Need help to understand the refusal for Irish Study Visa

Hi All,

I have applied for Irish Study Visa on 10th August from Islamabad, Pakistan. I have got a admission granted in Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland.

I have been asked by University to arrive in Ireland by 10th September or else your admission and visa both will be cancelled.

I am now under deep pressure to meet that deadline, I have got everything else ready including the air ticket booked and accommodation arranged. However, I am likely to hear back from Irish Dublin Office on the coming Tuesday 1st September 2020 but if it's the visa approval then I really need to know how long it will take me to get my passport from the Islamabad VFS office? As I have to travel to Ireland before 10th September and I have not got long left.

Your help in this is much appreciated.

You submitted the visa on 10 August and they expect you to be in Ireland by 10 September, or else your visa and admission will be cancelled??? Can you share the exact wording on your college admission letter please?

That is extremely unusual and unfair, even without a pandemic.
- The visa process normally takes 3 weeks to complete, plus you will need time to prepare for your visa application, paying tuition fee, book visa appointments, getting insurance, buying flight tickets etc. It would take at least a month to finish everything even in normal situations.
- A college has zero influence on visa cancellation whatsoever. Most colleges do have a deadline before which you have to register with them, but that is mostly mid October if not later.
- 10 September is waaaaaaaaaaay too early for a college deadline. Colleges do not open until the third or fourth week of September. I just looked up on WIT's website and even the orientation does not start until 22 September. Their gate may not even open on 10 September for taught students.

As to how long it's going to take to get your passport from the VFS office, you should really contact the VFS office.

Hi, You applied on 10th August and expected to get your visa, passport, travel , accommodation (thou you already sorted before visa approval), shopping (being realistic) within one month!!

Can you clarify also , on what date you received approval letter from WIT, is it possible you waited too long to apply ??

If thats not the case , you have to follow with the co-ordinator of WIT in your country or who ever the contact person and explain the situation. I think they will understand situation and delays due to covid.

I have no doubt this has been absolutely unfair with me.

I have done hard work for months to get to this stage and out of no where WIT emails me this letter on 17th August with the following wordings.

"You must have an approved study visa, and flight or mode of transportation booking which
will lead to your arrival in Ireland before or on the 10th of September. No student is permitted
to arrive after this date and will not be accommodated by WIT on public health grounds. We
request that details of the approved visa, flight or transport booking and accommodation
provider are sent to ***** by this Friday 21st, August 2020"

..."In summary, we require details of your visa approval, flight/transport booking, and
accommodation booking by Friday 21st August, to be sent to ******* All those
applicants who cannot provide confirmation of arrival by the 10th of September, will be
contacted by the International Office next week with regard to a deferral of their place of
study or refund. WIT will also send confirmation of same to the Irish Department of Justice in
order to cancel study visa applications"


and few other unfair and threatening points. You email someone on 17th August and ask for everything within 4 days, knowing that everything is beyond our control.

But it is what it is now. They want me to arrive on 10th to self isolate for 14 days and begin university on 28th September so I am doing whatever I can now to meet this deadline.

I have got the response from the Dublin Visa Office that they are processing the application now which were submitted on 16th of July and my application was submitted on 10th August so I don't think I will have a visa confirmation anytime before 10th September and eventually will end up loosing all of the hard work and incurred costs.

I've been to 3 colleges/universities in Ireland and I have never seen anything remotely threatening like this.

To be fair, they do have a point - people from the vast majority of countries have to self isolate for 2 weeks. They need to make sure all students on campus are healthy, before the new semester can start. However, this should form no basis of cancelling your visa or deferring your offer. If they have a hard deadline of 10 Sept, this would have to be in your admission letter as a prerequisite/condition. Otherwise, it has no legal basis whatsoever to give you a date within such short notice.

You should definitely try to be nice at first. Call the international student office (try calling instead of emailing) and explain the situation. Tell them realistically when you can expect to receive your visa and come to Ireland. You may also have to agree to stay somewhere else off campus for 2 weeks to self isolate.

A deferral is something you may want to consider as well. The spring semester starts in January/February. As long as they have similar courses that start in spring, it might be good for you. You have more time to prepare for the visa and maybe there is no longer a need for self isolation.

Finally, if it has to come to the point where you have no alternative other than withdrawing your offer, you should try your best to ask for compensation. This should include all of your costs already incurred.

Such a great and brief advice @littlerr. Thank you for this, it definitely is very helpful.

I have been asked to produce visa and arrive before 10th September which is now something beyond my control because Dublin Visa Office is delaying the whole process because of COVID.

It feels like I am the only one who's being victim of COVID in this all process. University wants me to show them visa approval asap due to COVID and Embassy says delays in processing application because of COVID and I am being hit by both sides and will end up being in a loss.

