Frustrated With Uk Tourist Visa Refusal

[VisasPlus]

You will not get a response that answers your query. You will be informed, quite rightly, that correspondence regarding any individual application should be directed initially to the Correspondence Team.

That's a fair point and I agree with you, the ECM's should not have to spend time fielding individual queries that could be dealt with at a lower level, they should be managing their team and carrying out administrative reviews in a timely manner.

That said, and I don't know what their actual procedure is, what I believe the ECM's should do with emails is have them automatically referred to the correspondence team rather than replying and advising customers to write to the team. Hopefully now that team is up and running people will actually get meaningful replies within a reasonable time frame.

You are right and, to be fair, my cheeky enquiry was passed on to the Correspondence Team on that occasion. You are right again when you say that we can hope for meaningful replies and reasonable timescales, but I doubt that will happen. At least, there is no evidence of it happening yet. I have today sent off another complaint ( to the Correspondence Team ) concerning the shameful delays in ECM review times. It is now one month since we submitted an appeal on behalf of a new client who had been refused a settlement visa ( we did not assist in the original application, unfortunately), and we have heard nothing from the Embassy Visa Section about any ECM review having been carried out. We received only the standard, and frustrating, "20 working day" response. If the review has been carried out, then we have not been notified of the outcome, which would seem to fall under the umbrella of work for a Correspondence Team ?

I think you may be confusing life overseas with the life that you and I have experienced within the Home Office in UK. Or maybe your hope that the ECMs will be managing their teams and carrying out administrative reviews in a timely manner is a " tongue in cheek " comment ? As I recall from my own recent overseas experiences with the FCO ( not as an ECM, but in the same grade and within the same department) I was lucky enough to spend some of my time enjoying long lunches with colleagues from other Embassies, from Schengen countries ( I seem to recall that they were "working" lunches), regional conferences ( which were beginning to be replaced by " video - conferencing ", for goodness sake ) and suchlike. I will accept that it can be a tough life overseas, depending on where you might be working, but I do not accept that Bangkok is a posting where things are that tough. After all, you and I manage to survive life here. Have a look at the closing dates for the Embassy in April for instance. Six Public Holidays. They will be closed for at least 50% of April due to weekends and Public Holidays! I believe that there are opportunities for the Visa Section to use it's resources better in order to keep delays in all areas down to a minimum.

I have pontificated many times about how bad the customer service from the Embassy is. The Australian Embassy in Bangkok, for instance, offers this service :

New Service

Any applicant wishing to personally speak with an Immigration Officer about their Family migration visa application may do so by visiting the Visa Application Centre between 14:00 and 16:00 hrs each working Thursday of the week. Staff from the Visa and Immigration Office of the Australian Embassy Bangkok will be available to address queries and meet with applicants wishing to lodge migration visa application at the Australian Visa Application Centre. Enquiries regarding non-Family visa applications should be directed to the general phone enquiry line or the email box.

Now, is that good customer service or not ? The British Embassy could learn a lot from this. I fear, however, that they will not go anywhere near such a service. I did ask, in one of my many missives to the Embassy, why they could not provide something similar. Did I get a response on the subject ? Err..............no. The British Embassy has it's own reasons for not wanting to deal directly with applicants ( who have paid up to around 850 - 900 GBP for a visa application, but are refused the opportunity to talk with any ECO or ECM ), and some of the reasons are fairly valid. For instance, naming staff at the Embassy ( as in the post above ) is a no-no for many reasons. The point is, if the Australians can offer a service like the one above ( and I do understand that they deal with far fewer applicants ), then the British Embassy should be looking to doing something similar. The Australian Embassy is offering weekly face to face question and answer sessions, and the British Embassy offers a one month reply service by email !

I have no doubt that someone from the visa section at the British Embassy will read this post. In fact, I am counting on it. Maybe seeing the way people are affected by their actions, and that there are better ways to deal with people than the way they are currently dealing with their " customers", may make someone, somewhere take note. Of course, it may have the opposite effect for me, and my rapidly decreasing popularity at the Embassy will be speeded up even more. No invitation to the Queens Birthday Party yet again !!

[7by7]

Comments appreciated

Other than wondering why you searched through the forum to revive a 30 month old topic to post this instead of starting a new one (no need to answer), one other comment is that it is nigh on impossible to comment on any individual refusal without knowing what the refusal notice actually said.

She cannot appeal this refusal, but the ECM can review and overturn the refusal. Hopefully this will happen in your case. Just remember that when dealing with people a polite and reasoned response is the best way of getting them to do what you want.

[RAZZELL]

To the OP.

Send a "polite" email to Ms. Posy Hartstone, the Entry Clearance Manager (ECM) in Bangkok asking for an informal review of the decision stating your concerns and offering to supply (or supply it anyway) additional evidence. If that get's you nowhere re-apply.

Given the OP's post was about two and a half years ago it's probably a bit later for that approach, hopefully in the meantime I hope the visa was eventually granted.

I would like to think that this approach might get a positive response from one of the ECM's though I'm not convinced it would. Has anybody tried to email either of the ECM's directly, and got a response?

Oops...

RAZZ