UK Tourist Visa processing times and number of pages to supply

[w94005m]

I have read and heard that a UK ECO only gets 3-4 minutes to read the documents supplied with a UK visitor visa, then make a decision and that this is quite strongly enforced. This appears to mean that unless your partner ticks the simple boxes like, home ownership, married, job, good salary, together long time, it's a refusal.

 

First time, I supplied shorter documents with a few photos and they came back with not believing that it was a genuine relationship and wanted more evidence. So this time, I sent in facebook shots every few days or so, with us and her family (parents grandparents, siblings...), different places and at our home, as we have been living together for 18 months in Laos and my gf especially posts on there regularly! I used Facebook shots as it shows that it's visible to all friends and has date stamps to easily verify when they are from. Along with matching passport history made easily readable with numbering of each trip together by the appropriate stamps to show everything matched up for mutual travel, along with other documents for travel/work and finance.

 

From the rejection letter, it was clear that they had not read most of the supplied documents, even though I'd broken them all down with page headers/number and footers to make it easily readable. I'd also originally provided it in separate plastic folders as someone had suggested (not stapled or clipped in any way), but apparently they threw that away and just put them into one pile of papers at the initial session with VFS Laos at the UK Embassy. They also insisted on a printout of the application, even though their checklist specifically said this was not required. Thankfully I'd fully indexed, headerized and numbered everything to make the documents and sequence easy to follow, but it appears to have been worthless.

 

So how on earth can you have them decide if it's a genuine relationship when they only have such a short time and they're clearly only going to read a fraction of what is supplied? And they've probably made a preset judgement anyway.

 

How many total pages do you think one should be supplying to try to address questioned issues like relationships and what would you provide to endorse that you are 100%  genuine couple? I am happy to supply the two referenced documents that I provided for any feedback.

 

Yes, I know refusal is a common discussion forum theme and I did my best to read everything and follow prior advice, but to no avail.

 

If anyone has any expert internal knowledge within the UK Immigration decision team on decision time and how many pages should be provided so they are all read, I'd love to hear it.

 

Also, I've now made 2 failed applications with my gf to visit and stay with my Mum in the UK. She has had two strokes and very nearly died last year in hospital, so I would desperately like her to spend time with my gf for a couple of weeks, which would make her very happy to see how good we are. Sadly she worries way too much about me. It feels like if I apply again, it's too early for them to do anything other than an automatic no regardless of what I supply. If it wasn't for my mum we would have no interest in going to the UK, but I desperately want her twilight days to know that I am in a good place and her to be happy with my hopeful wife. Someone from Australia suggested that I put up a large amount for ESCROW to guarantee my gfs return with me, which i am very happy to do. Does that work with the UK?

 

 

Edited May 25, 2018 by w94005m

[Pat in Pattaya]

Sorry to hear that as you have a very genuine reason to go back.

 

This really has become a cr*p shoot now. What will happen now is there will be untold posts with advice as we have seen a 100 times on here before...the whole process is basically a farce now.

[Jip99]

The system is straight forward and the instructions are quite clear.

 

It is likely that your photos were throw. In the bin as you are specifically advised NOT to include them.

 

The objective is to satisfy the 3 criteria for a Standard Visitor Visa; Geunuine relationship/reason to visit, financial adequacy and reasons to return. 

 

Supply evidence for those 3 and you will get a visa.

 

The last application I submitted was 5 pages.

 

Volume of paper impresses no one.

 

[Pat in Pattaya]

''The objective is to satisfy the 3 criteria for a Standard Visitor Visa; Genuine relationship/reason to visit, financial adequacy and reasons to return.''

 

 

But that is still all down to the interpretation of the ECO....what one person may think is genuine relationship or a good enough reason to return, another may not. It is nowhere near as straightforward as you make out, which is why we hear stories about some getting a visa that had a lesser case than some that didn't. 

[rasg]

Too many think that the more information you supply, the more likely you are to get a visa. It's the quality of the information, not the volume that counts.

 

I would suggest that you post both refusal notices with personal information removed so that we can take a look.

 

If you didn’t address the reasons for the first refusal in the next application it would have been a waste of time applying.

