Please Help - at a loss! Settlement Visa Ghana

[RTetteh]

Hi - this is my first time in this forum as I have just frantically scoured the internet looking desperately for advice.

My husband and I have been married 3 years and have an 18month old son. I am British and he is Ghanaian. We lived together in Ghana for 4 years.
We decided to come to the UK as I want to be close to my parents - so I moved back with my son and got a job. Upon completing six months work my husband handed in his application on Tuesday (11th) - but upon arriving at his appointment with the complete application with all our supporting documents (original and copies) he was told that my bank statements/ evidence of our relationship/ finances should all be submitted by me in Sheffield, UK. So they didn't take those documents from him. They gave him a letter with the address in Sheffield that I should send the documents to and it clearly states that we have 2 weeks to submit the evidence from the date he did his biometrics (which was Tuesday). So this afternoon I am putting together our SECOND pack of evidence and my husband has couriered back to me the original documents.
We were both horrified to receive an email half an hour ago to say that his application has been processed and decision has been made. He is to pick up his passport in a couple of days.
Obviously his visa will be refused as we haven't even sent the supporting evidence.

What do we do? We've never been apart this long and I'm struggling to work fulltime whilst being a single mum. I can't face an endless wait when it isn't our mistake.
Can someone please advise?

[BYC]

Hi,

It better be an approval, if it's not I encourage you to fight this with UKVI with everything in you, it clearly say You have 2 weeks to send supporting documents to Sheffield, how can they do this in 2 days.

[RTetteh]

Thanks for the support. We will fight this with every breath!!

[BYC]

Pls do post the outcome as soon as you collect it

[RTetteh]

I will for sure. Still struggling to find a way to talk to an actual human being. Every number you call for UKVI has a series of recorded messages and no way of speaking to anyone. SO frustrating!!

[RTetteh]

Well, we've reapplied and will start the complaints procedure to try and get our money back for what is so obviously their mistake. I'll go through the parliamentary ombudsman if (when) the complaint doesn't get us anywhere. I'm determined that we get our money back!
Now just hoping that there are no more mistakes made - but I've completely lost all faith in the system. I don't trust them at all. In my husband's refusal notice they referenced documents that we hadn't even sent them. The attention to detail is non-existent. Absolute joke!

[BYC]

Hi,
That did not sound good at all! Well without you letting us know the reasons for the refusal, I won't be able to say whose mistake it is, what reasons and what documents were missing? let me know pls

[RTetteh]

The reasons for the refusal were that there was no financial or accommodation evidence. Which there wasn't because they processed the application in 24hours before I had sent any supporting documentation! They referenced the sponsors bank statements not showing the monthly salary being credited. Which made me laugh - because they didn't have any bank statements. They didn't have any supporting documents at all!
So Lord knows what bank statements they were looking at.... they certainly weren't mine!

[BYC]

This must be a joke! You shouldnt have reapplied, you should have appealed this, going down the complaint route won't get you anything, the application fee is non refundable because a decision has been made on the application, so forget about it. the evidence that says you have two weeks from date of biometric to send all supporting documents to Sheffield is all you need to win at appeal, they can even withdraw at entry clearance manager's review stage, these days they look for silly reason to refuse. I pray you find favour this time around. All the best. thanks for sharing

[RTetteh]

An appeal takes too long - I work full time to meet the financial requirement and i'm raising our baby alone. We don't have the luxury of waiting months for an appeal, I need my family back together and I'm not prepared to wait. I WILL get my money back - make no mistake. I don't care if it takes years. I will use the ombudsman and every local MP, I'll throw everything I have at them. But I will win. They took my money and then didn't follow due process, this is not legal. You can't charge people thousands of pounds for a service that you do not provide (in this case the service is to review an application fairly against their own set criteria and timescales). The fact that I didn't appeal is because I refuse to accept the enforced separation of my family because of their sloppy administrative mistakes. There are human beings on the other end of every application they mess up. They don't care about the lives they ruin every time they don't check a date properly or can't be bothered to add up someone's income correctly. I may just be one person but I can make a LOT of noise and I will keep shouting until I am heard.

[qwdc]

Surely, this can't be a coincidence.

My wife & I are in a very similar situation. They made a decision literally 2/3 days after application was sent from Accra.
From the refusal letter it's clear they simply didn't take our supporting documents into account!!!
In a nutshell the reasons were "No evidence of supporting documents".

Although I sent this separately in UK as instructed by teleperformance in Accra, and UKVI received it at almost the exact same time they got the application. Something is definitely broken in the process here.
Did you use the priority service in Accra? A lot more ppl will be going through this mess.

Could link up to put a joint effort to escalate this. It's unacceptable.

[RTetteh]

Ahhhh - that is VERY interesting! Yes we used the priority service and we've just done the same again. We had an email THIS MORNING saying the decision has been made, and so they've turned it around again in 3 days. I sent the supporting documents to arrive with them the day of my husband's appointment on Monday, but I have a horrible feeling that the same thing is going to happen again and they will claim not to have seen any supporting evidence.
Whatever the outcome I will still be complaining about the first application - and if this is another refusal on the same grounds I will be fighting them on both. Happy for us to take our case jointly to the ombudsman as it really seems that there is a problem with the Ghana system.
Interestingly, I spoke to my British friends in Ghana and at some point last year there appears to have been an issue with the Visa department in Accra and the whole department was shut down in the midst of a scandal. Which is why the supporting documents now go to Sheffield.
I'll let you know what the decision is on our second attempt - but I'm not hopeful.

