Tier 1 Visa from India rejected - PLEASE HELP

[tier_1_applicant]

Somebody please help me!

I had applied for Tier 1 through the VFS Chennai office on May 6th. I got the refusal letter and only my passport back (all original documents with the BHC) on June 4th from the VFS Chennai office. It was refused because, I had a joint account with my mother and just before submitting my application, a sum of Rs. 15,00,000 was transferred to my account. But the truth is only I have been operating the ICICI account and my mother has a separate bank account in UBI which is also her salary account. The reason we kept it as joint account was that whenever I travel abroad, it will be convenient for me. This money that was transferred was in my mother's UBI bank account after she had sold a property in 2006. She had given this money to me during my wedding. But since I never required it, it was in my mother's account. I didn't submit all these documents as proof of funds in my account because the person at VFS Chennai office said it was sufficent to show the closing balance greater than 2800 pounds.

Please see what was said in the refusal letter and let me know what should I say/or draft the letter for administrative review. I have been given 28 days to respond.

This is what was said in the letter:

You have applied for entry clearance to the United Kingdom under Tier 1: General of the Points Based System. I have therefore assessed your application against paragraph 245c of the Immigration Rules, which require that:
1. The applicant must not fall for refusal under the general grounds for refusal, and if applying for leave to remain, must not be an illegal entrant.
2. The applicant must have a minimum of 75 points under Appendix A.
3. The applicant must have 10 points under Appendix B.
4. The applicant must have 10 points under Appendix C.

I have refused your visa application on this occasion because I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities, that you meet all of the requirements of paragraph 245c of the immigration rules. This decision was made on the merits of this application.

Age - 20- points awarded
Qualifications - 30 - points awarded
Previous earnings - 25 - points awarded
Eng. Lang - 10 -points awarded
Maintenence - 0
ECO Comment: You must demonstrate that you meet the requirements of appendix C of the Immigration rules which state that you must demonstrate that you hold 2800 pounds. The documents you have provided do not demonstrate that you are in possession of 2800 pounds in line with the published guidance. You have submitted the following evidence of fundsavailable to you:
An ICICI statement in the name of you and your mother.

However none of these documents are satisfactory as evidence of funds as they are not the specified documents mentioned in PBS application form or in the published guidance. Only bank statements in the names of you and /or your spouse are acceptable. In any case the funds in the account are insufficient to meet the balance criteria prior to 24/4/08.
Inline with the published guidance, the evidence provided has been assessed as insufficient to meet the maintenance requirement and therefore no points have been awarded in this area.245(e)

Your application has also been considered under the General Grounds for refusal.

Please help me!

[gotcha]

Somebody please help me!

I had applied for Tier 1 through the VFS Chennai office on May 6th. I got the refusal letter and only my passport back (all original documents with the BHC) on June 4th from the VFS Chennai office. It was refused because, I had a joint account with my mother and just before submitting my application, a sum of Rs. 15,00,000 was transferred to my account. But the truth is only I have been operating the ICICI account and my mother has a separate bank account in UBI which is also her salary account. The reason we kept it as joint account was that whenever I travel abroad, it will be convenient for me. This money that was transferred was in my mother's UBI bank account after she had sold a property in 2006. She had given this money to me during my wedding. But since I never required it, it was in my mother's account. I didn't submit all these documents as proof of funds in my account because the person at VFS Chennai office said it was sufficent to show the closing balance greater than 2800 pounds.

Please see what was said in the refusal letter and let me know what should I say/or draft the letter for administrative review. I have been given 28 days to respond.

This is what was said in the letter:

You have applied for entry clearance to the United Kingdom under Tier 1: General of the Points Based System. I have therefore assessed your application against paragraph 245c of the Immigration Rules, which require that:
1. The applicant must not fall for refusal under the general grounds for refusal, and if applying for leave to remain, must not be an illegal entrant.
2. The applicant must have a minimum of 75 points under Appendix A.
3. The applicant must have 10 points under Appendix B.
4. The applicant must have 10 points under Appendix C.

I have refused your visa application on this occasion because I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities, that you meet all of the requirements of paragraph 245c of the immigration rules. This decision was made on the merits of this application.