 

 

[theoldgit]

No, there’s no Escrow or any other type of guarantee, as it couldn’t be enforced in law.
You say that the ECO’s only have a short time to make a decision, not sure that it’s set in stone but I suspect they’re expected to decide on a number of applications a day, some can be decided fairly quickly some will take longer, averaged out your suggested time is probably not far out.
You’ve said the ECO’s only have a short time frame then go onto explain the volume of evidence your partner has submitted, some of which, like photos, applicants are specifically asked not to submit. Has your partner considered that in submitting a disproportionate amount of supporting evidence some meaningful evidence could be overlooked?
You said on one of your other threads that first the refusal letters is overseas, as a number of us have said without sight of the reasons for the earlier refusal it’s difficult to offer advice.
You say you live together, are you in a leased property, if so is it in joint names? Do you have ties in Laos that could show you live there, including passport stamps?
I don’t believe it’s a crap shoot, the vast majority of applications are successful, but we don’t read about many of those on this forum.
I know many people whose partners were successful on their first and subsequent applicants, indeed my wife applied, and was issued, with two six month and a two year visa at her first attempt, as my girlfriend, and a five year one as my wife, she’s also successfully applied for Schengen visas for France, Italy, Netherlands and Denmark, all at her first attempt.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Pat in Pattaya]

3 minutes ago, rasg said:

Too many think that the more information you supply, the more likely you are to get a visa. It's the quality of the information, not the volume that counts.

 

I would suggest that you post both refusal notices with personal information removed so that we can take a look.

 

If you didn’t address the reasons for the first refusal in the next application it would have been a waste of time applying.

 

 

But it can also be both. I wouldn't hold something back that I thought worthwhile including just because I had already submitted a load of bumph.

 

Amazing the efforts we go to when you think about it just to go and get wet in the Uk for a fortnight, lol.

[trigpoint]

6 hours ago, Jip99 said:

The system is straight forward and the instructions are quite clear.

 

It is likely that your photos were throw. In the bin as you are specifically advised NOT to include them.

 

The objective is to satisfy the 3 criteria for a Standard Visitor Visa; Geunuine relationship/reason to visit, financial adequacy and reasons to return. 

 

Supply evidence for those 3 and you will get a visa.

 

The last application I submitted was 5 pages.

 

Volume of paper impresses no one.

 

We didn't, rock solid evidence of these 3 main criteria completely ignored, don't  think  the ECO even saw them.

 

6 hours ago, Jip99 said:

The system is straight forward and the instructions are quite clear.

 

It is likely that your photos were throw. In the bin as you are specifically advised NOT to include them.

 

The objective is to satisfy the 3 criteria for a Standard Visitor Visa; Geunuine relationship/reason to visit, financial adequacy and reasons to return. 

 

Supply evidence for those 3 and you will get a visa.

 

The last application I submitted was 5 pages.

 

Volume of paper impresses no one.

 

 

[rasg]

2 hours ago, trigpoint said:

We didn't, rock solid evidence of these 3 main criteria completely ignored, don't  think  the ECO even saw them.

I have heard of instances where VFS have taken pages out saying they are not needed which resulted in a refusal.

 

They would have had to remove most of it if the 3 main criteria had been removed though.

[w94005m]

Firstly thanks to everyone for their input. I will post the precise first application refusal as soon as I have it next week, but I know the 2 main objects were.

 

1 - Insufficient evidence that this was a genuine relationship (first and prime reason on each rejection letter)

I had supplied of course my covering letter detailing how we met, when/how we decided to live in Laos, our travels together, especially time with her family and where/why we were living and always together expect when I visited my Mum and she was hospitalized in the UK. I provided only a few facebook shots as evidence and they implied that they wanted much more.

 

So I obliged and provided more detailed information and evidence as best I can of us being together every day and night which we are. There was no objection to the Facebook shots. These unlike one person noted are not photographs, which could be from any time. They are date stamped public proof announcing to all your friends, you are together, where, what you are doing and who you are with. What could be better? And at no point have the immigration people said they are not welcome. So they were included.

 

To say on the second rejection that they still felt there was no reason to feel that this was a genuine relationship was mind blowing and I don't know what more I can do for that. That makes me feel that any future applications are worthless unless we get married, which is more difficult as she is a ladyboy, She wants to get married and I hope for that at some time, both stated in the application. We are starting a business together, but in Laos you can't do that jointly. It can only be in her name and the same for anywhere we rent for that. So that doesn't appear to help and I did detail that in the second application too, but that whole document was clearly unread by the officer.

 

2- Insufficient passport history and not readable

This was fair enough as my passport was renewed 3 months into the relationship and I did not have the prior passports in Laos. The stamps that I provided were absolutely readable, but whatever! So on the second application I put all the passport shots in there having gotten those from the UK and numbered each one in/out of Laos and to where and indexed them into an easily readable list, which was mirrored with the same stamps from her passport to show everything was identical and in sync. All printed on a high quality resolution device. I also provided my Laos business visa and stay permit with 7 months remaining validity and endorsing that Laos was my home, not the UK, where I have not lived for over 20 years.

