Yes or No?

[sars_notd_virus]

Other paperwork sent now includes


Letter from mortgage company
Letter from council
Photocopy of passport
Renewed invitation letter


Anything missing

Itinerary??...what she plans to do on her holiday in the UK.

[Arthur Little]

Itinerary??...what she plans to do on her holiday in the UK.

... how about ... ... robbing a few banks in order to meet the extortionate cost of living in ?

[Arthur Little]

... how about ... ... robbing a few banks in order to meet the extortionate cost of living in ?

for being flippant, Simon ... but it's just about the "size of things" here nowadays.

[SimonH]

Itinerary??...what she plans to do on her holiday in the UK.

She's already had the interview and explained she's staying with family.

Is that enough?

[SimonH]

... how about ... ... robbing a few banks in order to meet the extortionate cost of living in ?

With Shey about to give birth any day now money really is the least of my worries

[Mrmlea]

Sorry to hear about your rejection Simon, and good luck with the re-application. The same thing happened to me last year when my then girlfriend (now wife) was refused a visitors visa. In her case the main reason given was lack of evidence of our relationship. So we re-applied including plenty of photos, emails, chat logs etc, and the second application was granted. So as long as you address the specific reasons for the refusal you should have a good chance of success.

One thing I notice - you said you have sent scanned copied of bank statements, pay slips, P60 etc. I think you need to include the *originals* and also copies in the application. You will get the originals back eventually. Other people on here may be able to advise better, but that is my understanding and is what we did.

Good luck,

Martin & Aileen.

[SimonH]

I'm ing fuming

Visa for Shey's niece refused again, the reason being this time that they didn't seem to think that she would return after her 6 month visit, even with a letter from her employer saying her new contract starts in December

Funny, this wasn't mentioned in the first application rejection, so failing jumping on a ing plane and banging some heads together there, what do I do now

[Michael Parnham]

Shocking news Simon, I don't know what to suggest, hopefully someone will have a answer soon, good luck!

[sars_notd_virus]

Itinerary??...what she plans to do on her holiday in the UK.

She's already had the interview and explained she's staying with family.

Is that enough?

With Shey about to give birth any day now

Visa for Shey's niece refused again, the reason being this time that they didn't seem to think that she would return after her 6 month visit, even with a letter from her employer saying her new contract starts in December

Sorry just re-read this thread again just now and sorry to read about the refusal again for the 2nd time.

I think something is wrong somewhere, I asked about the Itinerary? What she plans to do on her holiday and visit to UK and you replied shes been interviewed and she's staying with her family? For six months? And your wife has given birth? Surely she will NOT be just staying home looking after your wife and baby for six months? She needs to go out and See All around UK and you need to provide documents for it ie visit to London and all nice cities in UK.

Does it needs to be six months? Why not cut it a bit shorter - a month or two - just to see the new baby and visit family in UK.

[SimonH]

Shocking news Simon, I don't know what to suggest, hopefully someone will have a answer soon, good luck!

Thanks Michael, I've just fired off an email to Theresa May as she's my local MP, let's see what she has to say about it

[raynaputi]

I'm sorry for the refusal. Getting a visit visa really is a lottery. If ECO isn't really convinced of her ties in the Philippines, it would be a refusal. How old is your wife's niece? Does she have any other assets and reasons to go back to the Philippines other than her work in December? Sometimes, it's the duration of stay here in the UK (i.e. 2 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, etc.) can be the key too. Did you state she'll stay for 6 months? Also, what reason did you mention for her reasons to come here to the UK?

[SimonH]

Sorry just re-read this thread again just now and sorry to read about the refusal again for the 2nd time.

I think something is wrong somewhere, I asked about the Itinerary? What she plans to do on her holiday and visit to UK and you replied shes been interviewed and she's staying with her family? For six months ? And your wife has given birth? Surely she will NOT be just staying home looking after your wife and baby for six months? She needs to go out and See All around UK and you need to provide documents for it ie visit to London and all nice cities in UK.

Does it needs to be six months? Why not cut it a bit shorter - a month or two just to see the new baby and visit family in UK.

Hi Sars, she did mention places that we'd be visiting. The initial application was for 6 months,the second was for 5 as she was always going back at the end of November with Shey and our daughter, Charleigh.

