73 Yrs old mum refused visit visa. Please help!

[dewales001]

Hello guys,

My mum recently applied for a family visit visa to the UK and she was refused under paragraph V4.2 (b) of Appendix V of the UK immigration rules. Please see below the extracts from the refusal letter.


The decision

I have refused your application for a visit visa because I am not satisfied that you meet the requirements of paragraph(s) 4.2(b) of Appendix V: immigration Rules for Visitors because:

• With you application you have provided your current passport number A********. This passport contains a UK entry stamp dated 14/06/2014 but no corresponding re-entry stamp to your home country. It does however hold two entry stamps of your home country on 10/03/2014. Although these unexplained anomalies may not be in any way your fault, they still raise concerns regarding you UK immigration history and the periods you have spent in the UK.
• Furthermore, by your declaration, you were in the UK between 29/09/2013 and 09/03/2014 then again between 14/06/2014 and 25/11/2014, then most recently from 12/06/2015 to 20/08/2015 meaning you have spent more than a year in the UK during a two year period and now seeking to return to the UK for a further 5 months just two months after your last return. I am therefore not satisfied that you do intend to live in the UK for extended periods through frequent or successive visits, or make UK the UK your main home.


My mum is a 73 years old pensioner living alone as she is separated from her husband many years ago. She has been coming to the UK to visit my family, me and my brother since 2002 with no adverse immigration history. My brother and I are British citizen by birth and we support her financially also to compliment her pension.
My question is how do I challenge this unfair decision by the ECO. I strongly believe the first reason is none of her fault. Also, the ECO could easily get information about when she enters/leaves the UK to confirm if she had overstayed. The second reason also talked about her visit to the UK the last 2 years. What I do not understand is how these visits were classified as “successive or frequent”? Is there a written rule about the number of days to be spent in the UK as a visitor other than not more than 6 months?

I am really confused and will really appreciate if someone can help me on what to do to challenge this decision, as she was not given an opportunity to appeal or an administrative review either.

[vinny]

Lack of UK embarkation stamps isn't doing anyone any favours.

See also Genuine visitor: relevant and irrelevant considerations.

[dewales001]

Lack of UK embarkation stamps isn't doing anyone any favours.

See also Genuine visitor: relevant and irrelevant considerations.

Thank you for the links Vinny.

Please kindly advise if we should provide proof ( Airline tickets to her home country) to nullify the first part of the decision with a complaint letter to the Home Office. Or do you think it is a waste of time? Or a JR is the only way to challenge these decision?

[Wanderer]

The six months in every twelve guide is just that, it's important to show she's coming here for a visit, and not residing, which it does look like given the refusal notice. It's not really in the spirit of the visit visa to max it out because then it becomes a cheap half-settlement visa...

The key words are 'genuine visitor'.

[secret.simon]

A person who is issued a visit visa is meant to be just that, a visitor. It is expected that they will stay longer in their country of normal residence than in the UK. And it is clearly mentioned that they should not give the appearance of residing in the UK in the guise of multiple repeat visits. If your mother has repeatedly visited the Uk for six months at a stretch, it would be very hard to appeal the ECO's decision, mainly because he has adhered to the rules and your mother has not. See Page 10 of the Visitor visa guidance.

I would imagine that even a JR would fail. JR means that a judge, rather than another caseworker, looks at the case and verifies that the correct procedures have been followed. His job is not to make a judgement on the case, but to verify that the rules were applied correctly. And in this case, it seems that they were.

Your brother and you may wish to explore the possibility to bringing your mother into the UK through the Surinder Singh route.