Appeal process.. where to begin?

[SolitaryRomeo]

Hello, I have received my Refusal of Visa and the UKBA has absolutely surprised me with the reasons for their decision, everything I provided in the evidence, they said it is not sufficient, however my solicitor was satisfied with the application before we submitted it.

I am now in need of urgent help.

I am living in Pakistan, and my wife is in UK.

How does the appeal system work?

1. Can my wife appeal from the UK?

2. If i have to appeal from Pakistan, what is the process, as I read the tribunal is in the UK?

3. Can we appeal without a solicitor? They are charging over £1000 for appeal, which is so much money.


I will soon post the points raised in Decision for Refusal.

Please help me.
Yours Sincerely

Shak

[Kitty]

Your wife (or your solicitor, if you continue to instruct him/her) should submit the appeal form in the UK:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/cour ... ppeals.htm

What was the reason given for the refusal? Please post the exact wording from the refusal notice so that other posters can help you.

[SolitaryRomeo]

The Decision

1- You have applied to join your spouse in the UK, During the course of considering your application, checks have been made with colleagues in other government departments. These have revealed that the information that you have provided regarding your sponsor’s employment is not correct. I therefore refused your application under paragraph 320(7A) of HC395 as quoted in the relevant Immigration Rules paragraph of this notice above.

The use of misrepresentation or concealment of material fact undermines your credibility to the extent that I am not satistied that you are being truthful about the purpose and duration of your proposed settlement to the UK. Therefore on the balance of robabilities I am not satisned that your sponsor can adequately maintain and accommodate you in the United Kingdom without recourse to public funds. 281 (iv)(v)

2- You state you met on 07/05, your relationship began on 22/5/10 and you married on the same day. You state you last saw your sponsor on 25/5/10. You are applying 9 months later to join your spouse in the UK. You state you keep in contact by phone. You have provided phone cards as evidence of regular contact with your sponsor. However these cards have no name, contact or usage details. There is no ability to show who has purchased or used them. I am also aware that these cards are readily available to purchase second hand, even following full usage of the time and cost of the cards advertised activity. I am not satisfied that you intend to live permanently with your sponsor as spouse or civil partner and that the marriage or civil partnership is subsisting. 281 (iii)

3- You have also submitted a Lycamobile statement, 2 emails and 5 greetings cards in support of your application. Whilst I note that your sponsor has telephoned you between 2/11/10 and 28/1/11 the calls are for minimal time and not consistent. Secondly only 2 of the greetings cards have evidence of carriage. I am not satisfied that you enjoy the level of contact claimed. l am not satisfied that you intend to live permanently with your sponsor as spouse or civil partner and that the marriage or civil partnership is subsisting. 281 (iii)

4- You have provided your sponsor’s Lloyds TSB bank statements in support of your application. As stated above, I am not satisfied your sponsor’s income or employment is as claimed. Secondly I note from your sponsor’s account she regularly has a low balance despite living with her parents. I am satisfied that your arrival will create an additional drain on your sponsor‘s modest financial circumstances. Given her existing financial commitments, I am not satisfied that she is in the economic position to maintain you and any dependants adequately without recourse to public funds. Therefore on the balance of probabilities I am not satisfied that your sponsor can adequatety maintain and accommodate you in the United Kingdom without additional recourse to public funds. 281 (iv)(v)

5- I note that your sponsor lives with her parents, and brother. I am aware that you have an offer of third party support from her father. I have taken into consideration all the facts surrounding the issue of your financial maintenance in the United Kingdom and while considering the above I have to take into account that the Entry Clearance Guidance (ECG) Chapter 9.7 states:

Members of the couple’s families in the United Kingdom may offer to maintain the couple
adequately until they can do so from their own resources. This is acceptable in the case of
fiancé(e)s/proposed civil partners who are not permitted to work until the marriage/civil
partnership. However for spouses or civil partners, such an arrangement would not satisfy the
Rules, which require the couple to maintain themselves. Nevertheless, it may be appropriate in
certain circumstances to exercise discretion for a spouse or civil partner where it is clear that
such an arrangement will be for a limited period and that the couple will be in a position to
maintain themselves shortly after the applicant’s arrival in the United Kingdom.