They incorrectly referred to this document as just my passport stamps in the refusal letter, which strongly indicated that they did not realise that our stamps were completely synchronized and of course in line with facebook postings. I also sub-consciously felt that all my travel for Laos, except for visits into the UK are in my US passport. It just seemed like if it was in the UK passport, it would have been better.

 

Point 1 is the problem as I am at a complete loss to know what else I can provide to prove our relationship short of getting married? It will shortly be two years that we have been together.

 

As I said before the sad thing is my girlfriend has no interest to go to the UK other than to make me happy by seeing my Mum. I call her every day and her sole source of happiness these days is to know that I am good. So for her to be really happy with my partner, she has to spend some time with her to see that I am in good hands. She is a worrier and I really feel that would help her live longer.

 

Anyway, I'll get the full first rejection quote up hopefully next week when I get that from my Mum's home where I keep all my paperwork.

 

Thanks for reading this.

Edited May 25, 2018 by w94005m
Grammar

[w94005m]

13 hours ago, Pat in Pattaya said:

''The objective is to satisfy the 3 criteria for a Standard Visitor Visa; Genuine relationship/reason to visit, financial adequacy and reasons to return.''

 

 

But that is still all down to the interpretation of the ECO....what one person may think is genuine relationship or a good enough reason to return, another may not. It is nowhere near as straightforward as you make out, which is why we hear stories about some getting a visa that had a lesser case than some that didn't. 

100% agree

[rasg]

This is what worked for us. To prove my relationship with my girlfriend back in 2015 and 2016 we supplied joint hotel bookings and flight bookings and also photos of us together. I had only known her around three months but the photos we supplied were date stamped with the location from quite a few places around Thailand and also photos of the two of us with her family. I also supplied a copy of my passport and the entry and exit stamps for the three trips I made to Thailand between January and May.

 

They do specifically say that you should no longer supply photos nowadays but we had little else at the time. The idea that we shoudn't supply photos to me was a bit of a strange decision, (I thought) and when we married in 2016 I still put a few A4s, with six photos to each sheet which kept the weight down to a minimum. We also supplied basic Skype and Whatsapp logs of the huge amount of time we had been chatting together when I was back in the UK.

[brewsterbudgen]

I wonder how different things will be when it moves to India in June!

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[cme]

The whole UK Visa system is screwed up at the moment. Here in Europe we go to the UK for a month each summer. My wife has applied for and received a  6 month Holiday Visa for the past 7 years. From applying to returned Passport with Visa never took longer than 2 weeks. Last year it took 6 weeks, had to cancel first few days of our holiday, so this year she applied in March, after 9 weeks we are still waiting so yesterday I sent an email (cost £5-60) and they replied that they hope to have an answer within 15 working days! Nothing has changed in my or her circumstances in between these years. I think the UK is really trying to deter anybody from going there.

[CeeGee]

Can anyone who has submitted a UK visitor visa application at Trendy Bangkok recently give me an update on the timescale from submission to notification of decision made.Due to submit in the next few days and would appreciate any current feedback

Thanks

(posted in view of post above 6/9 weeks)

Edited May 26, 2018 by CeeGee

[rasg]

Here you go:

https://visa-processingtimes.homeoffice.gov.uk/y/bangkok-thailand/visits-visas/family-visit-6-months-or-less

[CeeGee]

Thanks,I was roughly aware of the timescales but the poster who said that after nine weeks was still waiting made me think.We have had ten vv granted and never waited more than two weeks so when someone posts that a recent application has taken almost four times as long made me ask if anyone else had had a recent experience.We are all aware that Government figures can be elastic,in Thailand and the UK.So if anyone has any recent experiences please post your timescales.

Thanks

[theoldgit]

3 hours ago, CeeGee said:

Thanks,I was roughly aware of the timescales but the poster who said that after nine weeks was still waiting made me think.We have had ten vv granted and never waited more than two weeks so when someone posts that a recent application has taken almost four times as long made me ask if anyone else had had a recent experience.We are all aware that Government figures can be elastic,in Thailand and the UK.So if anyone has any recent experiences please post your timescales.

