31 days since success at the AIT hearing - now what?

[gollywood]

Well actually 5 weeks since we were successful in our appeal for a visitor visa for my sister in law to visit us in the UK.

And its been 32 days since we and the HO received written confirmation of this result.

We havent heard anything from the HO re: an appeal on this decison.

1) What happens next?
2) Do we just wait?
3) Do we contact the British High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan
4) Do we need to contact the AIT?

Your advice as ever is much appreciated.

[gollywood]

Anyone?

[vinay shanthi]

if u have the judgement copy isnt it possible to fax the same to the relavant embassy where the visa was refused and ask for a visa to be issued based on the court over ruling their visa refusal.

this opinion might not be right. but thought it was the obvious route in the absence of any official notice to the contrary to you

[gollywood]

AFAIK....

The written confirmation was sent to:

1) The Appelant 2) The Sponsor 3) The HOme Office

So all parties have a copy of the judges final judgemet.

Is it acceptable to fax a copy to the office that initially rejected the visa application, or should we engage in formal contact with them?

The idea was for our relatives to visit at the end of MAy to coincide with their childrens Summer Holidays.

Would be worthless if they issued a visa in September or October as we would miss the 'June-Aug' window for scholl holidays

[t_kaay]

get your sister to call the high commission in islamabad and ask them when they will be requesting her passport. you can also email them yourself, quoting reference numbers. email address is on their website.

[gollywood]

get your sister to call the high commission in islamabad and ask them when they will be requesting her passport. you can also email them yourself, quoting reference numbers. email address is on their website.

t_kay (true gem of this forum!)

Which website are you referring to? Any links please?

Much obliged.

[vinay shanthi]

if i was u, then i would ask my relatives to again send a letter by registered post or go in person to embassy with letter along with copy of AIT judgement and demand the visa be issued as ordered by the court. i would also state in the same letter that home office hasnt contested the judgement and hence the judgement is valid and if the visa is not issued then it will be contempt of court. ask them to give response in writing if they try to stall your relatives

[vinay shanthi]

The tribunal can also answer questions about the appeals process after you have made an appeal.

Asylum and Immigration Tribunal
PO Box 6987
Leicester
LE1 6ZX

Phone: 0845 600 0877
Textphone: 0845 606 0766
Fax: 0116 249 4130
Email: customer.service@tribunals.gsi.gov.uk

Open: Monday to Friday 0830-1730

seeing the above extract from bia website. cant u ask the tribunal helpline how u get the visa now that u won the case

[t_kaay]

the email address you need for islamabad is:

visqry.islamabad@fco.gov.uk

they wont deal with faxes


http://www.britishhighcommission.gov.uk ... 6076734150

with all respect to vinay, the advice he has given won't really help you. the ait are not involved with the case anymore, as their involvement stops as soon as the determinations go out. from personal experience i know that islamabad are very busy and the determinations go into a queue to await being dealt with. also, it is no good asking your relative to go to islamabad without prior appointment as they do not accept visitors without prior appointment. besides which, the applications are dealt with via gerrys fedex in pakistan.

you need to email the embassy, wait a few days for a reply and after that your sister will need to wait for a call/letter asking for her passport to be sent via gerrys.

no need to worry, you said 32 days since you got determination. i was told it takes about a month on average for islamabad to act on it once they get it. (remember they dont work weekends).

i'm sure you will hear within the next 2 weeks

[vinay shanthi]

the email address you need for islamabad is:

visqry.islamabad@fco.gov.uk

they wont deal with faxes


http://www.britishhighcommission.gov.uk ... 6076734150

with all respect to vinay, the advice he has given won't really help you. the ait are not involved with the case anymore, as their involvement stops as soon as the determinations go out. from personal experience i know that islamabad are very busy and the determinations go into a queue to await being dealt with. also, it is no good asking your relative to go to islamabad without prior appointment as they do not accept visitors without prior appointment. besides which, the applications are dealt with via gerrys fedex in pakistan.

you need to email the embassy, wait a few days for a reply and after that your sister will need to wait for a call/letter asking for her passport to be sent via gerrys.

no need to worry, you said 32 days since you got determination. i was told it takes about a month on average for islamabad to act on it once they get it. (remember they dont work weekends).

i'm sure you will hear within the next 2 weeks

reasonable delay for procedural reasons will be legal, unreasonable delays will constitute harassment. there cannot be one time limit for one embassy and another for another embassy to coomply with court judgements.

it is not legal for anyone to say we are too busy to comply with court judgement against themselves. that will be just perversion of the course of justice. but what is reasonable delay in this case is debatable.

also embassy has got overall responsibility over consulates or contracted out offices. so court judgements can be served on embassy directly instead of regional offices even if they refuse to accept it over phone. even in india people have gone out of their region and applied for visa etc in embassy rather than regiional consulate bot for uk and usa etc. i am talking from personal cases that i know about where visas were issued by main embassy rather than regional consulates etc.

if 6w is the accepted reasonable time limit then u might have to wait. see bia pdf file on tribunal process etc. but i dont know if this is what they mean in that leaflet.

