My wife applied for a Permanent Residence Card in error as she’s not an EU national (Malaysian). Found out last week after waiting 2 months that she should have applied for a Biometric card, however, the Home Office have retained her passports, one of which contains an indefinite leave to remain in the UK stamp and state that she is an illegal resident and are asking her to voluntarily leave the UK. We’ve been married 18 years, have lived in the UK that time and have a son with a UK passport. Spent 5 hours on the phone last Friday and pretty sure the passports are in Liverpool but have no idea how to get them back as we can’t phone, or contact them to speak to anyone.

Anyone know how we can get them back… we’re going abroad on holiday in a few weeks (hopefully)

Lawyer up

Your local friendly member of parliament?

Good luck. I haven’t had a single positive experience with the passport office.

Write to the address where you sent the passports to?

Your MP is a good bet.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-rights/immigration/

This should be straightforward and painless, you never know, but nwmlarge’s advice seems sound… I don’t have the words for how bad the home office is these days, but the one thing they’re good at is making their ****ups your problem.

Spxxy – I am assuming that at no point she has left the UK long enough to have the ILR nulified, I think it used to be 186 days out of the UK before things got tricky.

Is the PR you are applying for with the intention of going to the next step of citizenship?

Our MP helped out when we had issues with MrsQ citizenship, he got further than the British Ambassador for Beijing did, long story.

I was really impressed with how helpful they were.

Is it a good idea for you’re wife to leave the UK under the current circumstances ?

Is it a good idea for you’re wife to leave the UK under the current circumstances ?

Well if she hasnt got a passport she wont even be able to do that.

I’m not sure what’s worse. Not being let back in or not being able to leave!

Nwmlarge – Lawyers cost money… not our fault so why should we pay

Quirrel – We have only ever been on holiday abroad, never exceeding 40 days

She only wanted the PRC so that she wouldn’t have to carry two passports

Just been on phone to one of MP’s staff… they can speak to the Home Office… some hope?

It has been about 4 years since we left and MrsQ got her citizenship. Is the PR different to the ILR? Is this the ID cards that I was reading about a while back? It’s not applying for citizenship, is that right?

Are the Malaysian passports still common wealth

I would hope your MP can help out, does mean you will have to subscribe to their twitter feed and emails out of politeness though.

not our fault so why should we pay

because it’s in your interests to get it resolved?

this is a government department we’re talking about. I’d get something done asap before they just bin the passports ‘because it’s policy to do so after 28 days of them not being reclaimed’ or something.

Keeping passports wasn’t the MO when I worked for Immigration & Nationality Directorate. We used to draw a thick black biro line through any invalidated visas/residence permits and send them back to the owner. I think technically a passport belongs to the issuing state, and as such I’d be speaking to the Malaysian embassy and getting them to kick up a fuss – 020 7235 8033.

Alternatively you could try the I&ND on 0300 123 2241 but I wouldn’t hold too much hope of getting much sense out of them.

Quirrel – No she doesn’t want citizenship – wants to retain My as we may move there eventually. It’s a new card recently introduced, however only EU nationals can apply for it I’ve now been told. My is still commonwealth

Flying Ox – already spoken to 0300 123 nnnn (5 hours on various nnnn’s there) and got nowehere other than being told there’s a ‘case worker’ holding the file and probably at Liverpool

Malaysian Embassy… good call, will try that! Thanks

Yeah, I believe passports are the property of the issuing state

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and help… really appreciated by my wife and I

one of which contains an indefinite leave to remain in the UK stamp and state that she is an illegal resident and are asking her to voluntarily leave the UK

Who told you this…verbally, decision letter? When/were was she granted ILR? Im struggling to see how on the one hand she has an ILR stamp to then being an illegal and, if so, the grounds for the revocation of ILR 😕

I can only guess that the officials who dealt with your wife’s application failed to notice the stamp, and have merely concluded that your wife doesn’t meet the EU regulations, and there’s no evidence of her having permission to stay in the UK.

The reason for retaining passports is to act as leverage to get people to depart the UK. The usual approach is for your wife to contact the department responsible for removals and voluntary departures from the UK, and to liaise with them regarding travel plans, with a view to returning the passports at the point of departure.

Have you been provided with contact details of the relevant department for this? Or is that the number you’ve already spent 5 hours on the phone to?

Who told you this…verbally, decision letter? When/were was she granted ILR? Im struggling to see how on the one hand she has an ILR stamp to then being an illegal and, if so, the grounds for the revocation of ILR

I would guess that some ‘civil servant’, (oh the irony in that term), has taken it upon themselves to make that decision, just because they can.

If you made an EEA application then it is likely that the passports remain in Liverpool, if they have not yet been sent to a central storage facility… I assume you now realise she should have applied for a BRP or Transfer of Conditions. I would suggest that you respond in writing by recorded delivery to the letter you received explaining your error and that they will find the ILR stamp in one of the passports. You don’t need to speak to a lawyer. Once they see the ILR stamp, I’m sure the issue will be resolved. You could follow it up with a complaint too in the hope it gets picked up swiftly: complain

Hope this helps

Edit: the passports will be safe – they won’t end up in a bin after any time!

Edit 2: Try this link too and request the documents online: return of docs this should get picked up urgently

Nuke – The letter that she received that told her they were witholding her passports states she is could be here illegally. ILR was granted in March 2000 – I can’t understand that either unless they have not bothered looking at the second passport?

Landslide – yes, the letter was from that department – if they’ll hand them over when we are suposed to travel abroad then I’d be on to a winner?

Countzero – Probably!

Davros – already sent two letters with photocopies of the ILR etc by recorded. One arrived yesterday, the other has yet to arrive – great postal service?? Also plan to complain when we get everything back ;-). Already tried the return of docs… that’s what led to this current situation

Thanks again everyone 🙂 you’ve stopped my stress levels going through the roof

if they’ll hand them over when we are suposed to travel abroad then I’d be on to a winner?

I’d check this out first. If your wife’s been deemed an “illegal resident” it mightn’t make for the easiest of re-entries to the UK.

There’s also a possibility that relying on a (now massively obsolete) ink stamp may cause difficulties in an age where foreign nationals are expected to hold a biometric residence permit (which entails giving fingerprints etc.).

Hopefully the folk you’re now dealing with will be able to straighten things out a bit…