Thanks

The poster you were referring to wasn't posting from Thailand, he refers to applying from mainland Europe, maybe Germany.
You state you intend applying shortly, but as BB reminds us we're going to be in a whole new ball game shortly when the actual decision making is no longer going to done locally but transferred to New Delhi, we're moving into uncharted terrority, but hopefully you'll miss that.

[Pat in Pattaya]

3 hours ago, theoldgit said:

The poster you were referring to wasn't posting from Thailand, he refers to applying from mainland Europe, maybe Germany.
You state you intend applying shortly, but as BB reminds us we're going to be in a whole new ball game shortly when the actual decision making is no longer going to done locally but transferred to New Delhi, we're moving into uncharted terrority, but hopefully you'll miss that.

Git - I know you don't know how it will effect future applications, but it seems that your gut feeling is that it could get more complex?

 

We are planning our trip end of Sept, maybe  should get my skates on even if it is still a way off?

[theoldgit]

15 minutes ago, Pat in Pattaya said:

Git - I know you don't know how it will effect future applications, but it seems that your gut feeling is that it could get more complex?

 

We are planning our trip end of Sept, maybe  should get my skates on even if it is still a way off?

We can only guess how things will go during the transition period, my concern, and gut feeling,  is that the New Delhi  processing centre team are not fully geared up to the influx of up to an extra 100,000 applications a year and that in the short term there could well be problems with the processing of visit applications, look how the move to Sheffield for Settlement Visas is going.

 

The move was planned for the middle of June, in some three weeks time, I've not read anything official to the contrary but I've heard through the grapevine that there could very well be a delay in the move being implemented, I stress I've heard nothing official.

 

If I were in your position, given the fact you can apply three months before the intended date of travel, and you can ask for the visa to be post dated, I believe they are doing that routinly now, I would be applying sooner rather than later and avoid the risk of being caught up in the move.

 

I may of course be doing the UKVI a massive injustice, others will judge me on that.  

[wgdanson]

13 hours ago, CeeGee said:

Can anyone who has submitted a UK visitor visa application at Trendy Bangkok recently give me an update on the timescale from submission to notification of decision made.Due to submit in the next few days and would appreciate any current feedback

Thanks

(posted in view of post above 6/9 weeks)

Got ours in 12 days from Trendy to passport back in her hands, last mon

[wgdanson]

13 hours ago, cme said:

The whole UK Visa system is screwed up at the moment. Here in Europe we go to the UK for a month each summer. My wife has applied for and received a  6 month Holiday Visa for the past 7 years. From applying to returned Passport with Visa never took longer than 2 weeks. Last year it took 6 weeks, had to cancel first few days of our holiday, so this year she applied in March, after 9 weeks we are still waiting so yesterday I sent an email (cost £5-60) and they replied that they hope to have an answer within 15 working days! Nothing has changed in my or her circumstances in between these years. I think the UK is really trying to deter anybody from going there.

I do wonder how these so called 'Artists' from various countries outside Europe get a visa to go on BRITAIN's got Talent, with a view to appearing on the Royal Variety. Isn't that called WORKING?

[Pat in Pattaya]

42 minutes ago, theoldgit said:

We can only guess how things will go during the transition period, my concern, and gut feeling,  is that the New Delhi  processing centre team are not fully geared up to the influx of up to an extra 100,000 applications a year and that in the short term there could well be problems with the processing of visit applications, look how the move to Sheffield for Settlement Visas is going.

 

The move was planned for the middle of June, in some three weeks time, I've not read anything official to the contrary but I've heard through the grapevine that there could very well be a delay in the move being implemented, I stress I've heard nothing official.

 

If I were in your position, given the fact you can apply three months before the intended date of travel, and you can ask for the visa to be post dated, I believe they are doing that routinly now, I would be applying sooner rather than later and avoid the risk of being caught up in the move.

 

I may of course be doing the UKVI a massive injustice, others will judge me on that.  

Ok cheers. I always thought you could apply 6 months before the planned trip?

 

Yes, I think they automatically date your visa a week or so before the planned trip.

[wgdanson]

13 hours ago, cme said:

The whole UK Visa system is screwed up at the moment. Here in Europe we go to the UK for a month each summer. My wife has applied for and received a  6 month Holiday Visa for the past 7 years. From applying to returned Passport with Visa never took longer than 2 weeks. Last year it took 6 weeks, had to cancel first few days of our holiday, so this year she applied in March, after 9 weeks we are still waiting so yesterday I sent an email (cost £5-60) and they replied that they hope to have an answer within 15 working days! Nothing has changed in my or her circumstances in between these years. I think the UK is really trying to deter anybody from going there.

