What do i claim for? been in UK since 1970

[sneakyg]

Hi, Not sure if this is in the right part of the forum

i desperately need help for a family member....here is the general idea.

arrived in England from Jamaica in 1970 as a minor

lived happily in England ever since, (currently 60 years old) never seen her passport since arriving in England (never needed it) and never left the country

in 2010 she applied for her first adult passport - a Jamaican one and then sent it to get a No time limit stamp which was rejected (although i only became aware of this recently) as no documents from her arrival could be located.

recently we have been contacted and this situation is that they are wanting to grant 2.5 years stay and go through applying and reapplying for extended stay.

It seems as the home office stance is that if we cant locate the documents then it doesn't exist.

im unsure what else we can do to prove that she had ILR (or ILE as it was applied for before her arrival)

im not sure what rights she has to apply for naturalization or something else rather than going down the current route of being granted 2.5 years and then reapplying, i though that she might be deemed as already having status on the grounds of her being here before the immigration act came into effect and there being grounds where it says that if you were here and present and settled then you were deemed to have settled status?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... 0.0EXT.pdf

we are a very low income family and this is tearing us apart - sleepless nights and depression. We have seen a solicitor who basically didn't tell us anything other than what we already knew and said that the 20 year route is also no longer applicable since some time this year?