UK Visas and Immigration delayed deciding couple's request to stay in the UK with their family

What happened

In 1999 Mr and Mrs G arrived in the UK as visitors. However, in 2000 they applied to stay because they were seeking asylum and they also wished to stay as dependents of their son, who was already settled in the UK.

By spring 2003 UKVI had refused both of those applications.

Mr and Mrs G stayed in the UK as overstayers (people who are subject to immigration control who remain in the UK beyond the expiry of their leave to remain). Then, in 2009 and 2010, they asked UKVI to reconsider their asylum claim. UKVI started work on the case in 2010 but instead of making a decision on it, it put the case in its archive and did not finish it until early 2014. UKVI granted Mr and Mrs G 30 months' discretionary leave to stay in the UK because they had lived in the UK for a long time (14 years by then).

Mr and Mrs G say they have been distressed by the delay as their immigration status has been unresolved since 1999.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. When Mr and Mrs G gave UKVI the information it asked for, UKVI did not properly record that it had received it. UKVI should have tried to contact Mr and Mrs G through their representatives before sending their case to the archive, but it did not. When Mr and Mrs G twice asked a UKVI advice worker at their local temple what was happening to their case, UKVI took no action. It was only when we intervened that it considered their case.

When UKVI looked at Mr and Mrs G's case, it mistakenly only decided Mr G's application. It told Mrs G she would have to apply separately. This delayed Mrs G's case by a further month. In total, Mr and Mrs G had to wait two years and seven months longer than necessary for their application to be decided.

Putting it right

UKVI apologised to Mr and Mrs G for not deciding their case sooner (it should have done this by summer 2011), and for not responding to Mr and Mrs G's approaches through a UKVI advice worker and through their own representatives.