I’m almost certain I read a while back that the UK government had some rule that if you were an illegal immigrant but could prove that you had been resident in Britain for a very long period of time (6 or 12 years, maybe?) you would be granted permanent residence. Am I misremembering or was there such a law? If so, is it still in effect? And where can I get more information on it?
No such arbitary rule.
There have been deportations of illegal immigrants with over 20 years here, in one case the subject had children that were born here and allowed to stay.
Criminal illegals will serve their time and be deported no matter how long they have been here.
It gets complicated by long term residency illegals attempting to claim asylum as a cover, but although investigations can take longer, it does not usuallymake a differance, the law has been changed so that asylum seekers must make their application within a certain time frame, other such illegals are now temporaily deported until their case is heard.
The idea is to make sure that while they are waiting for the proceduresm they cannot dissappear into the population, and it also stops them trying to use delaying tactics as it is in their interest to get their case heard as soon as possible whilst on temporary deportation.
The tribunals may decide to allow an illegal full residency if they qualify under their criteria, sometimes the process is not entirely consistant.
I’d better get rid of that amibiguity.
The children were allowed to stay, the subject was deported.
Hmm… maybe it was some other country, then.
Nope, apparently I was right and you were wrong; I just found the provision from Immigration Directorate’s Instructions, Chapter 18: The Long Residence Concession [PDF]:
So apparently if you’ve been in the UK for 14 years as an illegal immigrant and you haven’t done anything else illegal, then you will normally be granted permanent residence.
‘indefinate leave to remain’ is (or should be) just that; “We’ll suffer you to remain here, pending further developments or evidence of criminal activity”. But he/she has no right to reside here.
OK, so they have no right to reside, but removing the threat of deportation simply for being present in the UK is a big improvement in their situation. Then they will be able to get a non–black market job and access to government services.
FTR, the link I gave earlier was simply instructions for those processing applications. The actual law governing indefinite leave to remain for illegal immigrants is ¶276(A–D) of the Immigration Rules.