Hi all,
I was wondering if I could get advice on here because I seem to be at a loss of the best way to turn. I met my Mongolian girlfriend whilst working in Singapore back in July 2007 and I decided to leave Singapore in November. We were living together for a while in Singapore but I don't have any evidence apart from that I could get letters from friends etc declaring that this is indeed the case. So I returned back to the UK and she back to Mongolia with the idea that we'd find out the best way to bring her over here even if just for holidays at first. But in the end we opted to go for a student visa for a general English course at Oxford College of London. She found an agent in Mongolia to help with the process and who advised her of the application process. However a couple of months later (yes it takes that long because the application has to be sent to Beijing!) she got the refusal notice.
It said:
You have enrolled on course of General English at Oxford College of London for the period of 1 year. I note that the course commenced on 22 January 2008 and that students are permitted to start the course up to 4 weeks late. I'm not, therefore, satisfied that you are still acceptable on this course. You stated that you are employed as the Manager of a construction company in Mongolia and that you need to improve your English skills for the benefit of this company. You claim that you will simply recommence this employment after completing your proposed course. you have failed to demonstrate what the associated benefits of this course are and how then it will assist you in the future. I note that despite your claims of wishing to learn English in order to benefit your current employer, that your employers is not financially assisiting you with the costs of this course and expenses. Futhermore, you have not explaind adequately why you have chosen to undertake this signicifant expense by studying English in UK, rather than elsewhere, for example in Mongolia where the costs are comparatively lower. Based on the evidience before me, I'm not satisfied that you qualify for entry into the UK as a student.
Also she was not given the right of appeal. Actually we changed the course date because it was taking such a long time but the agent failed to notify the embassy and I think it would have already been done by then. So my question to the knowledgeable people, in these forums, is what course of action would be the best to take? I'm not entirely sure whether we'd now be able to apply or even be successful for any other type of visa. Would it be better to find a foundation course for a degree rather than just a language course? I'm planning on going to Beijing this week to meet with her and perhaps apply again but I don't know if I'm going to have time unless I get some good advice on this matter.
Sorry for being so verbose but I kept it as short as I could!
Your help would be much appreciated. Thanks.