British Embassy Bangkok

[Jobes11]

I am currently living in Thailand and my girlfriend has now had 3 visitor visa rejected to the uk. The previous two have Been rejected in my opinion very harshly. The 2nd most recent was rejected for no proof of holidays booked at work but the staff dealing with this did not contact her employer to find out. (We gave all contact info needed to check everything we stated)

The most recent was rejected again with no verification in house at the embassy, I provided bank statements with enough funds to do the trip 10 times over she also has enough money to easily afford flights and accommodation. They wanted to see all ,y transactions etc. this is abit much for a visitor visa right?

They also made a point of saying, we will be staying At my parents house they wanted proof of who lives there and if we have room? That's surely irrelevant we have somewhere to stay weather it be a bed, on the floor or whatever. But this could all have been validated if they had used our contact information provided. Which they didn't.

It's to easy to take our 4000bht and just stamp reject, surely there is protocol to use the information provided to check and if anything has been missed contact us to provide more documentation.

This is the 3rd time now and it's starting to cost use. Fair amount of money. To be given to real reason. They seem soft reasons. I am willing to appeal if you think I have a case.

Having to spoke to someone who arranges flights she said ' I often get calls from the embassy check flight details for verification' but our ECO didn't see,s to check anything? 90 percent of the reasoning for rejecting could of been validated with the information provided.

None received a phone call, email, letter anything.

Please help

Dan

[simple1]

OP: How about visiting the UK Embassy BKK web page that details documentation requirements. It would appear that you have not complied e.g. letter confirming employment from the employer, bank statement for past six months, letter confirming acommodation arrangements etc etc

Best of luck...

Edited May 22, 2013 by simple1

[Jobes11]

I promise you we gave every document possible. They are asking for proof of stuff which I don't see I real vent to a visitor visa, I.e a holiday!

[simple1]

OP: I repeat, have you reviewed and complied to the guidance provided at the URL below for documentation required? From the wording of your post you have not complied e.g. letter from the employer, letter from the UK house owner (parents) confirming provision of accommodation etc If you do not provide the required doco how do you expect to have a visa granted?

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/out-of-country/visitors.pdf

[theoldgit]

This will be better in the visa to other countries section.

[josephinebloggs]

I promise you we gave every document possible. They are asking for proof of stuff which I don't see I real vent to a visitor visa, I.e a holiday!

I've just been through the same thing however we did provide everything that was asked for even if we didn't deem it relevant for a holiday also.

Pictures of where we are staying, proof of who lives there, letter from our Daughters school, absolutely everything they asked for.

" Yes Sir, no Sir, three bags full Sir ", and we got it.

Edit : Some stuff they asked for the second time ( after a phone call to us ) was even duplicates of what we'd already given which i found baffling, but as i said " Yes Sir, no Sir..........."

Edited May 22, 2013 by josephinebloggs

[bobrussell]

It is not the responsibility of the ECO to contact the employer. It is yours to provide evidence that the absence from work is agreed.

It is a requirement that you provide evidence of affordability of the stay. If you say you are staying with family you need to provide evidence of that together with evidence that accommodation is adequate. For a short stay there is quite a lot more flexibility in what is considered adequate than a longer stay. This is in the rules!

We had friends come to stay and have limited spare space so the kids were bundled into a caravan where they could be as noisy as they liked. This was not a problem.

If you provide the relevant bank statements they can see the transactions.

The ECO is processing quite a number of applications and it is in your interest to make it as easy as you can. It can seem over the top but the rules are pretty specific and flexibility limited. The more precise your application the less room for refusal there is!

[toddmeister]

It's up to the applicant to supply hard evidence to back-up everything they claim in the application. The embassy are not going to waste their time chasing information. For example, simply supplying contact details for an employer is not enough. They need hard evidence in the form of letters from the employer, things like that. Same with the accomodation, it's not enough to just tell them where you will be staying. If it's at the parents house then they need proof that it's ok to do so eg. a letter of invitation from them. If it was at a hotel they would expect to see hotel bookings.

As for the previous refusals. Did you clearly state in subsequent applications how those refusals had now been addressed? I mean blatantly spell out how you fixed the problem by supplying more info or what they had asked for? Or was it just new applications with no reference to the previous refusals?

Unfortunately, what you may think is relevant to an application for any visa, is irelevant to the embassy. You have to play by their rules and tick every box, cover every possible angle with hard evidence. If you can do that then there's no reason for any refusal.

It may seem harsh to genuine travellers like it's "just a holiday". But you have to look at it from a skeptical ECO's perspective. Look how many overstayer's come to the UK on visit visa's. That's the very reason why, if anything, visit visa's are the hardest to obtain

[Jobes11]

Of course we provided letters from employers, we provided everything asked for. Letter from home, letter of ownership of the house in the uk. Letter to prove she had work and that she had booked the time off. And also stated any quires they can contact us , employers, my parents. We agave photos of how she's knows me going back 4 years. With my friends who have stayed with us. Photos of us together in her room. Common it's ridiculas, for effectively a holiday. We had revered flights. Showed proof. Proof of everything. I even had my salary paid into her account t show I'm here and working,

That's fair but I didn't think that a room plan for my parents house is relavent to a holiday visa. Also that is quite private. Ad toe fair we could take photos of anyone's house.