I do wonder how these so called 'Artists' from various countries outside Europe get a visa to go on BRITAIN's got Talent, with a view to appearing on the Royal Variety. Isn't that called WORKING?

[wgdanson]

13 hours ago, cme said:

The whole UK Visa system is screwed up at the moment. Here in Europe we go to the UK for a month each summer. My wife has applied for and received a  6 month Holiday Visa for the past 7 years. From applying to returned Passport with Visa never took longer than 2 weeks. Last year it took 6 weeks, had to cancel first few days of our holiday, so this year she applied in March, after 9 weeks we are still waiting so yesterday I sent an email (cost £5-60) and they replied that they hope to have an answer within 15 working days! Nothing has changed in my or her circumstances in between these years. I think the UK is really trying to deter anybody from going there.

I do wonder how these so called 'Artists' from various countries outside Europe get a visa to go on BRITAIN's got Talent, with a view to appearing on the Royal Variety. Isn't that called WORKING?

[CeeGee]

OldGit. Thanks for the clarification,totally missed that the application was from Europe not Thailand.Pleased to hear transfer to India is mid June(at least) should miss it with our application.

[bobrussell]

I very much doubt that there is a time limit per application. Just a number to be processed each day.

The fact that you have applied unsuccessfully for visas in itself helps support an on-going relationship!

To help the ECO it is important to structure the documentation so it is very easy for the ECO to process.

Obviously the form needs to be completed in full!

Covering letter should clarify the reason for the visit, detail your relationship, show how the visit is going to be funded and then outline the reasons to return.

Reasons for visit is simple, detailing your relationship could require evidence you are living together (letter from landlord or rent payments should do), confirmation that you intend to continue to live together should help with reasons to return. Employment details and permission to be absent will help if applicable.

The sex of your partner is completely irrelevant to the application.

Don't bog the ECO down with trivia but provide evidence. Marriage does not always ease a visit visa application.

Make sure you number each page and refer to things in the covering letter or an index. State that all pages are present when the application is made and request that missing pages be notified to you

 

Not sure from what you have said as to why the application was rejected. A redacted copy of the rejection letter is always helpful!

Edited May 31, 2018 by bobrussell

[w94005m]

On 5/26/2018 at 5:17 PM, cme said:

The whole UK Visa system is screwed up at the moment. Here in Europe we go to the UK for a month each summer. My wife has applied for and received a  6 month Holiday Visa for the past 7 years. From applying to returned Passport with Visa never took longer than 2 weeks. Last year it took 6 weeks, had to cancel first few days of our holiday, so this year she applied in March, after 9 weeks we are still waiting so yesterday I sent an email (cost £5-60) and they replied that they hope to have an answer within 15 working days! Nothing has changed in my or her circumstances in between these years. I think the UK is really trying to deter anybody from going there.

I've made an appointment with an Immigration Lawyer in the UK for next week. And will post on here what they had to say about their current experiences.

[w94005m]

18 hours ago, bobrussell said:

I very much doubt that there is a time limit per application. Just a number to be processed each day.

The fact that you have applied unsuccessfully for visas in itself helps support an on-going relationship!

To help the ECO it is important to structure the documentation so it is very easy for the ECO to process.

Obviously the form needs to be completed in full!

Covering letter should clarify the reason for the visit, detail your relationship, show how the visit is going to be funded and then outline the reasons to return.

Reasons for visit is simple, detailing your relationship could require evidence you are living together (letter from landlord or rent payments should do), confirmation that you intend to continue to live together should help with reasons to return. Employment details and permission to be absent will help if applicable.

The sex of your partner is completely irrelevant to the application.

Don't bog the ECO down with trivia but provide evidence. Marriage does not always ease a visit visa application.

Make sure you number each page and refer to things in the covering letter or an index. State that all pages are present when the application is made and request that missing pages be notified to you

 

Not sure from what you have said as to why the application was rejected. A redacted copy of the rejection letter is always helpful!

I did provide a much information as possible, but Laos is one of the worst countries for documentation. Very few people have salaried jobs unless in Vientiane or they work for a bank/government. Most people are paid in cash, but the disturbing thing aside from it was clear that they had not read a significant part of the provided, but it was the fact on the proof of relationship, that they continue to query despite what I provide.

 

I had every page numbered with a header line that included the document name and separate index, as you noted.

 

BTW: Here's a note on application times. I have a lot more!!! I do a lot of research to try to make applications as thorough as possible with the lack of helpful info on the official website.

