Lost Original Documents by UK BA Home Office ----- HELP!

[Prashatt]

Hi,

UK BA has lost my Original Degree Certificate in their office on 14th October 2008, my payments processed, I have lost £750 and my Original Degree Certificate!!!!
I am getting no updates from their end, this no. 08706067766 doesn't work. Does anybody know any UK Border Agency Contact centre number that really works?
Whom do I complain & how? Has anybody else faced similar problems?
Have these people really recovered any missing documents anytime in their life????
Do you think its worth sending all our Original Certificates to UK BA?

Please share your views.

[vinkhub1]

Sue them a million pounds or at-least have them pay for your travel to and back from India to get replacement of original from university.

Can I take legal action against UKBA?

[need_a_tier1]

Sue them a million pounds or at-least have them pay for your travel to and back from India to get replacement of original from university.

Can I take legal action against UKBA?

Do you have any proof that you sent the original degree certificate in the application envelope?

Did you send a cover letter to UKBA along with your application and mentioned the degree certificate in the list of Enclosures.

I have a feeling that they can get away with it and say that you did not enclose the degree certificate along with the application.

I remember that HO lost a couple of my original documents when they were processing my WP application (filed by my employers) and after 2 months I came to know that the documents were sent to their archival department by mistake.

[jhp]

Hi,

UK BA has lost my Original Degree Certificate in their office on 14th October 2008, my payments processed, I have lost £750 and my Original Degree Certificate!!!!
I am getting no updates from their end, this no. 08706067766 doesn't work. Does anybody know any UK Border Agency Contact centre number that really works?
Whom do I complain & how? Has anybody else faced similar problems?
Have these people really recovered any missing documents anytime in their life????
Do you think its worth sending all our Original Certificates to UK BA, when they don't care about them!!!!

Please share your views. Can I take legal action against UKBA?

They dont usually lose any documents, in the past the only time documents were lost was in the post.Sometimes its send to the archival department. If you manage to get in touch with them even by e-mail I think they will be able to help you ou.

[UKBAbble]

You need to lodge a written complaint. This will be dealt with and investigated within 28 days. Contact 0870 241 6523 for more information.

[Prashatt]

The investigation is still on, luckily I got thru' to UKBA, remember to call at 09:00 am otherwise you may simply hear a recorded message, the investigations are still on.
UKBA Billing/Payment department in Durham have lost my Covering letter & Original Degree Certificate, processed the Credit card Payment and sent the remaining incomplete HSMP application to Sheffield office to be rejected!!!!
I have sent a request to the caseworker looking for missing documents mentioning my ref. no. (PB320*), 3 weeks now but same old response.
They have agreed to refund my money, but thats verbally.
Wouldn't it be better if they accepted scanned copies on email or just copies of originals?

[Prashatt]

Original degree cert lost.

[Jedi001]

Beware of UK BA, they have lost my Original Degree Certificate, unable to locate it and blamed it on Royal Mail/Post Office.
Can anybody direct me to the correct complaints department where I can claim for this loss? I would have to get a duplicate copy of Original certificate
from University of Bombay....

UK BA SUCKS!!!

Try the below links:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/conta ... complaint/

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/conta ... tocontact/

Best of luck!! Do let us know the outcome!!

[nangvil]

I can sympathize with you mate...

I've send in documents in December, not even acknowledged by them to date. I have send it by recorded delivery, so did have some point of proof.

Problem with UKBA is documents do get lost, and more common than we think. I don't think they'll be able to tell you much if you call them, but worth trying.

Unfortunately once it's with UKBA, it's in a deep blue sea...

[paulmu]

Do you still have the original postal receipt? You will find printed on it the weight.
If you ask UKBA to return all documents with a similar packaging, it should come to about the same weight. Otherwise, its lost during transit, but not necessarily by UKBA.

