Girlfriend may be deported - school closed

moneyman

Sorry if this is the wrong forum, really looking for any help/insight here.

My girlfriend is South American and has been here for the past year. Unfortunately her school was one of the ones that shut down, so she did not get any qualification or do her IELT test at the end. She has enrolled for another course starting at the end of the month so she can stay another 8 months, however she just received an email saying she has to provide to immigration her IELT results or her GNIB can be revoked and she would be deported.

She went to the immigration office today to apply for a one month extension but honestly I am not very hopeful of this being granted. Anyone know the criteria for them granting these? Apart from this they told her she has only 6 days to provide the results if the extension is not granted. Now there are no tests available to even take for the next month, and even then it takes 13 days for the results to come back. So it seems like a hopeless situation.

Does anyone know what the best course of action is or what our options are? She doesn't want to stay here illegally for obvious reasons. If her GNIB is revoked is it possible for ger to return to her country and come back here again to study? I don't think she would even want to come back here if the situation goes that far.

I would really appreciate any help or insight. It seems very unfair that she is unable to study here longer due to her school closing. Thanks in advance for any help.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

moneyman

draiochtanois wrote: »

I think you should get married.

Thanks but I was hoping for serious answers.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

moneyman

draiochtanois wrote: »

Why didn't she do an IELT test?
You can apply for a test at a test centre.

I don't know the answer to that. I presume she didn't realise she would need it to study another year here until she got the email. I didn't know it either.

munchkin_utd

moneyman wrote: »

Thanks but I was hoping for serious answers.

how is getting married not a serious solution ?

My sister was going out with an american for a number of years in Ireland and then went to the US, and somewhat belatedly copped on that working whilst still only on a holiday visa is kindof difficult/ illegal.
So, got married in Reno with no family and 2 paid witnesses. A dozen years later they are still married and now in Ireland again, where the husband now has an irish passport to smooth matters over on this side of the atlantic.

Living abroad myself, I've encountered a number of cases where people have had to make that legal commitment to each other (aka marriage) in order to regularise their situation. All that I can think of are still together, and most with kids and properly settled down.
BTW, Denmark is a great place for a quick and painless marriage if theres complications with foreign nationalities. It worked for 2 friends, German+Ukrainian and Irish+Kenyan where the paperwork and interviews to get it done locally was proving to be a bit of a pain.

pc7

Good god don't get married! I am really shocked that some people think this is an answer, we don't even know how old you are. OP really hope you get some 'legal' advice soon.

CiboC

The last school closure was in May 2015, there was plenty of information available at that time as to what a student should do to maintain their status, depending on what school they were attending. There was no facility offered to allow students to do nothing for the rest of their permission to remain and worry about it in 12 months.

This will sound harsh, but it seems that your girlfriend ignored all of that and is only now realising that it is too late to regularise her immigration status now. Depending on which country she is from in South America she may not need a visa to enter Ireland, but she has already been illegally in Ireland for the last year and may be asked to explain that if she leaves and tries to re-enter.

If she came in 2015 on a student permission and has not been studying over that time she has already breached the terms of her permission to remain. She has already been staying here illegally, it is not something which will only start now.

Sorry OP, I don't mean to be so blunt but I'm afraid that this is the case.

moneyman

CiboC wrote: »

The last school closure was in May 2015, there was plenty of information available at that time as to what a student should do to maintain their status, depending on what school they were attending. There was no facility offered to allow students to do nothing for the rest of their permission to remain and worry about it in 12 months.

This will sound harsh, but it seems that your girlfriend ignored all of that and is only now realising that it is too late to regularise her immigration status now. Depending on which country she is from in South America she may not need a visa to enter Ireland, but she has already been illegally in Ireland for the last year and may be asked to explain that if she leaves and tries to re-enter.

If she came in 2015 on a student permission and has not been studying over that time she has already breached the terms of her permission to remain. She has already been staying here illegally, it is not something which will only start now.

Sorry OP, I don't mean to be so blunt but I'm afraid that this is the case.

Thank you for the information. I didn't know her at the time of the school closure so I wasn't aware of any of that.

So at the moment this seems like a helpless case and she will have to leave. It seems like we don't really have any options. Absolutely gutted.

moneyman

munchkin_utd wrote: »

how is getting married not a serious solution ?

My sister was going out with an american for a number of years in Ireland and then went to the US, and somewhat belatedly copped on that working whilst still only on a holiday visa is kindof difficult/ illegal.
So, got married in Reno with no family and 2 paid witnesses. A dozen years later they are still married and now in Ireland again, where the husband now has an irish passport to smooth matters over on this side of the atlantic.

Living abroad myself, I've encountered a number of cases where people have had to make that legal commitment to each other (aka marriage) in order to regularise their situation. All that I can think of are still together, and most with kids and properly settled down.
BTW, Denmark is a great place for a quick and painless marriage if theres complications with foreign nationalities. It worked for 2 friends, German+Ukrainian and Irish+Kenyan where the paperwork and interviews to get it done locally was proving to be a bit of a pain.

It may be a solution for some but not a realistic one for us. We have been together only a few months and neither of us would want to get married this early. Being together for a few years completely changes the landscape of things. Thank you for the suggestion though.

PhoenixParker

Are you eligible for defacto relationship status?

You don't need to be married to apply for a visa on the basis of being in a relationship together.

CiboC

The only glimmer of hope is that they are looking for an exam result from her - the exam doesn't actually have to be IELTS, it just has to be a recognised test of proficiency.

There is an English language test run by the Department of Education called TIE (www.tie.ie) and she may be able to get that sooner.

If all they are looking for to give her a fresh permission is an exam you could look into that.

The rules are the rules but I have also had plenty of cases of the individual officer that a person is dealing with being lenient if they choose to be.

moneyman

CiboC wrote: »

The only glimmer of hope is that they are looking for an exam result from her - the exam doesn't actually have to be IELTS, it just has to be a recognised test of proficiency.

There is an English language test run by the Department of Education called TIE (www.tie.ie) and she may be able to get that sooner.

If all they are looking for to give her a fresh permission is an exam you could look into that.

The rules are the rules but I have also had plenty of cases of the individual officer that a person is dealing with being lenient if they choose to be.

Thank you for this, but the website says applicants must apply 10 days before, and results are issued within 14 days. This puts her well outside the 6 days she has left when you take everything into consideration.

I know a guy who outstayed his visa by 4 months and he went to immigration and they told him to enroll on a course and they would let him stay (he did and he is still here). It does seem to depend on the individual you get at the office but I'm not holding my breath that her one month extension will be granted.

moneyman

PhoenixParker wrote: »

Are you eligible for defacto relationship status?

You don't need to be married to apply for a visa on the basis of being in a relationship together.

From my brief reading about De Facto relationships on the official website, we would need to have been in a relationship for at least two years, so no luck there.