Age - 20- points awarded
Qualifications - 30 - points awarded
Previous earnings - 25 - points awarded
Eng. Lang - 10 -points awarded
Maintenence - 0
ECO Comment: You must demonstrate that you meet the requirements of appendix C of the Immigration rules which state that you must demonstrate that you hold 2800 pounds. The documents you have provided do not demonstrate that you are in possession of 2800 pounds in line with the published guidance. You have submitted the following evidence of fundsavailable to you:
An ICICI statement in the name of you and your mother.

However none of these documents are satisfactory as evidence of funds as they are not the specified documents mentioned in PBS application form or in the published guidance. Only bank statements in the names of you and /or your spouse are acceptable. In any case the funds in the account are insufficient to meet the balance criteria prior to 24/4/08.
Inline with the published guidance, the evidence provided has been assessed as insufficient to meet the maintenance requirement and therefore no points have been awarded in this area.245(e)

Your application has also been considered under the General Grounds for refusal.

Please help me!

VFS is not one taking decision on your application. Technically, BHC are right rejecting your application, clearly by reason mentioned by them.

[tier_1_applicant]

Shall I submit a letter with all supporting evidence for administrative review? If so,
1. what all documents do you think I should keep with the letter?
2. how should I explain myself in the letter so it is clear for them (BHC)?

[geriatrix]

On what basis will you request for an administrative review? The letter clearly states that you can only use bank accounts either in your name (individual account) or alongwith with your spouse (joint account) as documentary evidence for maintenance funds.

You have not mentioned what your account balance was over a 3 month period. You must maintain min. balance (2800 pounds) consistently over a 3 month period immediately preceding your application. Just having required (or more) balance on the day of application is not sufficient.

Had you read through the guidance notes more carefully, you would have saved yourself from this blunder.

regards

Shall I submit a letter with all supporting evidence for administrative review? If so,
1. what all documents do you think I should keep with the letter?
2. how should I explain myself in the letter so it is clear for them (BHC)?

[tier_1_applicant]

Dear sushdmehta,
Firstly, thank you very much for replying.

In the website or in the guidance notes documentation, nowhere does it say that you cannot have a joint account with someone other than your spouse. Also, now I have taken of my mother's name from the account and only I am the account holder. Can I not tell them this?

[geriatrix]

As far as I know, you cannot submit a review request with new evidences / new documentation. A review is a re-evaluation of a decision based on the evidences provided in the first instance.

In the website or in the guidance notes documentation, nowhere does it say that you cannot have a joint account with someone other than your spouse.

Agree, but it doesn't say that you can either! You thought you could ... but it is not the case. The guidelines / website clearly states "personal bank statements ..... in the applicant's name". You should have checked with VFS / BHC before submitting your application.

Also, now I have taken off my mother's name from the account and only I am the account holder. Can I not tell them this?

The problem is that BHC is already aware that this wasn't your individual account (based on your Tier 1 application), so taking off your mother's name from the account will not help.

Had you submitted a letter from your mother, at the time of initial application, confirming that you had unrestricted access to the funds in the joint account held by both of you might have tilted the balance of probablities in your favor.

regards

[push]

As i have often repeated, applicants need to be careful while applying for Tier-1 from India. ECO applies the guidance note much more stringently and infact at times more strictly then are dictated by the guidelines. At the same time, if the applicants carefully reads the guidance notes and also seek advice from fellow applicants on this forum/elsewhere before submitting the applictions. If not anything else, atleast the avoidable mistakes can be avoided.

kind regards,

push_hsmp

[rely]

Its glaring mistake.In fact I will call it a blunder.You lost RS51K for nothing.
Its a joint account.It means you dont have full control over that money ,that money is technicLLY speaking not yours.You and your mother share it.Yor personal understanding with mother wont convince bhc, they ll go by book rules.
You have errored even in total funds in ur account, it is less.
rely

Somebody please help me!