[sputty]

I totally sympathise with you. I am in a similar position. I paid the premium service went into the Croydon office to apply for ILR on 17th October 2008. I was told that I had been out of the UK for too many days (over 183 days over the 5 year qualifying period which isn't outlined on the UKBA website). But luckily as some of my absences were for compassionate reasons, I was told that the application will still be considered if I were able to provide documentation to prove that the returns were on compassionate grounds.

I provided the documents required within 2 weeks, however as of today (18 weeks later) I am still awaiting the outcome of my application - despite paying the premium service!

I have tried calling the helpline also and found it to be not helpful...they can only advise that my application is still under review. I wish that there was something else or someone else I can complain to. Has anyone else had a similar experience to mine?

[Adam2213]

I can also sympathize. The UKBA have twice failed to return original documents to me; marriage certificate twice, house rental contract in my current country of residence, work contract, letters, etc...

Unfortunately there is very little that you can do about it if they have been lost. The documents reached them, but there's no evidence that the documents weren't returned to us.

Personally it's easier, quicker and cheaper to replace the documents than chase the UKBA for them (although I tried the first time and got no response).

Add to that they also put a visa into the old passport instead of the new passport. As I understand it we can travel with the visa so long as we carry both the old and new passports. But still ... why didn't the UKBA put the visa into the new passport??

There were over 10,000 complaints about lost documents / application times to the UKBA during 2010, they resolved approx 67% to 'their accepted standard'. You have to submit original documents, so expect to lose original documents. I'm just starting the process to replace my documents again at my own cost, time and effort.

[Prashatt]

Hi All,

About 3 years now since I wrote that comment. Yesterday I got my ILR approved. This time I had gone personally thru PEO but my original documents were intact and I got them back.

UKBA will increase fees by £500 from tomorrow onwards, but still worth paying £500 extra then losing ur original docs

UKBA needs to Enable Online form submission and use scanned documents as evidence. If they have any doubts about the authenticity of docs, just call and ask the applicant to come for an interview.

It seems UKBA doesn't spend even 1% of their Visa revenues on improving their 16th Century systems!

Thanks

[Adam2213]

Congratulations Prashatt.

I should also add that with our first application for a UK visa we included photocopies of the original documents. The UKBA kept the originals and returned the photocopies. I am a British citizen from birth and cannot understand what systems they have in place at the UKBA that I can twice submit my original documents and twice they keep them.

The PEO might be a good route in the future, atm I am settled in another EU country.

From the UKBA website: "The public enquiry offices do not handle enquiries or give advice" ... might want to rethink the name then? It is more an application centre.

I can understand that the UKBA is reaching breaking point because it is understaffed and receives an unthinkable number of false applications, also leading to tighter controls. However, if they demand original documents, then they should be returning original documents as a bare minimum; if they can't do that minimum then I personally wonder what else they are missing.

I am going to write a letter to the UKBA to request the return of my original documents, or at least some correspondence from them to explain why they are keeping my original documents; unfortunately we can't prove that they have lost or kept the documents.

[manojk005]

Hi All,

About 3 years now since I wrote that comment. Yesterday I got my ILR approved. This time I had gone personally thru PEO but my original documents were intact and I got them back.

UKBA will increase fees by £500 from tomorrow onwards, but still worth paying £500 extra then losing ur original docs

UKBA needs to Enable Online form submission and use scanned documents as evidence. If they have any doubts about the authenticity of docs, just call and ask the applicant to come for an interview.

It seems UKBA doesn't spend even 1% of their Visa revenues on improving their 16th Century systems!

Thanks

You are asking a lot from UKBA or Home office. Last thing they care about is immigrants and their welfare. Home office / UKBA is like a system who will turn Gold into toxic waste as soon as they touch. If they get any advanced system then they will mess it up to a limit beyond anyone expectations. They are better with current system atleast they know it and they can not break it easly. Having said that I must say that they keep document safe and return it but there is no time line for this. They returned my bank statements send separately after 3/4 months of visa approval.