If that happened, is there any way to request compensation fro university? as you mentioned in your response.

I am now seriously considering to request them to let me study my first semester online and I will join them in January 2020 for the second semester and all I want from university is to not to write to Embassy to cancel my study visa and punish me for something I have never done because it's such a long, expensive and stressful process and if I had to do it again, I will be struggling.

So I want them to let me attend online classes for semester 1, keep my admission still valid, do not mess up my visa by writing to embassy and let me join them for next semester.

I feel you would have to initiate a legal action in order to get some sort of compensation from them.

Many colleges and universities in Europe are doing online lectures for the next year or so, but they are under no obligation to do so. Whether WIT wants to allow students to do online courses only is up to them. Some modules may require you to do team work face-to-face (although it's not something that they should do when COVID19 is still around).

As I said, talk nicely to the international student office. See if they can allow you to arrive a month late, if you agree to self-isolate in a location off campus. If that doesn't work out, ask whether it's possible to do online learning for the first semester (although I doubt if that will work). Then ask them if you request for a deferral, will you be deferred to next January/February or will it have to be next September. If it's deferred to next January, they should not have to cancel your visa because the visa validity (3 months) should still allow you to come to Ireland in December, in time for self-isolation and registration for the new semester in January.

Zulqarnain wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 12:50 pm

Hi All,

I have applied for Irish Study Visa on 10th August from Islamabad, Pakistan. I have got a admission granted in Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland.

I have been asked by University to arrive in Ireland by 10th September or else your admission and visa both will be cancelled.

I am now under deep pressure to meet that deadline, I have got everything else ready including the air ticket booked and accommodation arranged. However, I am likely to hear back from Irish Dublin Office on the coming Tuesday 1st September 2020 but if it's the visa approval then I really need to know how long it will take me to get my passport from the Islamabad VFS office? As I have to travel to Ireland before 10th September and I have not got long left.

Your help in this is much appreciated.

Hi
Answer on the question, how long it does take to get your passport from VFS —> once you know that your visa application is approved/refused. Contact the consulate in Karachi, explaining the situation that you would like to receive your passport asap. Once Karachi consulate has your passport. Next working day Karachi Consulate will send your passport to VFS Islamabad, and day after it you will be able to collect it from VFS. Karachi Consulate will have to put this request in for you to VFS Islamabad.
If you will wait for VFS to contact you for collection, this might take a few extra days/week.

The guys at Karachi Consulate are understanding. Hope this helps.

Hi,

I have got the admission and the scholarship at Waterford Institute of Technology for my postgraduate studies which are due to commence on 28th September 2020. I have also paid the full fees.

Following this, I applied for Irish study visa which is sadly refused today and I do not have further details why it has been refused just as yet. I will without any doubt appeal or re-apply soon I have the refusal letter.

However, I want to know if I am still able to continue my classes online remotely until my visa is approved? How does it work in Ireland? Do you have to have a visa to even study online?

Thanks in advance.

Hello All,

I applied for Irish Study Visa recently which has been sadly refused.

I have the admission confirmed in one of the universities in Ireland, I have paid the full fees and also achieved the university scholarship. Evidence of all were supplied with my visa application. The Visa Officer refused my application for number of reasons. Some of them are mentioned below.

ID: - Insufficient documentation submitted in support of the application

INCO 1nconsistencies e.g. contradictions in the information supplied.
Inconsistencies in the information supplied in support of your application have been noted by the visa
officer and have diminished the overall strength of your application.
- Internship completion date.

OC: Condition The applicant may overstay following proposed visit.
The Visa Officer is not yet satisfied, based on the supporting documentation submitted. that the
applicant has demonstrated that the primary reason for coming to Ireland is for the purposes of study.
This should be fully addressed in any appeal.

OC: Observe the conditions of the visa - the visa sought is for a specific purpose and duration:- the
applicant has not satisfied the visa officer that such conditions would be observed.
Information supplied by you concerning your personal, economic and family circumstances has been insufficient as yet to satisfy the visa officer that you would observe the conditions of any visa with granted, particular regard to the use of public funds/public resources, and the possible risk of overstaying in the State. This should be fully addressed in any appeal.

Can someone please help me to understand these objections and guide me what documents I can provide to address the above mentioned objections?

What additions ID documents I can provide for the objection 'ID', I did submit all basic ID documents such as passport etc.?
I did submit my internship certificate which clearly mentioned start and finish date? What is it that Visa Officer found contradicting in it?
I clearly stated my purpose for coming to Ireland is to study postgraduate degree and also supplied admission confirmation letters, fully paid fees receipt. What addition evidence you can provide to prove this?
What documents you can provide to address the last objection 'OC' ? what personal, economic or family circumstances I can provide to meet this requirement? What documents you can provide to prove that I will return to my home country after my education?

