Marriage visitor visa refused

[Briony1234]

Any advice welcomed.

Bio 19th March Madrid
Refusal 2nd April (as you can see, case worker error).

REASONS FOR REFUSAL NRA v 1.0
You have applied for a visa to visit the UK.
In deciding whether you meet the requirements of Appendix V: of the Immigration Rules for
visitors (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration ... v-visitor-
rules), I have considered:
• your application and any additional relevant information you have provided with it
• your immigration history
• an interview with you
• an interview with your sponsor
The decision
I have refused your application for a visit visa because I am not satisfied that you meet the
requirements of paragraph(s) V4.2-V4.6 of Appendix V because:
You have applied to visit the United Kingdom for five months and one day for the purpose of
marriage or civil partnership. In your application form you declared that you received a fine of
700.00 EUR (600.16 GBP, converted via oanda.com on 28/03/2024) on the 1st of January
2006 for being in possession of class A drug.
In considering your application I have applied paragraphs 9.4.4 which states:
9.4.4. An application for entry clearance or permission to enter under Appendix V: Visitor, or
where a person is seeking entry on arrival in the UK for a stay for less than 6 months, must
be refused where the applicant:
(a) has been convicted of a criminal offence in the UK or overseas for which they have received
a custodial sentence of less than 12 months, unless more than 12 months have passed since
the end of the custodial sentence; or
(b) has been convicted of a criminal offence in the UK or overseas for which they have received
a non-custodial sentence, or received an out-of-court disposal that is recorded on their criminal
record, unless more than 12 months have passed since the date of conviction.
Having considered information available to the Home Office regarding the offence you have
committed I am satisfied that refusal under paragraphs 9.4.4 (b) should be applied in your case.


Note date conviction 18 years ago and spent so well outside the 12 months.

I put in a complaint which was rejected as all they looked at was visa decison and said dissatisfaction with a visa decision does not fall under complaints remit.

Paid enquiry said nothing they can do, and for me to complain.

MP involved and made contact with UKVI 3rd April.

PAP raised 3rd April.

Awaiting any sort of response.


Read online the standard reply to PaP is we will review in 3 months.

Trouble is my partner was due to fly 29th April
We are booked to give notice of marriage 10th May
Our wedding is booked for 12th June.
Baby due September.

Anyone know if a PaP response can be challenge given the timescales (anticipating that I receive that 3 month reply).

Oh and it took 1 weeks from decision for my partner to recieve his passport meaning we have even less time for this to be resolved.

Thanks in advance

[secret.simon]

(a) A Marriage Visitor visa means that the applicant is meant to leave the UK after the marriage. Is that the plan?
(b) Is there any reason that the marriage can't take place outside the UK, such as in the other partner's home country/country of habitual residence?

[Briony1234]

Yes he will be leaving and once my maternity leave ends I will return to work for a short period before moving to join him with my daughter and the baby.

He is Moroccan and we didn't want to marry in Morocco.

To marry in Lanzarote is not possible as we are both from third countries.

[Briony1234]

Sorry a bit more than just not wanting to Marry in Morocco, he is a non practicing Muslim, he has lived in Lanzarote for 23 years, his ties are there. He doesn't have family in Morocco (we visited them last year) his first time in 13 years of going back.

[Briony1234]

Does* have family

[THO]

My wife's MVV was refused for stupid reasons, and I knew that if I tried to make a new application, it would be refused too, even if we could give more evidence to dispute their reason for refusal.

To cut a long story short, I did a PAP and said that I wanted the name of the officer responsible for making the stupid decision, and listed reasons why he was wrong, and explaining that I was taking him personally to court for not doing his job professionally and failing to properly weigh up the evidence put to him. I did not use a lawyer as they are expensive and I had no trust in any I spoke to.

The decision was overturned before it went to court, but I'm afraid to say these things take for ages, don't expect that you can have things sorted in 3 months I'm afraid. You could be very lucky, but sadly you can't just pick up the phone and speak to someone to sort it out. We wanted to get married in June and it ended up end Jan, and that was as quickly as it could move.

It is a shame you can't travel to him and do the marriage there.

Good luck.

[Casa]

Foreign national couples can marry in Spain, and this is even easier when one in the couple has been resident in the country for more than 2 years. I know this from personal experience, as my Moroccan husband and I as a British national married there.

The Spanish authority's bureaucratic processing of the required documents certainly isn't the most efficient, and it can be a slow process, but it would be a speedier option compared to challenging the Home Office's original decision to deny your marriage visitor visa, with no guarantee of success.

[Briony1234]

My wife's MVV was refused for stupid reasons, and I knew that if I tried to make a new application, it would be refused too, even if we could give more evidence to dispute their reason for refusal.

To cut a long story short, I did a PAP and said that I wanted the name of the officer responsible for making the stupid decision, and listed reasons why he was wrong, and explaining that I was taking him personally to court for not doing his job professionally and failing to properly weigh up the evidence put to him. I did not use a lawyer as they are expensive and I had no trust in any I spoke to.

The decision was overturned before it went to court, but I'm afraid to say these things take for ages, don't expect that you can have things sorted in 3 months I'm afraid. You could be very lucky, but sadly you can't just pick up the phone and speak to someone to sort it out. We wanted to get married in June and it ended up end Jan, and that was as quickly as it could move.

It is a shame you can't travel to him and do the marriage there.

Good luck.

Thank you. I've read one post on here where a decision was changed within a month but I'm not holding much hope.

There should be someone filtering clear mistakes and those which are more complex.

I'll update when/if I hear anything else.

[Briony1234]

Foreign national couples can marry in Spain, and this is even easier when one in the couple has been resident in the country for more than 2 years. I know this from personal experience, as my Moroccan husband and I as a British national married there.

The Spanish authority's bureaucratic processing of the required documents certainly isn't the most efficient, and it can be a slow process, but it would be a speedier option compared to challenging the Home Office's original decision to deny your marriage visitor visa, with no guarantee of success.

Thanks, I'll look into this further. I didn't look at Spain as a whole, only Lanzarote.

[Casa]

Foreign national couples can marry in Spain, and this is even easier when one in the couple has been resident in the country for more than 2 years. I know this from personal experience, as my Moroccan husband and I as a British national married there.

The Spanish authority's bureaucratic processing of the required documents certainly isn't the most efficient, and it can be a slow process, but it would be a speedier option compared to challenging the Home Office's original decision to deny your marriage visitor visa, with no guarantee of success.

Thanks, I'll look into this further. I didn't look at Spain as a whole, only Lanzarote.

As your fiance has been legally resident in Spain for more than 2 years, you should be able to marry there in a civil ceremony. Search for the official guidance.
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS
For civil weddings one of the couple to be married has to have been legally resident in Spain for a minimum of 2 years continuously, immediately preceding the marriage.