Ali Ibrihimi is crowd funding for the right to remain in the UK. He currently lives in Brighton and has raised just over half of the money he needs to apply for a visa. but has only 3 days left.
He came to the UK at christmas time in 2007 after travelling 6 months from Tehran and at one point swimming for 11 hours from Turkey to Samos in the Aegean.
When he got here he claimed asylum but the application was still being processed 3 years later. In this time he met and fell in love with a British woman and in 2010 despite homelessness they married. He was able to apply for a visa on the ground of family.
He became a gas engineer, and since then has renewed his visa twice and is now able to apply for indefinite leave to remain.
However he can’t afford the £2,297 filing fee. His visa expires in September and therefore he needs to raise the money before then. Once his visa expires he won’t be allowed to work or rent in the UK.
In his plea to ‘Share Legal Costs of Leave to Remain’, Ali talks about the health surcharge and how his case is not uncommon. To read more about his case specifically visit his page here.
