My Timelines - Sharing Personal Experience

[coco__nutty]

Hello!

I got my Call Letter yesterday and, as I was looking for other people's experiences on here pretty much daily for the last 3-4 months, thought I'd share my time-lines. It might encourage someone and give guidance...


-My Student visa was due to expire 31st October 2010
-I sent my application for PSW visa on the 20th October 2010
-Received Rejection 7th January 2011 (Rejection Letter dated 31st December 2010 (!))
-Sent the IAFT2 form on the 13th January 2011, stating my case, reasoning and saying what documents I will be providing in the near future
-Received aknowledgement letter from the Tribunal 2nd February 2011, stating that I can send in further information up till 5 b. days before the hearing
-Oral hearing scheduled for 2nd March 2011 in Glasgow
-I was (seemingly) the only person there without representation and was seen first
- Received a letter from AIT 16th March, advising that my appeal was granted.
-Received Call Letter from HO 13th April, requesting I send away my passport, 2 photographs and Police Registration within 7 b. days of receipt of this letter

Sending the documents away today


Luckily this progress hasn't taken as long for me as for some people on here and sharing experiences on the web in general.
Fingers crossed I get my passport back by end of May and can plan a nice, relaxing holiday. I was starting to feel suffocated, especially reading about people having to wait for months each step of the way!


Good Luck!

[arsenal49]

what was the reason given for rejection in first place and how did you go about proving that THEY were wrong.

congrats, by the way:)

[coco__nutty]

what was the reason given for rejection in first place and how did you go about proving that THEY were wrong.

congrats, by the way:)

Thanks!

Reasons were
a) my bank statements were not translated (Savings ING Bank in Holland)
b) letter from University (as diploma was not available yet) did not state date of my graduation (?))
- subsequently 'robbing' me of points for Institution and Language as well



So with regards to
a) I simply provided translations and explained that in all the previous times of applying I enquired and was told that as this is a savings account, not overburdened with transactions and in EUROs, no translation is required.
However, when I went for the appeal, I just got them translated anyways to cover all fronts and explained my situation to the judge.
Also, in my account, I had MUCH more than the required £800, which may have helped my case slightly, proving I am financially independent of the State.

b) By the time of the Hearing I received my Degree Certificate so was able to provide that.
With regards to the letter, I showed them the request I sent to the University, specifying purpose of this letter, requirements etc. and said that while I understand I should have been more thorough and followed up on it, I believed my Institution supplies hundreds of these a year and would have known exactly what to put in. Especially as it cost me £10, I thought they'd do the job (it must've taken them all of 10seconds to fill in the blancs on a template )
And also just said that none of these 'mistakes' on my behalf were not in bad faith and at no point was I looking to mislead HO...

So that was it really.

The Judge said there are two schools of thought on situations like these.
One is clearly the route HO went down, the second one, a little more lineant, the one the Judge decided to act upon.
I count myself lucky no doubt!

[justdopposite]

Code: Select all

I was (seemingly) the only person there without representation and was seen first 

gud luck with your application mate ..yh apparently , if there is no lawyer to represent you ...you would be called first ... I've heard this from another friend too.

[coco__nutty]

So 15.04.11 my passport has arrived stamped with a shiny new visa, valid for 2 years from the date of T4 expiry (October 2010).

Good luck to all of you in your endeavours and just don't give up