Many thanks for your help in advance.

Zayk

ID stands for insufficient documents, not ID docs. And it sounds like you have not convinced the VO that you will return to your home country, so you need to do that.

WIT on public health grounds

I think they are doing it for Covid. They want foreign students to be in the country 2 - 3 weeks before the start of the courses just to avoid someone landing on Sunday from an infected area (for whatever that means) then mixing with other students on Monday morning.

Can anyone please explain what information, explanation or documents are usually supplied to justify that you will return to your home country after the completion of your studies? Thanks

What time does your internship start and end? How many hours per week? Was it arranged by WIT? Was it related to your postgraduate? Was it a requirement by WIT that you must have an internship as part of your study?

It almost sounds suicidal to tell a visa officer that you have already found yourself a job while applying for a study visa. The refusal reason listed in OC seems to have proved my point.

The Internship started on 1st September 2019 and completed on 30th November 2019, these dates clearly mentioned in the internship letter I provided. This has nothing to do with WIT and my postgraduate studies nor it has to do anything with visa.

They asked me to explain gaps in education so I just told them that between Sept 2019 and July 2020, all I did is that internship and it was temporary for three months and been completed since November last year.

In order to satisfy the VO on an appeal you need to address point by point with irrefutable evidence. Only yourself knows the quality of each document you have provided so giving you advice specifics is very difficult on what kinda documents you can submit without knowing what’s missing etc.

The fact that you have already been in Ireland before on a visa, providing financial evidence can work against you. What I mean by this, is that the VO has most likely looked at your whole immigration history and scrutinised your sponsor (or yourself) source of income. Is the income through a loan or through family business etc? How are you affording your studies? Is the sponsor income regular and consistent reflected in bank statements etc?

The questions we could ask you are endless so my best advice to you is to look at every shred of evidence you submitted, analyse it and see if you can address it with evidential explanation on appeal.
Look at your previous application and what evidence had you supplied at the time and do they match?

Hi there,

I have now submitted the appeal addressing all issues properly. Well at least I have tried to.

I don't know how to address the issue such as insufficient funds in sponsor's account when funds are over 24,000 EUR and INIS requirements are 7k for 1 year with each lodgement clearly explained.

Does anyone know the appeal success rate when it comes to students? How long usually they take to process it?

They have received the delivery yesterday.

Thanks

GHD


I don’t know the particulars of your sponsor but simply having funds in the bank sometimes isn’t enough to satisfy INIS. Are the fund lodgements a “one off” for example, from a property sale or are they through regular work/business income from your sponsor? What is the sponsors regular income and does this cover their everyday expenses without reliance on the €25.000? If the answer is no then INIS could look at this negatively since the sponsor (in their eyes) will have to live off the €25.000 whilst financing your studies. I hope I am making sense

I don’t mean to be pessimistic but even if the decision is overturned once the official start date of your study in Ireland passes they will most likely refuse it on the grounds of “course start date already commenced”. This happened to someone I know last year when they appealed the refusal for a study visa.

Hi there,

Yes you are absolutely making sense and it has been clearly explained that my sponsor is not relying on the amount he has shown to fund me with. These are savings.

I understand what you mean about commence date. The commence date is 28th September and I am hopeful they will pick my appeal file before that date because my appeal has already been delivered to the Dublin Office 2 days ago. Still, even if they process my application after 28th September, this should not be a problem because I have already agreed with university to take online classes until my visa is approved and once it's approved I can travel to Ireland to attend university physically ?

I do expect the INIS to be a little supportive and compassionate in a current global situation like this.

I have already paid the full course fee of up to 10k and university is happy for me to join them whenever the visa is approved or in January for the second semester.

Hi Amy update on your appeal application. I am on same boat study visa refused on same ground as you mention. I can't send you pm

Hi Xainrind,

My appeal was delivered to their office last Tuesday, and I am still waiting for the response.

Which university did you apply for? Have you got the same course date 28th September?

What issues did they have with your finance on sponsor?

I will keep you updated with my progress.

Cheers

I got admission LIT. Can I have your number so I can contact you

Telephone number removed by moderator this is my number

You are NOT permitted to post ANY form of personal contact information on the forum!!!

Xainrind wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 15, 2020 5:08 pm

I got admission LIT. Can I have your number so I can contact you

Xainrind wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 15, 2020 5:14 pm

Telephone number removed by moderator this is my number

Zulqarnain wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 15, 2020 4:49 pm

Hi Xainrind,

My appeal was delivered to their office last Tuesday, and I am still waiting for the response.

Which university did you apply for? Have you got the same course date 28th September?

What issues did they have with your finance on sponsor?

I will keep you updated with my progress.

Cheers

How did you send your appeal? I sent yesterday via DHL but they are taking long now a days