Denial of Tier2 for a ridiculous reason

[emilie leblanc]

I am somehow confused. I received an offer from a prestigious institution in the UK. The employer sent me the CoS a few months back and I applied for the Tier2 visa, making sure to diligently provide all the required documents.

I am a PhD holder from a top university in Switzerland- my PhD was purely pursued in English. Although I hold a Chinese passport, I am a native English speaker as I have grown up in the US and hold a Green Card. I also pursued a postdoc in one of the best universities in the US and was frequently invited as guest professor at various US and UK-based institutions. I explained everything in my application and provided my PhD diploma in English. I was supposed to start work last Monday but I received my passport with no visa and no decision letter whatsoever. I contacted the employer's HR and the representative reached out to the Home Office, who then sent me a letter of rejection. It is mentioned in the letter that "even though they are aware of the fact that I pursued my studies in English, I still do not meet the English level requirement." The decision letter was full of basic grammar mistakes, thus making all this situation quite ridiculous. Everything else was fine, however I received zero points for English requirement and thus the rejection decision.

The employer is in shock as well because they have selected me amongst 100s of applicants. I have felt humiliated as well because I was not even given the courtesy of receiving a decision letter - just a passport with nothing stamped. I am considered a top scholar in my field so I might as well take my expertise elsewhere. Yet, I have already quit my job in the US and I have been basically sitting around and planning my move to the UK for the past 4 months. The losses are extremely high for me, morally, financially, and career-wise.

My question is, what do you advise me to do? Should I appeal the decision and what are my chances? I don't want to apply for a visa another time and risk another rejection. I travel all the time for work and I don't want a rejection to affect my future travels.

Apologies for my long question but I am in shock as I have never been exposed to such a situation.

[ShrutiBlue]

I am so sorry for your situation, I do know what its like to have to prove you are fluent in English even though you have been taught in English your whole life. It seems as your PhD wasn't completed in a native English-speaking country, you didn't meet the English language requirements.

You could give an IELTS exam, its quite easy for anyone fluent in English to get at least the minimum score required without too much effort. It consists of 4 sections- reading, writing, listening and speaking. You get a result in 2 weeks (result is valid for 2 years), and will enable you to fulfill the English language requirements. After that you can re-apply for the visa, maybe use premium processing to shorten the turnover for the visa. They won't be able to reject your visa for you not meeting the English requirements.

There is another test, the TOEFL, which is similar.

[iworker]

If you would like honest reply and solution, read below. If not, ignore the message.

First thing u need to do is get down from high horse. All your expertise and knowledge is for your own good. Giving these details in visa application cant help u.

Most visas in uk, like the one u applied are point based visas. U get points for fulfilling the requirements. If you dont fulfill the requirement, no one can give u a visa.

Since your qualification was not in a english speaking country, what you should have done was get an equivalency certificate from UK NARIC. alternatively, you can give english language test to prove your english language and apply again. Note that only give the exam which is accepted by UKVI now.. IELTS is no longer accepted.. Only "IELTS for UKVI" is accepted.

Once u have either of the above, you need to contact the uni to issue u a new cos. With the new cos, u can apply again with filling the new form and new fee. Appealing wont help, as you failed to read the guidance and apply with the docs which are asked in the guidance.

[mspr335]

please check below link for more details on english language assessment . this is very straight forward and you will be able to get this in less than 10 days.

https://www.naric.org.uk/naric/individu ... sment.aspx

[rubyracer2]

You should have read the guidance before applying as the English language requirement section is very clear about the documents needed.

https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/knowledge-of-english