Please bear with me as I am new to this. I am trying to help a good friend on mine through through the highly complicated minefield that appears to be the UK immigration system.
My friend, a Sri Lankan citizen has been living and working in the UK for the last 4 years. I will have to check with him but presumably this on on some kind of points based work visa. He tells me that this visa expires at the end of 2013.
He would like to reamin in the UK permenantly - he lives here with his wife (also Sri Lankan) and has 2 children born in the UK, one of whom is in FTE.
The guy is very hard working, usually with more than one job at any one time is a very popular member of the local community as well being the top cricket player for the local cricket team.

However, having trawled through all info on the UKBA website, he does not seem to qualify under of any of the categories to get ILR - although he is a business studies graduate, he is not currently working in a high paying or a qualifying work area.
Does my friend have any options? We have tried to warn him off paying £'000s to "agencies" many of who I suspect will take his money and give nothing in return.
Any advice or requests for further info much appreciated.