You have failed to provide any evidence that this third party support is only for a limited period. I am therefore not satisfied that you can adequately maintain yourself in the United Kingdom without recourse to public funds. Therefore on the balance of probabilities I am not satisfied that there will be adequate accommodation for you and your sponsor. 281(iv)

I have therefore refused your application because I am not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that you meet all of the requirements of the relevant Paragraph of the United Kingdom Immigration Rules.

[SolitaryRomeo]

The case was submitted on 25/02/2011.

They have made us look like liars, but please believe me, we did not hide anything, everything we presented as evidence was the whole truth.

Allow me to explain my defence for each point:

1- My wife does have a job, we supplied payslips for the last 6 months and P45. So, how can they say her employment is incorrect? We provided everything clearly in the form, so no mistake was made there. UKBA haven't told us what the actual problem is.

2- Technically we have been "in relationship" for a long time, we knew couple of years ahead of our marriage that we will marry. But i filled in the form that we entered relationship on the day of our marriage. In our culture, we don't have pre-marriage relationships. I'm surprised the UKBA did not understand that.

In the last section of the form, I clearly explained that my wife had to return to the UK earlier than planned and have reasoning too. We applied 9 months later because the solicitor took a month and a half to prepare our papers.

Calling cards is the best and cheapest possible method of international contact, but it is unfortunate that it is difficult to prove. But, that doesn't mean that I have falsely obtained these cards?

3- My wife took out an international calling sim, for the sake of providing evidence of contact. It costs 3 times more using the sim, compared to calling cards. However, there was almost daily contact between us as proven on the mobile statement, although not long conversations, because we used calling cards and emails for that. But the ECO seems to think that is not sufficient.
The greeting cards, I did not have the envelope saved for the previous ones, on which was the evidence of carriage, but luckily i did have for two of them. I understand the reason of ECO, but we tend to take the card out and hang them on the wall don't we?

4- Not satisfied with employment and income? But the payslips are legit and they clearly state her job and income. My sponsor had low balance because she sent me money on several occasions to help me with the english classes and tests, and application process. I had provided evidence of money transfer, which amounted to over £1000. But they did not look at that?
I had also given a letter of employment offer in the UK for me, which would have helped our financial status.

5- This one is straight forward, we thought the parents consent to live in the house for as long as you wish was sufficient, provided there was adequate space. which there was. The solicitor did not object to this being an issue either. Unless the law changed since we applied?


I am happy to answer any questions, I desperately need your help guys.

[batleykhan]

Are you the sponsor or applicant that is asking for help on this matter. If you are the applicant and claim to be living in Pakistan, then how come you be posting from an IP address in Derby?.

If you are the sponsor from the UK writing this post, then why don't you be honest,otherwise you are going to receive conflicting advice if you are not being honest from start.

Anyway going back to your post, I would strongly advise that you get a good solicitor ( this time around) to appeal on your behalf,otherwise the section that you have been refused can have long term implication on your relationship

It appears that you are genuine in what you have said or claimed to be true facts, but unfortunately the ECO disagrees with you. If what the ECO has refused you on is true, then I to would be suspicious about some of the events in relation to this matter.

What the ECO basically is saying that he doesn't believe the marriage to be genuine and subsisting. He doesn't believe that the sponsor is probably working and therefore does not believe in the wage slips and the bank statements that they have provided are genuine, As for the calling cards, it has been known for people to buy second hand calling cards and use them as evidence in such matters.