 

https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/83580/what-roughly-is-the-time-an-eco-would-take-to-process-a-uk-standard-visitor-visa

 

Thanks for the info. 

 

 

[w94005m]

So the points on the genuineness of the relationship from the first application. This is exactly what was stated, including punctuation or lack of (bad grammar noted):

 

 - I note the offer of support from Mr you state your boyfriend Mr Alastair Marshall. You state you have been in a relationship since October 2016, that you have lived together since October 2016, that you have lived together since and that he regularly financially supports you.

 

- Aside from a copy of 4 images from your social media account and some unclear images of Mr Marshall travel history, there is no clear indication that your circumstances and relationship is as you claim.

 

- Whilst I appreciate that you have submitted an undated invitation letter from Mr Marshall given that there is limited evidence you show contact or support during 2016 to date, I am not satisfied that this is a genuine, subsisting relationship and this casts doubt on your intentions as a visitor as a whole.

 

... therefore not satisfied you intend to leave...

 

Firstly, my fault for not dating my letter, so fair enough, though, and I had not tried to provide too many media shots to avoid the letter being too long, but my travel history was readable and tied up to date with my girlfriends, plus there was a lot more detail than noted above. And I stated we met in October 2016 and had been loving together in Laos since January 2017, just as my girlfriend also noted.

 

Anyway, specifically in response to these points, I provided full details on our ongoing contact, swearing under oath as best I could that everything was genuine, being together every day and night. The prior supplied "travel history" was readable, but instead I supplied + a full document indexing with numbers all trips I took, with the same red numbers by all the stamps and exactly the same from my girlfriends passport, so they could easily see we travel everywhere together. So that this could be quickly scanned and seen to be accurate. Printed on a high quality printer.

 

My letter was long, since previously it was described as limited and included media shots together at our home or with family or friends, for which there was something every few days to endorse our time together. I was disappointed with the first rejection, but I could understand that it was not perfect enough. However, with the full detail in the second and the full mutual travel history document with passports and stamps, including my business visa an stay permit, valid for another 7+ months. I did provide other requested documents, but these were the ones relating specifically to these raised points. I also swore in the letter that I would be returning to Laos, so to stay together she had to come back with me. I have not lived in the UK since 1997.

 

For finance we live together, so I give her money each month for food, I buy the odd gift and if her family are having difficulties, we send them a little to help and I pay everything else, rent, nights out, buses when we travel and any hotels when we visit her family. Her father works for the Laos government, but I do not pay a set sum into her bank account each month. To me that's more like you would do that if you were paying someone to be with you and not in a genuine relationship. Instead, paying someone to me your companion i.e certainly not a genuine relationship. Certainly my parents did exactly as we do with money and she made a little money from her job in a salon.

 

Anyway, the response letter which came back included a whole bunch of other crap, including wanting letters from my Mum, which was never mentioned previously, but most disturbing for me was the one on the relationship, which I had addressed as fully as possible, for which they stated the following as point 1:

 

- You wish to travel to the UK for 21 days to visit your partner's family members. I am aware that you have previously been refused when applying to visit the UK for this purpose. I have taken into account that you have provided details of your partner. I note that he is a British National and you state that you intend to marry, but you wish to visit his mother before marrying. You application does not state that your partner's mother has invited you to the UK for this purpose. With your application, you have provided a copy of your partner's passport and travel history, as well as social media screenshots. Your previous refusal notice outlined concerns over the nature of this relationship, and the documentation provided with this application does little to address those concerns. This undermines your intentions in travelling to the UK at this time.

 

We are starting a business together and no problem to get my Mum to provide a letter, but the above has me most concerned, as I felt my supporting letter and full MUTUAL (not just my as stated above) travel details addressed the genuineness. I am attaching a redacted comment of my supporting letter. It is 100% accurate and as noted full, due to the prior limited references. Perhaps you could tell me why that does not support the genuineness of the relationship? As far as I've been concerned, I've never even mentioned some of my prior girlfriends on facebook, as to me it is an official relationship notification to family and friends. Till I know I want to be with someone, it doesn't happen. I think the same is true for most people?

 

My mum has very limited time here as she continues to remind me. She even doubts that she will be there for my next planned trip in October. Once she goes there is no desire to go to the UK together.

 

I have made appointments here in UK to seek legal advice whilst I visit my Mum, as I am at a loss as to how to proceed further. Currently, it feels impossible till many years go by.

 

AlastairSupporting Letter1-33.pdf

AlastairSupporting Letter34-67.pdf