The reason for the trip was to visit my sick grandparents, as they supported my move here i wanted them to meet my girlfriend, I even provided proof that one is terminally sick.

[Jobes11]

I'm from the uk and I understand the situation, but I see and hear about immigrants all the time. Begs the question how does a thai bar girl do it? Or Indian? Because this is like rocket science. It's seems the embassy don't treat each case with the same protocol. As some seem to verify and see don't. I have evidence of this

[toddmeister]

Are you addressing the previous refusals in your sponsor letter on the subsequent applications? Did you spell it out in your letter that you have supplied all of the info "with reference to previous refusal reference......."

[tw25rw]

Did you include a letter from home saying she could come and stay?

And did you include a covering letter basically explaining everything? Including all the required stuff is one thing, but a covering letter helps them 'interpret' what they are looking at in a favourable way. And also gives you a chance to reiterate that you understand the rules and she won't overstay etc.

[josephinebloggs]

Wouldn't be surprised if you had the same officer as who i've just had some not so great dealings with for our application.

From what you're saying, you provided all you could.

I have no idea why it would have been refused so many times, unless she has previous maybe with UK Visa application ?

& don't jump on me for saying that, it's a question that is possible for everyone even if they don't like to admit it.

Edited May 22, 2013 by josephinebloggs

[Tony M]

You should post the refusal notices ( deleting any personal data - names, etc ), and people might be able to give you a better idea of what is happening.

[bobrussell]

Very limited numbers of visit visas are rejected. If there is an adverse immigration history this would be covered in the refusal notice. You say 90% of the reasons for rejection could have been dealt with by contacting the applicant/employer etc. This is just not how it works!

Clarifying a minor issue by phone is one thing but collecting missing information is not the job of the ECO and rejection is more than likely. You have to provide all the information that allows the ECO to tick all the boxes. It may seem petty and questions personal or irrelevant to you but that is how the system works and has done for many years.

It sounds as if providing a complete application should result in a visit visa!

[Jobes11]

Thanks guys, it's really appreciated.

Yes we had a letter from England. From my parents. Cover letters from me , my parents. Deeds to the house. I didn't provide recent ransactilns because to be fair I didn't think that was their business. I mean if I have a balance for example of £7000 that's enough to cover everything. The only other thing is they said about my future plans. Which I stated I was returning to Thailand as have work here. I clarified this on my cover letter.

a friend of ours applied and speaking to her provided less dock,negation but the Advisor called and verified infor,action thus accepting the visa. Ours didn't check anything.

The previous refusals we addressed and made sure they couldn't reject on these issues. So natrually as we addressed everything we thought 'good' we checked every box. But it see,s they just pick what they want.

Easy money for them write a letter, and take the money. Also it's hard for my girlfriend to take when they take her 4000 on three occasions without so much as a call to check or anything.

When I've applied for visas everyone has been so helpful telling what I've missed etc just lone percent of this help from the British embassy which I believe is here to help British citizens? I went there and I quote ' they only deal with marridge'

Any help or advise is welcome

Thanks guys.

[Jobes11]

The only thing I would add is we printed out the check list of the website to make sure we addressed everything. And section 41 everything was addressed.

My feeling is that it depends what officer you get. Which such not be the case.

[7by7]

I am puzzled by your comment in your OP

Having to spoke to someone who arranges flights she said ' I often get calls from the embassy check flight details for verification'

The official advise in all UKBA information about visit visas is to NOT book tickets or make firm travel plans until the visa has been granted!

So how can this person "often get calls from the embassy (to) check flight details for verification" ?

As for the rest, if, as TonyM says, you post the actual refusal notice in full, deleting all names and other identifying information, then we can advise further. Without seeing that, any comment would be pure speculation; which will be of no help to you at all.

[Waterloo]

Jobes11

7by7, TonyM & Bobrussell really know there stuff & will go out of there way to help you if they can, but you have to give them sight of the refusal notice it elimantes all the guess work.

[toddmeister]

My feeling is that it depends what officer you get. Which such not be the case

You could maybe argue that with one refusal. But three refusal?? presumably by different ECO's?? As above you need to post the full refusal statement from the embassy

[beano2274]

OP at the start you said about her employer, then later your reason to return is your job, but did I miss her letter from her employer saying she could go.

Visas are easy to get, I got for my mother in law and my wife, just read the notes on the websites, ask questions to the relevant people and hey presto.

[mikebell]

Just a footnote to this subject: to save time/paper/expense why cannot the British Embassy have a data-base of married citizens who make visits & wish to take their wives. Then it would just be a question of 'all information the same as last year could I have a new visa please?'

[7by7]

People who have a good reason for visiting the UK regularly, such as being married to an expat Brit, can obtain a long term visit visa (1,2,5 or 10 years).

But even with one of those, applicant's do need to supply new information each time they apply; people's circumstances do change and just because you met the criteria for the visa last time doesn't mean that you will this time.

They do maintain a database and details of all applicants, granted or accepted, are kept for, I believe, 10 years since their last application so that they can be checked against a new application.

But that's not what this topic is about.

Edited May 23, 2013 by 7by7