However the good news is that many people have been refused for similar reasons and the decision has been overturned on appeal hearing, therefore you have an outside chance of succeeding on appeal, however this wont come cheap. I would not advise that you attempt to deal with it yourself. Get a good lawyer.

the alternative is that you give up on this one and reapply again, making sure you have the correct documents and evidence. That might work out cheaper than appealing.

Good luck whatever you do,but to try to be honest , clear and concise in everything you do.

[SolitaryRomeo]

Hi, many thanks for your reply.
You are correct, I am living in Derby.

To save confusions, I did not introduce the third person in to the post which is myself, I am acting on behalf of the Applicant to receive support from the online community on here. The applicant is my brother, and his wife is here in the UK. I do apologise if I have breached some rules or gone about the wrong way on here.


As mentioned, nothing in the evidence was concealed, which is why it has come as a surprise to us. Especially the matter of employment. We clearly stated on the form, and provided the evidence for her job. Unless they tried contacting the place of work and were unable to, so they made a decision based on that, I am not sure. Also, she gets paid in hand, which is what we mentioned on 3 occasions in the application, so there is not a payment direct to her bank account stating her wages. They haven't told us the reason, or what they actually found out, on which basis they made this decision thinking we were concealing the truth...

As far as the Bank statements are concerned, the balance was low on afew occasions, because the sponsor sent money to the applicant, this is supported by money transfer receipts. The applicant needed to pass the english test, before the application could be submitted, and also the solicitor took a while, hence it was applied 9 months after the marriage.


Again, I do apologise, I was hoping by keeping it simple, I would not cause confusion.

[mgsBoy86]

I might be wrong, but I also believe that the fact that the sponsor left a couple of days after the relationship started is a point for refusal. It would seems strange that the spouse never returned to Pakistan to see her husband.

[MPH80]

Also, she gets paid in hand, which is what we mentioned on 3 occasions in the application, so there is not a payment direct to her bank account stating her wages.

Is her employer correctly reporting all tax matters?

Otherwise HMRC won't have records of her working.

[SolitaryRomeo]

Also, she gets paid in hand, which is what we mentioned on 3 occasions in the application, so there is not a payment direct to her bank account stating her wages.

Is her employer correctly reporting all tax matters?

Otherwise HMRC won't have records of her working.

Hi, he pays her cash in hand, but the pay slips are done as normal, through the accountant. She earns less than the taxable figure so there isn't tax paid, i think that figure is something like £6500 per annum?

But her national insurance contributions and her wage is clearly listed on the pay slips...

I understand if it was a bank transfer it would be alot more helpful, but that is just how her employer operates.

[batleykhan]

The fact that she is earning less than the taxable amount, means that she is paying no tax.

Therefore if the ECO has made inquiries with the appropiate tax office, they probally will have no record of this lady paying tax.

The ECO has therefore concluded that her employment is not genuine or that she is even infact employed, which in turn raises doubt about the money she has in the bank for which she has provided bank statements.

[Kitty]

In respect of the employment and earnings, I would suggest you get a letter from the employer, explaining how they administer pay (i.e. that she is paid in cash, and whether this is monthly or weekly etc.). Also a letter from their accountants explaining that their tax affairs are in hand.

Does the fact she is paid in cash explain the fact that her bank account has a low balance? If she buys what she needs out of her earnings, without putting it in the bank first, then she will need to explain this in her sponsorship letter (or witness evidence on appeal). Alternatively, she could start paying her earnings into her bank as soon as she gets them, and build up a history that can be seen in her statements.

You really do need to explain everything explicitly to UKBA: you can't assume they will notice things of their own accord. For example: explain about the money transfer for the English test, and for the application.

They appear to accept that there will be third party support from the family, but not that it will be for a limited period. When the applicant comes to the UK, will he work? What are his prospects for finding a job, or does he already have a job offer?

I think you can address the ECO's concerns, but you will need to be very specific about how the applicant meets each of the requirements of the Immigration Rules.

