10 year family visit visa refused

we applied for a 10 year visitor visa for my mother-in-law who is based in Mariupol, Ukraine. Unfortunately the application was refused so as a result we are quite sorely out of pocket. We were particularly upset because our first child was born a couple of weeks ago and Grandma from Ukraine is desperate to meet him. In hindsight it was probably not the best idea applying for a 10 year visa. We assumed that it made sense so she doesn't have to make a 40 hour round trip to Kiev to apply for a visa every time she wants to visit us.

They were happy with our evidence as sponsors and that she would be staying with us.

Reasons for refusal were.

1. "You state that you are earning a monthly income of £75/month and you started the job on DATE but you have not provided evidence to back up this claim." We intend to apply again for a 6 month visa and her employer is willing to write a letter saying that she is employed since DATE, she earns on average XXX and is paid in cash and that she has been granted a leave of absence for her trip. Do you think this will be sufficient if we apply again for a 6 month visa? She lives day to day on the money she earns from her work. Income from her work does not go through a bank account.

2. "You have provided no evidence of your personal financial circumstances or ties to Ukraine". I'm not sure how this has been justified. She has a bank account with around £10,000 in savings making regular interest, A Ukrainian pension and owns her house outright. Evidence was supplied for all of this and notarised in English. I'm not sure what else we can do. She does not have any other immediate family but is in a relationship. Any thoughts? Is there anyway to prove you are in a relationship if you are not married?

3. "To qualify for a long-term visa to the UK, you need to demonstrate that you are well traveled and intend to travel often to the UK on short visits. You also need to supply supporting evidence that your circumstances will remain very similar during the validity of your visa." We plan to overcome this by applying for a 6 month visa.

Any help or advice would be really appreciated before we try again for a 6 month visa.

The only option is to reapply addressing the reasons for refusals.
Provide additional documents if they were not inlcuded in the intial application.
If documents were submitted but not considered, then do mention they were included.
For unmarried couples, normally 2 year of living together is considered a relationship akin to marriage.
Without previous travel history long term visa is not recommended. Even I would not try for 10 years. 2 /5 year max.

Also referring to you earlier post family in eastern ukraine do ensure that you provide all necessary supporting documents especially evidences showing her ties with Ukraine.

Apart from photographs over a period of time, is there any other evidence you suggest to prove a relationship? Unfortunately there are no letters in joint names or such like.

just photographs don't establish is commited relationship especially in this context. ECO would need to see evidences of any joint commitment and/or responsibilities over a period of time.
if the applican't hasn't got any immediate family member in their country, that's not a negative factor. also it is not a mandatory to prove relationship in support of ties or be in a relationship for the visa.

is a ten year visit visa nearly £800 ? if so do you loose all that money.

sherriesmum wrote:is a ten year visit visa nearly £800 ? if so do you loose all that money.

Yes and yes, so it's in the applicants' interest to ensure they fit the criteria 100% and perform due diligence on the likelihood of success, which unfortunately the OP didn't do in this case.

Unfortunately so. A very hard lesson learned!

She has been issued 6 month visas no problem in the past and we sent in more or less the same documentary evidence as always.

My mother-in-law will apply again this time for a 6 month visa. She will be submitting the following documentation. Please feel free to comment if the list can be improved upon. We don't leave any stone unturned this time around.

Applicant Documentation

1. 6 months detailed bank statements showing her savings of around £10,000 with regular interest repayments.
2. Legal letter stating that she owns her own house outright.
3. Any available utility bills (telephone, gas etc). Need to confirm what she actually has.
4. Letter from employer stating when she started working, her earnings of around £75/month which is paid in cash based on a percentage of sales, and that she has been granted a leave of absence for her trip.
5. Photographs of her and her long term boyfriend. Is it worth including this?? There is nothing else we can think of to prove her relationship with him.
6. Divorce certificate
7. Letter stating her entitlement to her state pension which started paying out a few months ago.

Sponsor Documents (My wife and I)

1. 6 months of bank statement / savings accounts clearly showing enough money to support her 1 month stay
2. 6 months of each of our payslips
3. Template letter from this forum detailing that we have accommodation and will pay for her entire trip and living expenses.
4. Our newborn son's birth certificate.
5. Photocopies of our passports and my wifes ILR permit.

In the application itself, in the additional info section we have mentioned and addressed each objection for the refusal and provided additional evidence to show clearly her ties to Ukraine.

Let me know if we have missed anything.