keep a log in writing of all events. but if they piss around with you even after u winning the court case. then there are other ways to take them to task. routes which many dont follow thgrough on. but for determined people there are routes like the 'protection from harassment act'. the provisions of this act have been used in discrimination cases and also employment cases. if u need i can give further details on this, from a laypersons point of view. also timelimits in harassment cases involving discrimination is 6years under this particular act and not 3months like in other cases. u need 2 incidents though to have some options of invoking the provisions of the act. it is difficult to invoke this, but once invoked u can take people to task for their acts of ommission and commision. even employers are vicariously responsible as per the provisions of this act for acts of ommission or commission of their employees. but most people wont need this at all as mostly things are resolved otherwise.

so wait for accepted time limits, keep log of events in meantime. but when it comes to kicking mule time, then like i said there are various options u can explore as mentioned above

[t_kaay]

vinay, a bit over the top mate. it isn't harrassment, they are just busy.end of. a few more weeks and the visa will be issued.

gollywood, i am sure you will be on here in the next two weeks, saying visa has been issued. don't be worried or alarmed at the wait. it is NORMAL.

[vinay shanthi]

vinay, a bit over the top mate. it isn't harrassment, they are just busy.end of. a few more weeks and the visa will be issued.

gollywood, i am sure you will be on here in the next two weeks, saying visa has been issued. don't be worried or alarmed at the wait. it is NORMAL.

ya i know. i myself have mentioned in above post that this cant be often used. but then he has been waiting arounf for this family visitor visa for a while

it will be an option to consider using if things drag on 4 a while and is for unreasonable lengths.

u can see many hsmps etc who won in tribunals hanging around in limbo for months even after winning ait cases. this limbo period affects people health badly. no one deserves to be in such a situation even after winning ait cases. only the people affected know the troubles they undergo because of the long delays

i only mentioned it so that people read up on that option if it suits their situation. i was just increasing awareness. initially people never used thisin employment tribunals, but then after test cases in this matter, it is becoming more frequent in employment matters as can be seen from high profile cases. so no reason why the same cant be extrapolated to ait or others cases as well

[gollywood]

Thanks t_k / vinney - will assess above info and probably wait another 14 days.

Will act from theron.

[gollywood]

Update.

VERY VERY UNHELPUL!

'Gerrys' kept hanging up before I could ask any questions.

Have decided to email them - have a feeling this could go on for some time!

[martha]

Hi gollywood,
Hope you get the e-mail sent today. The Embassy hopefully will reply quickly. They might initially respond by saying 'thanks for your enquiry. It has now been passed to the necessary officer for him to deal with.'
If this is the case, then you should hear very soon.
Hope this reassures you.
Let us know how you get on.
Good luck

[gollywood]

Thanks Martha.

Sent off the email & a copy of the judges determination.

Crazy thing is we applied LAST May2007, hoping the family could visit us inthe summer of 2007.

Now we are hoping the BHC will pull their finger out and get it sorted so that they can visit this summer!

If we miss the May/June deadline - we'll have to leave it until the Summer of 2009!!!

Pathetic really - its just a bloody vist to the UK. UK isnt some 'Gold paved Utopia'!

I personally think they will be seriously 'under-whelmed' by it!

[Frontier Mole]

vinay, a bit over the top mate. it isn't harrassment, they are just busy.end of. a few more weeks and the visa will be issued.

gollywood, i am sure you will be on here in the next two weeks, saying visa has been issued. don't be worried or alarmed at the wait. it is NORMAL.

ya i know. i myself have mentioned in above post that this cant be often used. but then he has been waiting arounf for this family visitor visa for a while

it will be an option to consider using if things drag on 4 a while and is for unreasonable lengths.

u can see many hsmps etc who won in tribunals hanging around in limbo for months even after winning ait cases. this limbo period affects people health badly. no one deserves to be in such a situation even after winning ait cases. only the people affected know the troubles they undergo because of the long delays

i only mentioned it so that people read up on that option if it suits their situation. i was just increasing awareness. initially people never used thisin employment tribunals, but then after test cases in this matter, it is becoming more frequent in employment matters as can be seen from high profile cases. so no reason why the same cant be extrapolated to ait or others cases as well

I am glad to say you are talking absolute nonsense
There not a hope in hell that this can be extrapolated to the AIT. One very good reason - the AIT has not got the legal right to compel the ECO to issue the visa. The AIT determination is not an instruction to the ECO, it is a view of the issue in regards law, case law and policy against the circumstances and evidence presented and the refusal.

There is a gentlemen’s agreement that the ECO's will adhere to the spirit of the determination. It can be and frequently is ignored by ECO's. Given that, getting a visa issued on the back of an AIT determination by threat of further action is meaningless.

The back log of cases at Islamabad is horrendous, pushing harder will not get you further any quicker. If fact it might just get you the opposite. The ECO is entitled to review any case that is older than six months and ask for resubmission of evidence. This in itself might result in another refusal.

[gollywood]

Relatives got a call a few days ago - and were asked to bring in their passports.

Were told visas would be issued within 7-21 days.

Thanks

[Frontier Mole]

Mid March AIT decision probable end July visa. Four months plus!
It is not getting any better.........

[gollywood]

Mid March AIT decision probable end July visa. Four months plus!
It is not getting any better.........

Yeah - theyve already had 7 weeks of their holidays - only 5 weeks left.

To think we applied in April 2007!!!