You can choose to appeal (which may be appropriate, given that the genuineness of your relationship has been questioned), or you can submit a new application. Bear in mind that if you appeal successfully it might still be a year before the applicant can come to the UK. But without much paper evidence of the relationship, it might be better for the wife to have a chance to give witness evidence in person.

[geriatrix]

Hello there, my dear friends.

We have decided to appeal against UKBA decision for the refusal of Spouse visa. I am a friend of the couple involved.

My question to start off, is,

1. Who actually appeals?

We want to submit the application to the Tribunal in the UK, but will it be from the Applicant, or the Sponsor, who appeals? or fills in that Appeal form?

2. Who can represent in court?

We have spoken to our solicitor with whom we applied for this case, but he is charging us £1000 to do the appeal, which is £300 to lodge it, and £700 to appear in court as representative. This is quite expensive given that we have already spent alot of money on this case.

However, we would like to appeal without a solicitor, but can I represent at the hearing? The wife, who is the UK citizen, is unable to represent herself alone. Will the Tribunal allow me? I am not a qualified legal representative, although I do feel I could competently do this appeal.

3. When appealing, do we submit the evidence with the appeal, or can we submit it afterwards / at the hearing. Because of the time limitations, it may not be possible to gather all the documents to support our appeal form within the 28 days time.

Please provide me with any information you could suggest or from your past experiences. I will be able to answer any questions.

I shall be very grateful.

Thank you so much.

1. It is always the "applicant" who appeals. Anyone can fill up the form for / on behalf of the applicant. Either the applicant or the person representing the applicant must sign the form.
2. You cannot self-represent, because in absence of entry clearance you cannot travel to UK. And you'll not be granted entry clearance to represent yourself in an appeal in the UK related to refusal of entry clearance!

Wait for others to answer Q3.

[SolitaryRomeo]

2. You cannot self-represent, because in absence of entry clearance you cannot travel to UK. And you'll not be granted entry clearance to represent yourself in an appeal in the UK related to refusal of entry clearance!
.

Thank you for your reply, As i mentioned, I am the friend who is helping the couple in their application.

I am in the UK. Question 2 was if me, the friend, can represent?

Many Thanks once again.

[geriatrix]

I have received my Refusal of Visa ..... I am living in Pakistan, and my wife is in UK.

I am a friend of the couple involved.

In such case, do not use someone else's ID to log on to the forum.

See also IAFT-2 Guidance on completing.

[batleykhan]

2. You cannot self-represent, because in absence of entry clearance you cannot travel to UK. And you'll not be granted entry clearance to represent yourself in an appeal in the UK related to refusal of entry clearance!
.

Thank you for your reply, As i mentioned, I am the friend who is helping the couple in their application.

I am in the UK. Question 2 was if me, the friend, can represent?

Many Thanks once again.

Only the sponsor of the applicant (spouse) or her representative who must be OISC registered and legally qualified to do so can represent her at a hearing.

[SolitaryRomeo]

Only the sponsor of the applicant (spouse) or her representative who must be OISC registered and legally qualified to do so can represent her at a hearing.

Hi, I have rang the Tribunal Services, and they have told me that I can represent, and that there is no need to be legally qualified, you can fill in the representative section on the form even if you are non qualified.....


Also, found this in the guidance notes:
Should you not want to nominate a professional representative (as described above), you may nominate another person to represent you in your appeal, as long as that person does not have the provision of immigration advice and services as part of his business (whether or not for profit.)

[batleykhan]

Good luck to you then

[Casa]

If you need to seek advice from an Immigration forum it's unlikely you will be able to competently handle an Tribunal appeal. The applicants need legal representation and you need to consider carefully the responsibility you're taking on.

[SolitaryRomeo]

hmm. you guys are right. i went to speak to another solicitor today. he has a good reputation. I think it will be worth letting him do it. As he will be able to argue based on previous cases, whereas I can only argue from what I know.