC" or "first date of entry", so long as you have sufficient leave to remain to cover the 5 years.
This is where a lot of confusion has arisen. From your response I gather that you and I have read and interpreted the guidance in the same way. My take is that it will be upto individuals to decide what they would like to do for themselves. The response they get will continue to vary as it is clear that there are two distinct ones that continue to be given on this forum.
