Appeal submitted, need some advice

[Brit Chick]

My husband has an appeal submitted as he was refused his spouse settlement visa from Islamabad in April this year. The AIT gave the ECO until mid Sept by which to file their response.

We filed the appeal papers but I now have some extra documents that wll strengthen our appeal and I am confident that with them, the ECO should be able to change their original decision.

My question is, is it too late to submit these papers now? Or do I have to wait now for the actual hearing in order to show them?

If we are able to submit the extra papers, then who do we send them to? To the embassy in Islamabad or to the AIT?

[Brit Chick]

bump

[MM]

i would send it to both AIT and BHC islamabad with a short letter. It is unlikely that BHC would have started reviewing your appeal papers yet.

please keep me posted when you actually hear from BHC as i am stuck with a long wait after my wife's refusal. AIT has given BHC until end of Oct to reply

[Brit Chick]

I sure will keep you update.

Didn't get any response to this query when I originally posted it but I did as MM suggested, and sent the papers to the BHC and the AIT with a covering letter. I found something in the guidance notes for the ECO's to say that any extra documents sent after the original appeal papers have been filed must be considered so lets keep our fingers crossed.

[MM]

Brit Chick. i am in a very similar situation to you with AIT advising ECO to reply before mid Oct. can i ask you on what grounds was your H's visa refused? did you appeal directly to AIT or through BHC? did you have any communications with BHC via email etc and did they respond? in my case they advised me by email about 4 weeks ago that ECM review will take 3-4 weeks, since we have not heard from them i am not sure if it is just a standard wording or they really meant it?..... sorry the wait and lack of info from BHC/AIT is killing me! so i am keen to find some more info on dates and further wait.

[Brit Chick]

Grounds for husbands refusal were mainly to do with the accomadation, we submitted the appeal through the BHC but to be honest they did send it onto the AIT within a week so no delays there.

Haven't heard anything from the BHC since so at least you managed to get an email out of them!

Anyway, am now in the process of collating a new set of supporting evidence in order to submit a fresh application....just preparing for a worst case scenario really as if the BHC don't change their decision then going through the appeal process will be much longer than the time it takes to process a fresh application - although even that takes around three months for them to process.

[MM]

to be honest i am really confused about re-applying. i was told by the solicitor that it might confuse the issue and i should wait for the appeal... so dont know really. did u make the appeal through a solicitor? did your H considered applying for a visit visa...as it takes only 5 days to process? i did consider that but was discouraged by some people on this site

if you do hear from BHC, (particularly if they decide to reverse their decision without going for AIT hearing) please let me know. i keep counting days/months etc....and i am about 1 month behind you in the queue!

[Brit Chick]

No I didn't submit my appeal through a solicitor, and probably won't get one to handle the appeal cos if it does get to that stage then I will be submitting a fresh application anyway.

Your solicitor probably wants you to stick with the existing application and see it through the appeal process as it's more money for him! Although it does all depend on why your application was refused, obviously if your fresh application is going to be pretty much the same as the old one then there's no point in making another.

I was wondering about the whole visit visa thing too, but I suppose they would refuse it automatically cos a) our spouses already have appeals for settlement visas pending and b) the ECO will refuse it cos they'll say you're applying for the wrong type of visa - unless of course you don't mention it on the application form