Anyone know anything about immigration law?
Nov 10 2006
Okay, here's the situation, any advice would be really appreciated. Any off topic rants about immigration wouldn't be, so please do that elsewhere, thanks.
Someone I know is going out with someone who is in the country illegally. As far as I can tell he came (from Libya), I'm not sure of the details (his English is shit, and the person he's going out with is a bit hard to communicate with) saying it was for a holiday, on maybe a 6 month visa. Somewhere along the line he got caught and was having to sign at a cop shop, which he then stopped doing. He's been working cash in hand, and has moved in with my mate and her kids (she's in a council house and on benefits). He's now saying that to stay in the country this is what they need to do - she needs to come off benefits and work full time for at least 6 months, then they can go to Libya, get married, then come back to England legally, as there will be no problem with who's supporting him if she has pay slips.
Things I'd like to know more about - for a start is this true? For various reasons, I'm skeptical about their relationship, and it seems a lot for her to be doing for him (he also expects her to convert to Islam). What about custody of the kids? From what I can tell, in Libya the husband has full custody of children, but I can't find anything out about step children. Just general thoughts on the situation would be welcome please.
Nov 11 2006
#2
She should be really careful about taking her kids to Libya, if they are married he takes on the role of guardian and they become effectively his kids, if he wants them. For preference she should leave them here if she's only going abroad to get married, where rights are biased in the other direction.
TBH not knowing the guy at all it's impossible to know what his motives are, but Libya is a truly woeful country as far as womens' rights are concerned (and tbh his expecting her to change religion is ringing a few warning bells as well - it's not why he got together with her surely and what is he planning for the kids exactly...).
Legally speaking, although changes to the law are in progress, I'm not sure they'd need to go back to Libya at all. Found an article from the Scum here:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006160444,00.html
Which suggests that actually the law requiring foreign marriage was overturned in April (?) this year, which would presumably mean it reverts back to the old system, under which the Home Office will only intervene if the marriage registrar thinks it will be a sham marriage (if he's living with her, there's no reason to think this might be the case) and reports it.
Sorry about the "Any off topic rants about immigration wouldn't be, so please do that elsewhere, thanks" but, put this on another forum too and forgot to cut that bit!