I had applied for Tier 1 through the VFS Chennai office on May 6th. I got the refusal letter and only my passport back (all original documents with the BHC) on June 4th from the VFS Chennai office. It was refused because, I had a joint account with my mother and just before submitting my application, a sum of Rs. 15,00,000 was transferred to my account. But the truth is only I have been operating the ICICI account and my mother has a separate bank account in UBI which is also her salary account. The reason we kept it as joint account was that whenever I travel abroad, it will be convenient for me. This money that was transferred was in my mother's UBI bank account after she had sold a property in 2006. She had given this money to me during my wedding. But since I never required it, it was in my mother's account. I didn't submit all these documents as proof of funds in my account because the person at VFS Chennai office said it was sufficent to show the closing balance greater than 2800 pounds.

Please see what was said in the refusal letter and let me know what should I say/or draft the letter for administrative review. I have been given 28 days to respond.

This is what was said in the letter:

You have applied for entry clearance to the United Kingdom under Tier 1: General of the Points Based System. I have therefore assessed your application against paragraph 245c of the Immigration Rules, which require that:
1. The applicant must not fall for refusal under the general grounds for refusal, and if applying for leave to remain, must not be an illegal entrant.
2. The applicant must have a minimum of 75 points under Appendix A.
3. The applicant must have 10 points under Appendix B.
4. The applicant must have 10 points under Appendix C.

I have refused your visa application on this occasion because I am not satisfied on the balance of probabilities, that you meet all of the requirements of paragraph 245c of the immigration rules. This decision was made on the merits of this application.

Age - 20- points awarded
Qualifications - 30 - points awarded
Previous earnings - 25 - points awarded
Eng. Lang - 10 -points awarded
Maintenence - 0
ECO Comment: You must demonstrate that you meet the requirements of appendix C of the Immigration rules which state that you must demonstrate that you hold 2800 pounds. The documents you have provided do not demonstrate that you are in possession of 2800 pounds in line with the published guidance. You have submitted the following evidence of fundsavailable to you:
An ICICI statement in the name of you and your mother.

However none of these documents are satisfactory as evidence of funds as they are not the specified documents mentioned in PBS application form or in the published guidance. Only bank statements in the names of you and /or your spouse are acceptable. In any case the funds in the account are insufficient to meet the balance criteria prior to 24/4/08.
Inline with the published guidance, the evidence provided has been assessed as insufficient to meet the maintenance requirement and therefore no points have been awarded in this area.245(e)

Your application has also been considered under the General Grounds for refusal.

Please help me!

[geriatrix]

Its a joint account.It means you dont have full control over that money ,that money is technicLLY speaking not yours.You and your mother share it.Yor personal understanding with mother wont convince bhc, they ll go by book rules.

BHC does accept joint accounts held with your spouse as valid evidence. So, the problem is not with joint accounts, but with joint accounts held alongwith anyone other than your spouse / partner. It seems BHC thinks one has full control of money if the account is held with your spouse, but one loses that control if the account is jointly held with someone other than the spouse.

You have errored even in total funds in ur account, it is less.

The OP doesn't say what was the balance in his account over the 3 month period apart from the 1.5M that was credited (probably you missed the number of zeros - It's 1.5M - good for main applicant and 9 dependents, had he maintained it for 3 months).

regards

[tier_1_applicant]

Thank you very much for all the info. If I had been part of this forum earlier, I could have easily avoided my mistakes.

Anyway, I sent an email to BHC in Chennai explaining my circumstances and asking them if I can submit an admin review. Here is the reply that I got:

"Thank you for your email of 09 June 2008.
If you wish us to review our decision, you must fill out the Administrative form and forward it to us within 28 days from the date of refusal. Please note that you must not submit any new documents that you did not submit along with the initial application.

Please be advised the bank statement has to be in your name and not a joint account, a covering letter from the bank confirming in whose name the account is held would be helpful."

Since, I am not going to loose anything by submitting an admin review, I went ahead and submitted one today with all the supporting documents (letter from my bank confirming that my mother's name has been removed and I am the only account holder).

I just hope and pray that they consider it this time and I will not have to submit a new application and spend another Rs. 51,000.00 again. I shall keep you all posted of the outcome.

[geriatrix]

I hope that you have maintained a min. balance equivalent to (or more than) 2800 pounds over a 3 month period, because that also seems to be a reason for rejection (at least that's the impression I got after reading your OP).