[SimonH]

I'm sorry for the refusal. Getting a visit visa is really a lottery. If ECO isn't really convinced of her ties in the Philippines, it would be a refusal. How old is your wife's niece? Does she have any other assets and reasons to go back to the Philippines other than her work on December? Sometimes, it's the duration of stay here in the UK (i.e. 2 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, etc.) can be the key too. Did you state she'll stay for 6 months? Also, what reason did you mention for her reasons to come here to the UK?

Hi Rayna,

The really frustrating thing is that there was no mention in the initial rejection of her not having enough reasons to return, so why did this crop up in the second application

[raynaputi]

Hi Rayna,

The really frustrating thing is that there was no mention in the initial rejection of her not having enough reasons to return, so why did this crop up in the second application

That's probably because it was looked and processed by two different ECOs and they probably have different standards to look at.

[Dedworth]

That's probably because it was looked and processed by two different ECOs and they probably have different standards to look at.

I blame Blair and Indian sub continent abuse of the system. Bad news, I hope it gets sorted

[grahamw48]

I agree. Caused by overstayers. It's a question of trust.

I would also wager that 99.9 % of overstayers were NOT Filipinos coming to visit native British residents.

It would be interesting to see the figures...unless they were thrown out along with the Parliamentary Pedo files.

[SimonH]

This mornings fiasco.............


Phoned UK Visas and Immigration centre, a very sympathetic lady directed me to ukvi-international.faq-help.com which will kindly charge me £1.37 a minute to answer my queries.
Phoned them, but get an answer phone saying that their offices are closed at 9.30am even though their website says open from 9 till 5
Next phoned Theresa May to get an appointment with her.... got a very helpful answer phone message saying for immigration queries call 0870 606 7766, great now we're getting somewhere............ nope, automated message on that number saying the number is no longer in use

Oh well, onwards and upwards

[SimonH]

Emailed ECM Manila with this, not sure where it will get me but worth a small rant

To whom it may concern,


With reference to applications GWF031182877 and GWF032384772 both of which have been refused.

As per your email regarding the first refusal, we have addressed the points and re-applied only to have this application refused. I am awaiting an appointment with my local member of parliament, Theresa May, to discuss this further but in the mean time I would appreciate some sort of explanation from yourselves.
Your reason for refusal is unacceptable in that you quote paragraph 41 (i), (ii), (vi) and (vii)

(i) I have send a letter of invitation stating I will fully support Ivy financially, with supporting documentation showing my income and available funds
(ii) Ivy's employer has given you a letter of employment from her HR department stating her new contract starts on 20th December. Together with this I have stated in my letter of invitation that we will all be flying back to the Philippines at the end of November, I even went as far as to sent your a scanned copy of my passport.
(vi) My bank statements, both personal and company should have given you no reason to doubt my ability to support Ivy in her stay, together with proof that I own my own house and she would be staying with ourselves.
(vii) Again see point (vi) regarding my available funds, together with the fact that I would be paying for a RETURN ticket for her.


I have no intention of applying a 3rd time, as all queries have been addressed fully and I can only assume that there has been some sort of clerical mistake which will be rectified promptly.


Regards






Let's see if I get any sort of explanation

[Dedworth]

This mornings fiasco.............


Phoned UK Visas and Immigration centre, a very sympathetic lady directed me to ukvi-international.faq-help.com which will kindly charge me £1.37 a minute to answer my queries.
Phoned them, but get an answer phone saying that their offices are closed at 9.30am even though their website says open from 9 till 5
Next phoned Theresa May to get an appointment with her.... got a very helpful answer phone message saying for immigration queries call 0870 606 7766, great now we're getting somewhere............ nope, automated message on that number saying the number is no longer in use

Oh well, onwards and upwards

Her Westminster office number is 020 7219 5206

Good email you've sent #48

[SimonH]

Her Westminster office number is 020 7219 5206

Good email you've sent #48

Cheers, I've already sent her an email and left a message on that number

That's where I get the 0870 number from, also here :-

http://www.tmay.co.uk/contact#home-office-enquiries


Should be an interesting meeting

[mickcant]

Cheers, I've already sent her an email and left a message on that number

That's where I get the 0870 number from, also here :-

http://www.tmay.co.uk/contact#home-office-enquiries


Should be an interesting meeting

Let's hope you do get to see her and she has the sense to finally sort this out.

A point that bugs me is they are so over strict on allowing visitors, yet when my ex wife overstayed they did nothing about her despite me giving them the information very clearly with copies of her expired visa and where she was living!

Mick.

[Michael Parnham]

Emailed ECM Manila with this, not sure where it will get me but worth a small rant

To whom it may concern,


With reference to applications GWF031182877 and GWF032384772 both of which have been refused.

