One weird edge case administrative process that worked in my (well, my partner's) favour:
The UK introducted legislation stating that people on a specific type of visa would only be eligible for permanent residence if it was issued on or before April 2010. The same legislation said, if this type of visa was issued after April 2011, it oculd only be extended to a maximum of 6 years, and then the visa holder would have to go back to their home country.
Well, there were obviously a bunch of these visas that were issued in the interim period, where the holders wouldn't be eligible for permanent residence, but if the employer company was willing to do so, could keep extending these visas indefinitely.
This seemed so baffling to us that we spoke to multiple immigration solicitors and the Home Office/UK Visas & Immigration support reps (or whatever outsourced org they were then -- Capita? Sopra Steria?) and they confirmed that this was true -- the visa could be indefinitely extended unless the government changed the rules.
The government eventually patched this bug, but IIRC, not before most such visa holders used the extra time to sort their employment situation out. (Opinion, not facts, based only on forum discussion anecdata)
The UK introducted legislation stating that people on a specific type of visa would only be eligible for permanent residence if it was issued on or before April 2010. The same legislation said, if this type of visa was issued after April 2011, it oculd only be extended to a maximum of 6 years, and then the visa holder would have to go back to their home country.
Well, there were obviously a bunch of these visas that were issued in the interim period, where the holders wouldn't be eligible for permanent residence, but if the employer company was willing to do so, could keep extending these visas indefinitely.
This seemed so baffling to us that we spoke to multiple immigration solicitors and the Home Office/UK Visas & Immigration support reps (or whatever outsourced org they were then -- Capita? Sopra Steria?) and they confirmed that this was true -- the visa could be indefinitely extended unless the government changed the rules.
The government eventually patched this bug, but IIRC, not before most such visa holders used the extra time to sort their employment situation out. (Opinion, not facts, based only on forum discussion anecdata)