Although BHC's response clearly states "Please note that you must not submit any new documents that you did not submit along with the initial application", let's see if the letter from bank helps. As you said, nothing to lose!

All the best.

regards

[rely]

You should have included copy of this e mail communication.
rely

Thank you very much for all the info. If I had been part of this forum earlier, I could have easily avoided my mistakes.

Anyway, I sent an email to BHC in Chennai explaining my circumstances and asking them if I can submit an admin review. Here is the reply that I got:

"Thank you for your email of 09 June 2008.
If you wish us to review our decision, you must fill out the Administrative form and forward it to us within 28 days from the date of refusal. Please note that you must not submit any new documents that you did not submit along with the initial application.

Please be advised the bank statement has to be in your name and not a joint account, a covering letter from the bank confirming in whose name the account is held would be helpful."

Since, I am not going to loose anything by submitting an admin review, I went ahead and submitted one today with all the supporting documents (letter from my bank confirming that my mother's name has been removed and I am the only account holder).

I just hope and pray that they consider it this time and I will not have to submit a new application and spend another Rs. 51,000.00 again. I shall keep you all posted of the outcome.

[tier_1_applicant]

Yes I printed out the email and submitted it along with the application.

Also I had sent them an email yesterday asking for information regarding the procedure now since they had returned my passport and here is their reply:

"Thank you for your e-mail.

I have answered your queries in sequence.

We are in receipt of your admin review form. I would like to inform you that it takes 28 days from the date admin review form is received for the completion of your admin review. You will be informed of the outcome of the same in writing. It would not be possible to expedite the process as they follow a queue.

If the admin review decision is favourable to you, we will inform you regarding submission of passport also. "

[push]

All the best. Do let us know of the decision.

Kind regards,

push_hsmp

[tier_1_applicant]

I had sent a mail to BHC asking them the status of my application as well as requesting them to return my original degree certificate as I would need it for a joining a short course. Here was their reply:

"Your Admin Review was received at our office on the 11th of June; it takes 28 days for the decision to be ascertained from the date of receipt of the same.

Your original documents will be returned to VFS today. Grateful if you can contact VFS and arrange to collect the same."

[geriatrix]

I had sent a mail to BHC asking them the status of my application as well as requesting them to return my original degree certificate as I would need it for a joining a short course.

Honestly, not a wise thing to do - asking them to return your documents - within a week of submitting a review.

Hope for the best.

regards

[tier_1_applicant]

I had told them that I would require it only by the end of the month. But they responded quickly and said I can collect the documents immediately.

[geriatrix]

What worries me is how they responded " ..... it takes 28 days for the decision to be ascertained ....." and that they immediately decided to return your documents (not just the degree that you wanted).

But hey, I might just be speculating and worrying unecessarily. So don't let this affect your nerves. I hope and sincerely wish that you get a positive decision.

regards

[tier_1_applicant]

I feel quite intimidated now... but Sush as you say "lets hope for the best"

[geriatrix]

Any update on your review?

regards

[tier_1_applicant]

Not yet... I think I should know by this week or latest next week... Keeping fingers crossed...

[bala010]

Hello tier_1_applicant,

I too have the same problem with my tier 1 general migrant entry clearance visa. I just wanted to clarify what did you have below this general grounds statement Your application has also been considered under the General Grounds for refusal.
I just wanted to confirm is there anything to be considered under the general grounds for your visa refusal.

Regards
bala010

[coolguyIndia]

Hello Bala,

First of all sorry to hear about a refusal. My application also stated same point, however nuthing mentioned as reason under GGR, I sent an e-mail to BHC asking for clarification about same point and BHC team replied immediately stating that my application was not rejected under GGR....

So I would suggest that you send an email to BHC center based on where you applied from.

Regards

Hello tier_1_applicant,

I too have the same problem with my tier 1 general migrant entry clearance visa. I just wanted to clarify what did you have below this general grounds statement Your application has also been considered under the General Grounds for refusal.
I just wanted to confirm is there anything to be considered under the general grounds for your visa refusal.

Regards
bala010

[geriatrix]

Read Immigration rules - General grounds for refusal

[AnotherKhan]

any update ? what did they reply ?