[RTetteh]

I'm also wondering if the priority service is doing more damage than good. It's as if the applications go to the top of the pile, and if they haven't also immediately got the supporting evidence to hand (despite the fact it has to arrive and presumably be processed and then matched up with the application) they just issue a refusal. I think if it does happen this time we'll have to do the appeal instead of reapplying, what is the point in just endlessly applying when the system doesn't work?
I hate this process so much. And the irony? Their main concern seems to be people having enough money to survive in the UK without recourse to public funds. But through their endless mistakes forcing us to reapply and the ongoing cost of us renting TWO properties (our homes in Ghana and UK) they are pretty much bankrupting us. We had a decent amount of money saved up, now it's getting to the point where i'll have to start using credit cards and taking out loans. So we're going to start our family life in the UK in debt. Nice job UK government!!!!

[RTetteh]

**** UPDATE****
My husband is waiting to be notified that his passport is ready for collection and then we will know if his visa has been granted. However in the interim the Visa office in Sheffield have sent an email regarding our original application - saying that we should send the documents so they can reconsider the application!!! Please note that we did not appeal - we simply contacted them to point out their mistake. Not especially helpful since we've now reapplied and they've made a decision on that basis.
I have no idea if they would still accept the documents from the first application if this current one is a refusal. But I think it's worth a go rather than paying again for a 3rd time.
Any thoughts???

[qwdc]

In our case we have put in an appeal and are at the same time lodging complaints hoping it gets the necessary attention. It is clearly their fault and they have to fix this ASAP.

Definitely not worth putting in another application at this stage unless they recognise the issue and are willing to refund the previous ones. It is worth following up on their offer to reconsider the application - not sure about the timelines for this though.

May I ask which email you used in escalating this? Visainfo.shefo@fco.gov.uk ?

We were asked to use the email form at ukvi-international.faq-help.com and complaints@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

[RTetteh]

We only contacted them on the online form (faq-international) and it took a bit of time but it did appear to get the message to the right department.
As it happens though, I am delighted to say that my husband has just been to pick up his passport and his Visa was granted! So incredibly relieved.
I can't help but think that bringing it to their attention helped matters in the case of our second application. I think some people are scared to complain as they think it might jeopardise an appeal/ reapplication. But I think you have done the right thing by complaining. They will know that you are scrutinising the process and I'm sure it makes them more scrupulous the second time around.
I must say though that whilst it was costlier to reapply the speed from the first application to finally being granted a visa has taken less than a month. So for me it was worth the expense.
HOWEVER, this will not stop me making a formal complaint and striving to get a refund. I may be thrilled that my husband has his visa but it has not appeased me and they still need to be held accountable. Please keep me updated on your appeal. I truly hope it is resolved soon.

[qwdc]

Great, glad to hear the good news.

How did you make them aware of the issue in your 2nd application. Did you note this in the application form itself or wrote a letter separately?

Might be worth considering a 2nd application as well if they have somehow now noticed the issue, and deal with the refunding separately.
Also I assume you sent the supporting documents in advance of the application this time round?

[RTetteh]

I didn't actually make reference to the issue in the second application - but that is because I had already contacted them on FAQ-International and they were aware of the issue. But if you haven't had any correspondence/ acknnowledgement from them it might be worth you putting it in a covering note (keep it polite but factual). Just a case of saying that your application is being submitted parallel to an appeal as there appeared to be a clerical error with your first application where the application was processed before the supporting evidence had been received and that this time the supporting evidence was sent in advance to avoid this issue again. I was careful never to be too accusatory in any of my emails as I didn't want to put them on the defensive. It was just a case of putting them on the right track.
I sent the supporting documents special delivery to arrive the day before my husband's appointment. I didn't want them to receive it too early as I was worried they would just dismiss it if they couldn't find the corresponding application.
I think this is possibly a better option for you. Then you can work on getting your money back from the first application. I know a lot of people have said it's impossible to get a refund but I've also heard of a lot of people who have managed it. It just takes a bit of persistence and I think in our case where they've made a very obvious process error then we stand a reasonable chance.

[qwdc]

we are re-applying and my wife intends to have an appointment on Monday. I will be sending my documents on Friday. I just want to be consistent with what you did. Can you let me know when you sent your documents and when your husband had his appointment.

[dunca]

This is interesting . It's a huge amount involved to just keep reapplying.

Please may I ask as its 4 days we applied and I am sending my docs today so they should have it 1 week we applied.

I am literally terrified after reading this. My question is before u got this decision email. Was the progress still sitting on "transferred for Decission"?

[RTetteh]

Hi Sorry for taking so long to reply - I haven't had access to my laptop for over a week!!

How are everyone's applications going - have you heard anything yet?

[RTetteh]

This is interesting . It's a huge amount involved to just keep reapplying.

Please may I ask as its 4 days we applied and I am sending my docs today so they should have it 1 week we applied.

I am literally terrified after reading this. My question is before u got this decision email. Was the progress still sitting on "transferred for Decission"?

I hope my post didn't scare you too much - by all accounts this isn't too common a situation where they don't wait for the documents before processing your application. If it does happen you will hear about it very quickly as they will make a decision in a matter of days.
Good luck!

[RTetteh]

we are re-applying and my wife intends to have an appointment on Monday. I will be sending my documents on Friday. I just want to be consistent with what you did. Can you let me know when you sent your documents and when your husband had his appointment.

Sorry I didn't reply before your wife's appointment - was it yesterday?
I sent my documents to arrive the day before my husband's appointment so it sounds like you did something very similar. I hope everything has gone smoothly - please let me know when you hear anything.