6month Family visitor visa (not immigration)

[hml9]

Hello
Is there a better board to ask questions about just a family visitor visa?

[hml9]

I will just go ahead and ask.

Me and my wife are both non EU citizens, we both have ILR, our son has a UK passport.
My mother-in-law in Ukraine has successfully obtained family visitor/tourist visa 3 times over the past 6 years.
Last time she was here was in Oct 2011.

Her last application, as usual, with me and my wife sponsoring her, explicitly stating that we cover for ALL her expenses during her stay here has been refused. Her own income is nothing (basically GBP50, like in the 3 previous applications).
Our bank statements and pay slips have not substantially changed.

She has not received a formal rejection letter at the application center in ukraine, only someone who explained verbally that we wrote
"6months -5 days" in the requested duration of stay (by which we meant 6months minus 5 days, and which they interpreted as 6months AND 5 days).

and that she earns only 50GBP, but that hasn't changed.

Teleperformance is a company that handles receiving the applications. I think the UK visa officer that made the decision is based in Poland. I can't find anyway to contact this officer, and there isn't any other channel of communication.

Does anyone reckon visa officers have directives to easily refuse applications from ukraine given the current war situation?
Is there anywhere i can request to get the official rejection letter?


As my mother in law is not based in the capital where the application center is, is there a way to avoid a personal travel overnight in the new application that is made (ie send further documents that address the concerns of the visa officer? )

regards,

[hml9]

would anyone have taken a look at this question, I am wondering what our options are.

[MPH80]

Cutting through this - it would be highly unusual for the UKBA to fail to issue a rejection letter. If that has happened - she can apply for a Subject Access Request to UKBA (specifically highlighting the request for the rejection letter). She has to do this as it's a 'subject' access request.

However, it is not possible to appeal a visitor visa except on human rights grounds (which are very very few and far between on a visitor visa). So effectively the only option is to re-apply.

You should address the concerns of the rejection and highlight why she will return. Any country which is in the midst of civil war, potentially international conflict, is going to be of particular concern to UKBA as there will be a significant number of people attempting to flee the war under the guise of a visitor visa so the applications will be looked at very closely.

But you should highlight your intention with the 6 months minus 5 days line and then this time put the correct number of actual days in there rather than attempting to be too clever with the wording (which caught you out as you can see).

[hml9]

thank you.
As it turns out, she did receive the rejection letter.
Reason one was the "6 months - 5 days". Was definitely not trying to be too smart with this, it was our natural way of expressing it. We will put 175 days this time.

Reason 2 was that she earned only GPB50, but for this, i don't see what more to do, as we explicitly said we would pay for everthing. We put GBP2000 funds available just for her for 6 months, backed by our bank account statements.
Does that sound too little?

[kenstar]

Unfortunately we have been hit with the same fate.

We applied for a 10 year visitor visa for my mother-in-law who is based in Mariupol, Ukraine. Unfortunately the application was refused so as a result we are quite sorely out of pocket. We were particularly upset because our first child was born a couple of weeks ago and Grandma from Ukraine is desperate to meet him. In hindsight it was probably not the best idea applying for a 10 year visa. We assumed that it made sense so she doesn't have to make a 40 hour round trip to Kiev to apply for a visa every time she wants to visit us.

They were happy with our evidence as sponsors and that she would be staying with us.

Reasons for refusal were.

1. "You state that you are earning a monthly income of £75/month and you started the job on DATE but you have not provided evidence to back up this claim." This sounds similar to your issue. Her employer is willing to write a letter saying that she is employed since DATE, she earns on average XXX and is paid in cash and that she has been granted a leave of absence for her trip. Do you think this will be sufficient if we apply again for a 6 month visa? She lives day to day on the money she earns from her work. Income from her work does not go through a bank account.

2. "You have provided no evidence of your personal financial circumstances or ties to Ukraine". I'm not sure how this has been justified. She has a bank account with around £10,000 in savings making regular interest, A Ukrainian pension and owns her house outright. Evidence was supplied for all of this and notarised in English. I'm not sure what else we can do. She does not have any other immediate family but is in a relationship. Any thoughts?

3. "To qualify for a long-term visa to the UK, you need to demonstrate that you are well traveled and intend to travel often to the UK on short visits. You also need to supply supporting evidence that your circumstances will remain very similar during the validity of your visa." We plan to overcome this by applying for a 6 month visa.

Any help or advice would be really appreciated before we try again for a 6 month visa.