Keep select value on change with laravel - forms

Question

I am having a paginated backend table with db-data. The admin person can filter that table for data status. This happens via ajax. Everything works fine but I do not get the selected filter value to remain selected when I click on the second pagination link.
E.g. I choose select option: '1' => 'Active' so that only db-rows show up that have a status of 1. But when I then click on the second pagination link to see the next 20 rows then again it also displays the inactive db-rows. How would I get the selected option to remain selected in this situation? I tried Input::old('status') and passing $selected to view as below but no success. Thank you for any hint!
View:
<form id="filter_form" onsubmit="" action="<?php echo URL::action('countries#anyIndex'); ?>">
<?php echo Form::select('filter_status', funcs::get_status_options(), $selected, array('id' => 'filter_status')); ?>
</form>
Ajax:
$(function(){
$("#filter_status").on('change', function(){
frm = $("#filter_form");
frm.serialize();
status = $('#filter_status').val();
$.ajax({
type: "POST",
url: $(frm).attr('action'),
data: {status: status},
success: function(data){
$("#list").html(data.list);
},
dataType: "json"
});
});
});
Controller:
class countries extends BaseController {
public $filter = array(0,1,2);
function anyIndex()
{
$data['title'] = "Countries list";
if(Input::has('status')){
$status = Input::get('status');
if($status != 2){
$this->filter = array($status);
}
}
$d['items'] = $this->_getItems(20);
if(Request::ajax()){
$data['list'] = View::make('admin/countries/countries_list', $d)->withInput($status)->render();
return Response::json($data);
}
$data['selected'] = $this->filter;
$data['list'] = View::make('admin/countries/countries_list', $d);
return View::make('admin/admin_layout')->nest('view', 'admin/countries/countries_view', $data);
}
private function _getItems($paginate)
{
$items = Country::whereIn('status', $this->filter)->paginate($paginate);
return $items;
}
}