Settlement visa refusal

[Rob77]

Hi

I'm new to this forum - sorry in advance if the below doesnt make sense, hopefully it will. I'm hoping you can help on this related subject.

Some background info. I'm a British national, my wife is Indian. We married in India over a year ago. We applied for the UK settlement visa on October 19th and received a refusal last week on 10th November.

Our agent stated that she did not need to take the English Language Test due to exemption via her degree, which he confirmed using the PBS calculator. This confirmation was submitted with the application, along with the degree cert and with a cover letter where the agent also confirmed the exemption.

The refusal was on the basis of the english language requirement.
and the refusal letter quoted para 281 and section (i)(a)(iv) stating no evidence that UK NARIC has confirmed the degree was taught in English.

After discussing this with the agent (UK based) he believes the ECO Mumbai made a mistake because the PBS calculator is based upon the UK NARIC degrees. He said to me today that he has never had anyone refused from India when applying in the same way using the PBS calculator.

His advice was to make an administration review, which he will write a cover letter for. My wife can obtain a letter from her university also confirming that the degree was taught/researched in English, which she is doing at the moment.

My question is, has anyone faced the same situation? If so, what was the outcome of appeal?
Is the Administrative review the best way to go (or is there another route, other than full appeal or starting visa application again)?

I feel like we are completely stuck in the middle here between the agent saying ECO Mumbai made a mistake and ECO mumbai saying we didnt file all docs fully when the agent is adamant he did everything right.
Very frustrating.

Many Thanks
Rob

[geriatrix]

1. Does the PBS calculator give 10 points under "English skills" on the basis of the qualification in question?
2. Settlement applications are not subject to administrative review.
3. The letter from University is of no use, so don't waste your time and effort in arranging it.

[Rob77]

Hi
Thanks for quick reply.

1 Yes, it does.
2 What route of appeal is available to us then?
3 Thanks for the info, but my wife feels she needs to do something useful/positive.

[geriatrix]

IMHO, you should appeal.

1. Take a printout of the PBS calculator webpage that shows the calculator awarding 10 points under "English skills" for the qualification in question. Submit this printout with the appeal documents.
2. Administrative review and right to appeal are two different procedures. Your spouse has full right of appeal against the refusal.
3. What I am trying to say is that the letter will serve no purpose for the application / appeal, no matter how positive or useful you may perceive it to be.

[Rob77]

OK, Thank you

We had been advised not to appeal though as there was no time limit involved. A lot of what's written on the UKBA website doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I've tried looking but cant see anything stating the length of the process.

Do you know what the expected appeal time is (if no stated time frame, based on experience instead)?

Has anyone had a similar experience of the ECO making this type of error?

Thanks

[geriatrix]

Appeals take time - months! Even if an internal review of the application at the issuing post (following an appeal submission) determines that the decision was wrong, it may take 2-3 months to get things sorted. If the review determines that the refusal is not wrong and the appeal is forwarded to UK, expect it take 4-6 months (in total) to reach a logical conclusion.

If time is of essence, consider arranging a statement of comparability from NARIC and applying afresh.

[Rob77]

Again, thanks for the reply - although 2-3 months is def longer than i was hoping for.
Time is somewhat of the essence, my wife is pregnant.
Does this make any difference to the appeal? ie, is there any special dispensation for exceptional circumstances such as this?

[peewee]

Hi

I'm new to this forum - sorry in advance if the below doesnt make sense, hopefully it will. I'm hoping you can help on this related subject.

Some background info. I'm a British national, my wife is Indian. We married in India over a year ago. We applied for the UK settlement visa on October 19th and received a refusal last week on 10th November.

Our agent stated that she did not need to take the English Language Test due to exemption via her degree, which he confirmed using the PBS calculator. This confirmation was submitted with the application, along with the degree cert and with a cover letter where the agent also confirmed the exemption.

The refusal was on the basis of the english language requirement.
and the refusal letter quoted para 281 and section (i)(a)(iv) stating no evidence that UK NARIC has confirmed the degree was taught in English.

After discussing this with the agent (UK based) he believes the ECO Mumbai made a mistake because the PBS calculator is based upon the UK NARIC degrees. He said to me today that he has never had anyone refused from India when applying in the same way using the PBS calculator.

His advice was to make an administration review, which he will write a cover letter for. My wife can obtain a letter from her university also confirming that the degree was taught/researched in English, which she is doing at the moment.

My question is, has anyone faced the same situation? If so, what was the outcome of appeal?
Is the Administrative review the best way to go (or is there another route, other than full appeal or starting visa application again)?

I feel like we are completely stuck in the middle here between the agent saying ECO Mumbai made a mistake and ECO mumbai saying we didnt file all docs fully when the agent is adamant he did everything right.
Very frustrating.

Many Thanks
Rob

hi this is our experience in south africa these past weeks........

applied for settlement for my husband, refusal notice a week later.
eco stated he had used PBS calculator to confirm my husbands degree demonstrated exemption and it said 0 points so you are declined.
he said we had not included any additional evidence for eng lang, however he did not mention that we included printout from husbands uni detailing their name change in 2004. we looked at pbs calculator and it give 0 points for his degree when searching under old name but gave 10 points when under new name.

we sent a cover letter raising this, stating we thought the name change had been 'overlooked' and that if they had checked this they would 'on the balance of probabilities' have concluded that he had met eng lang criteria.

we sent a cover letter, printout of PBS calculator, headed letter form uni confirming name change, and that degree taught in english to Entry Clearance Manger at post. this was not formal appeal but asking for reconsideration highlighting the oversight. this was last tues and today we received email from british embassy saying they had granted visa and to submit passport to VFS office. no apology though

good luck, keep going

[Rob77]

Hi peewee.
Thanks for the info, that is good.
Gives me hope that maybe we could try the same approach.

[peewee]

as sushdmetha said it does take months to appeal, another user was given a 5 month timescale in SA, cant comment on india. we gave ourselves 2 weeks to hear back from embassy as i had read in their staff guidance that they have a standard of 10 working days to forward formal appeal to tribunal in UK, so used that as a guide. then we were just going to reapply. very expensive but a lot quicker if you are sure you are right.

we did pester them a bit asking what the progress was but doubt that influenced them

[brandnew]

We applied in October in south India and our application was successful. We provided the followig documents for English Language Requirements

1) Original Master Degree Certificate
2) Original Marks sheet
3) Letter from Uni confirming that course was taugh in English (Letter contains full name, year of award, reg number, uni internal ref file number etc)
4) Print from ukba website PBS calculator confirming that we scored 10 points
5) Finally a copy of 'Statement of Changes in Immigration rules' HC1148 to prove that Master Degree is now considered for the purpose of this requirement to make sure ECO doesn't over look new changes.

PS: Before we submitted the application we asked VFS staff if the above supporting documents are sufficient for the purpose of this requirement and they confirmed these are fine.

Hope this helps.