As per your email regarding the first refusal, we have addressed the points and re-applied only to have this application refused. I am awaiting an appointment with my local member of parliament, Theresa May, to discuss this further but in the mean time I would appreciate some sort of explanation from yourselves.
Your reason for refusal is unacceptable in that you quote paragraph 41 (i), (ii), (vi) and (vii)

(i) I have send a letter of invitation stating I will fully support Ivy financially, with supporting documentation showing my income and available funds
(ii) Ivy's employer has given you a letter of employment from her HR department stating her new contract starts on 20th December. Together with this I have stated in my letter of invitation that we will all be flying back to the Philippines at the end of November, I even went as far as to sent your a scanned copy of my passport.
(vi) My bank statements, both personal and company should have given you no reason to doubt my ability to support Ivy in her stay, together with proof that I own my own house and she would be staying with ourselves.
(vii) Again see point (vi) regarding my available funds, together with the fact that I would be paying for a RETURN ticket for her.

I have no intention of applying a 3rd time, as all queries have been addressed fully and I can only assume that there has been some sort of clerical mistake which will be rectified promptly.

Regards


Let's see if I get any sort of explanation

Nice letter Simon, let's hope it does the trick!

[SimonH]

Another update

I just had a very pleasant phone call from Theresa May's assistant Jenny. She has asked me to send a copy of all correspondence to her and she will look into it.


Waiting for the next instalment.................

[Michael Parnham]

At last, some movement in the right direction!

[SimonH]

Thought I'd give this an update.
After investigating the application and refusals they stood by their decision and said we could apply for a 3rd time if that's what we wanted. So, we did.............. result, a third refusal reason, not enough ties to the Philippines and they didn't believe she would return.

Time to ruffle some feathers before I start really laying into them, so I've sent them this:


We have applied a third time MANILA\******* only to have the application refused again.

The reason quoted is paragraph 41 (i) and (ii)


These points have already been addressed in this and previous applications, even to the point of me offering to lodge a substantial bond with yourselves. I appreciate now that you do not accept bonds, but I would have thought that this gesture would have some bearing on the decision.

I cannot find any reference to personal and financial circumstances with regard to the applicant in any links or guidelines and therefore am of the opinion that this is an unlawful reason for refusal. I have stated in this and previous applications that I will be fully supporting Ms Soliman including paying for a return ticket.

Ms Solimans employers' knowledge of her length of vacation is totally irrelevant as her new contract doesn't start until after we return to the Philippines.

Your final point is that Ms Soliman is single with limited evidence of saving. Again, I believe this to be an unlawful reason for refusal. Her marital status is irrelevant and the finances of a 19 year old should have no bearing on the decision - especially as I have proven beyond doubt my financial ability to support her.

Once again I will be contacting my local Member of Parliament, Theresa May, to look into this.

Under the Freedom of Information Act' I request that you provide me with the following information.

1. How many general visitor visas have been applied for from the Philippines?

2. Of these how many were refused and accepted?

3. Of those refused, how many applied a second time?

4. What is the average amount of applications that a person has to lodge before being granted a visa?


Regards



I was told by a chap in Manila yesterday that the refusal rate was 93%, he specialises in visa applications and will get applicants to sign an affidavit stating they will return to the Philippines to be lodged with the application. The cost for this service......... 80,000 Php

Anyway, let's see what the response is with regard the Freedom of Information Act questions

[SimonH]

I've also sent a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office via these people -

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/reque...plications/new

I'll keep you updated

[SimonH]

Have an automated response

From: FOI Requests
Home Office

3 September 2014

Thank you for contacting the Home Office FOI Requests mailbox.

The Freedom of Information (FoI) Act 2000 provides public access to
recorded information held by the Department.

If you have submitted a valid FoI request, we will acknowledge your
request within 24 hours, and aim to provide the information requested
within 20 working days as specified under the FoI Act.

[grahamw48]

Good man Simon.

Keep turning the screw.

[Michael Parnham]

Hope this brings success Simon, good luck!

[SimonH]

Thanks Graham and Michael

I've fired off another email to Theresa May's secretary copying her in on the correspondence and requesting a meeting with her.

To be totally honest, this is ing frustrating, I've got much better things to do with my time, like keeping people employed and paying tax. Maybe if I knew how to play the system I could be sat at home in front of my 50" surround sound home cinema drinking a can of lager