hi everyone,i'm trying to help a friend of mine who's in a mess right now.
this friend of mine is a nigerian who got married to a british citizen in the uk and was living with him there on a spousal visa.
unfortunately,her husband died and she decided to come back to nigeria to deal with her loss with her family and friends around her.she didn't realise that she could still apply for indefinite leave to remain in the uk as a bereaved spouse and has been in nigeria for 3yrs now.she now feels ready to go back to the uk and has enough money to last her for awhile.is there a chance that she could still apply for her indefinite leave to remain in the uk now?and how does she go about it from nigeria?

jennygirl:

hi everyone,i'm trying to help a friend of mine who's in a mess right now.
this friend of mine is a nigerian who got married to a british citizen in the uk and was living with him there on a spousal visa.
unfortunately,her husband died and she decided to come back to nigeria to deal with her loss with her family and friends around her.she didn't realise that she could still apply for indefinite leave to remain in the uk as a bereaved spouse and has been in nigeria for 3yrs now.she now feels ready to go back to the uk and has enough money to last her for awhile.is there a chance that she could still apply for her indefinite leave to remain in the uk now?and how does she go about it from nigeria?

Does she still have the marriage certificate, death certificate and other documents related to her late husband? How long was the spousal visa she was given before her husband died?

Yes she's got the marriage and death certificate and had just over a month to go on her spousal visa before she lost her husband and decided to come back home.

jennygirl:

Yes she's got the marriage and death certificate and had just over a month to go on her spousal visa before she lost her husband and decided to come back home.

She can apply as a bereaved partner with this form

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/settlement/forseto04091.pdf

But she should make every effort to read this guidance note

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/settlement/guidseto04091.pdf

Thank u very much.

jennygirl:

Thank u very much.

No worries. . . . advice your friend to make accommodation arrangement in the UK if she doesn't have one already to use as her UK address. A letter from any of her late husband's relative to support her application will help a lot.

One more thing pls,she had a housefire in the home she and her husband shared just a few months to his death and lost most documents she had.will there be a record of the fire somewhere she could access since it happened in the uk?

jennygirl:

One more thing pls,she had a housefire in the home she and her husband shared just a few months to his death and lost most documents she had.will there be a record of the fire somewhere she could access since it happened in the uk?

Well, it depends, did she call the police/fire service? Was the house insured? Was it reported in the press? Does she have pictures of the fire incident at that time?

yes it was reported to the police and fire service and the house was insured.press was present too.

jennygirl:

yes it was reported to the police and fire service and the house was insured.press was present too.

Then she got nothing to worry about, she should request for the incident file from either her insurance company, the police or the fire service, as long as she is able to convince them that they own the house then she will be given the file, her insurance documents will do.

so sad

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your friends situation. Just to give you a bit of heads up, to qualify for ILR there are some residential requirements that might be an issue:

- been resident in the UK for at least five years (this is known as the residential qualifying period);

- been present in the UK five years before the date of your application

- not spent more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months of the five-year period.

Pls check the guidiance notes for further clarification.

Regards.

so_silly: Hi,

Sorry to hear about your friends situation. Just to give you a bit of heads up, to qualify for ILR there are some residential requirements that might be an issue:

- been resident in the UK for at least five years (this is known as the residential qualifying period);

- been present in the UK five years before the date of your application

- not spent more than 90 days outside the UK in the last 12 months of the five-year period.

Pls check the guidiance notes for further clarification.

Regards.

Are you sure you read her case?

justwise:

Are you sure you read her case?

Yes I did. I simply pointed out where there might be a snag in her friends application. Needs to be aware of it & get an immigration lawyer to give further advice.

so_silly:

Yes I did. I simply pointed out where there might be a snag in her friends application. Needs to be aware of it & get an immigration lawyer to give further advice.

Your first post does not apply in this case.