MAINTENANCE FUND STATEMENT DATES RULE

Does anyone know??

For Tier 1 (General) - the 3 month statements provided for the Maintenance Fund - I know these have to be dated within one month of the application date BUT if you have provided different statements for previous earnings, is there a RULE that the maintenance fund statements MUST BE dated the CLOSEST DATE to the application date?

EG: If your application date is 30th Jan and your maintenance fund statements are 10th Jan but your previous earning statements are 20th Jan - then they will only look at the statements you have provided for the previous earnings because these are dated the closest to the application date?? regardless of the fact that the statements for maintenance is within the one month of application date rule?

If this is correct then can someone tell me exactly where this information is in the guidance or immigration law notes as I cannot find it anywhere but yet my application has been refused on this basis!!

suse76 wrote:Does anyone know??

For Tier 1 (General) - the 3 month statements provided for the Maintenance Fund - I know these have to be dated within one month of the application date BUT if you have provided different statements for previous earnings, is there a RULE that the maintenance fund statements MUST BE dated the CLOSEST DATE to the application date?

EG: If your application date is 30th Jan and your maintenance fund statements are 10th Jan but your previous earning statements are 20th Jan - then they will only look at the statements you have provided for the previous earnings because these are dated the closest to the application date?? regardless of the fact that the statements for maintenance is within the one month of application date rule?

If this is correct then can someone tell me exactly where this information is in the guidance or immigration law notes as I cannot find it anywhere but yet my application has been refused on this basis!!

Mate make your case simple and describe those details in covering letter and highlight the bank statement i.e which one is which....
hope that helps

suse76 wrote:Does anyone know??

For Tier 1 (General) - the 3 month statements provided for the Maintenance Fund - I know these have to be dated within one month of the application date BUT if you have provided different statements for previous earnings, is there a RULE that the maintenance fund statements MUST BE dated the CLOSEST DATE to the application date?

EG: If your application date is 30th Jan and your maintenance fund statements are 10th Jan but your previous earning statements are 20th Jan - then they will only look at the statements you have provided for the previous earnings because these are dated the closest to the application date?? regardless of the fact that the statements for maintenance is within the one month of application date rule?

If this is correct then can someone tell me exactly where this information is in the guidance or immigration law notes as I cannot find it anywhere but yet my application has been refused on this basis!!

Arrange your supporting evidences neatly and use tags to indicate which statements are to be used for maintenance. There is no rule that the maintenance fund bank statements should be dated later than those used for earnings.
If you are using the same account for both then obviously you need to ensure that the funds in the latest statements are above the threshold because if one goes by the spirit of the rule, then the applicant should maintain adequate funds not only upto the date of the application but even after that (the idea is to ensure that once granted entry into UK the applicant will have sufficient funds to meet his requirements)

Believe me I had everything very clearly labelled.

I had 2 sets of statements for 2 different accounts (1) for my 12 months worth of previous earnings & (2) for the 3 months worth of maintenance fund - ALL VERY CLEARLY LABELLED.

However my application has been refused because my statements for the maintenance fund were dated further away from the aplication date then the statements for the previous earnings.

As long as they are within the one month of the application date (which they were) they should've been fine BUT the HO is telling me that they only look at the latest date statement which is the closest to the application date regardless of what you have supplied & allocated them for.

I cannot find this rule ANYWHERE!! All I can find is that the maintenance fund statements MUST BE WITHIN ONE MONTH OF THE APPLICATION DATE (which they were).

I have since re-applied but I am going to fight the first refusal as I have had to pay twice and believe that my first application should not have been refused!!

I just thought someone else may have come across this rule and perhaps I had overlooked it?

suse76 wrote:Believe me I had everything very clearly labelled.

I had 2 sets of statements for 2 different accounts (1) for my 12 months worth of previous earnings & (2) for the 3 months worth of maintenance fund - ALL VERY CLEARLY LABELLED.

However my application has been refused because my statements for the maintenance fund were dated further away from the aplication date then the statements for the previous earnings.

As long as they are within the one month of the application date (which they were) they should've been fine BUT the HO is telling me that they only look at the latest date statement which is the closest to the application date regardless of what you have supplied & allocated them for.

I cannot find this rule ANYWHERE!! All I can find is that the maintenance fund statements MUST BE WITHIN ONE MONTH OF THE APPLICATION DATE (which they were).

I have since re-applied but I am going to fight the first refusal as I have had to pay twice and believe that my first application should not have been refused!!

I just thought someone else may have come across this rule and perhaps I had overlooked it?

HO has made a mistake here. You will need to write to their complaints deptt.

I think thats absolute rubbish.. you need to fight it to the end and not just get your money back but also an apology!

I sent in my application on the March 31st with different statements for earnings and maintenance. my statement date for earnings is the 22nd and for maintenance its the 6th! Just as if i knew they could start playing games i went into both banks on the day of my application and printed off statements and had the signed and stamped! They better not mess with me!

How annoying can these guys get!

hsmpengineer wrote:I think thats absolute rubbish.. you need to fight it to the end and not just get your money back but also an apology!

I sent in my application on the March 31st with different statements for earnings and maintenance. my statement date for earnings is the 22nd and for maintenance its the 6th! Just as if i knew they could start playing games i went into both banks on the day of my application and printed off statements and had the signed and stamped! They better not mess with me!

How annoying can these guys get!

There is a clear mistake by UKBA here (provided different accounts were used for maintenance and for earnings claim).

Thanks, I didn't think I was going crazy and have missed this rule which they seem to have implemented on my application!!

I will fight this because they are wrong and it is totally unfair but I think it is best to do so after my 2nd application has been approved as I don't want to jeopardise it.

hsmpengineer wrote:I think thats absolute rubbish.. you need to fight it to the end and not just get your money back but also an apology!

I sent in my application on the March 31st with different statements for earnings and maintenance. my statement date for earnings is the 22nd and for maintenance its the 6th! Just as if i knew they could start playing games i went into both banks on the day of my application and printed off statements and had the signed and stamped! They better not mess with me!

How annoying can these guys get!

Well you should be fine, thankfully you did the right thing and got statements from the bank on the day of your application because as you can see from the clarification letter from the HO below - they refused to look at the evidence supplied from my online saver account for the maintenace funds as these were dated earlier than my current account statements for previous earnings which were dated closer to the application date, regardless of the fact that the online saver account statements were within one month of the application date!!!

The letter of clarification I received from the HO states as below:

You have requested further clarification on the reasons for the refusal of your Tier 1 application.
You are correct in assuming that your application was refused due to lack of evidence of £800 maintenance funds. The requirements is that all applicants should have the required amount of funds, in your case £800, for the 3 months immediately prior to the application being made. The last statement provided must fall within one calender month of the application being made. In your case you applied on 29th January 2009, the most recent bank statement supplied ended on the 20th January 2009 therefore we would assess the period 21 October until 20 January as the one in which you would need to show maintenance funds.

The period to be assessed is always 3 months running back from the last statement provided no matter what sort of account that the statement is for. Therefore in your case although you had submitted evidence from your savings account the most recent statement was from your current account and thus it was from that one that we worked out the dates of the period to be assessed.

For further clarification, if you applied on the 29 January 2009 then the largest gap we could allow before the assessment period would be one month and thus we could go back to 29 Decemeber for the start of the 3 month assessment period.

We are unable to reconsider your application at this stage, however it remains open to you to re-apply and I hope that the above helps to explain and clarify our previous refusal reasons.

THIS IS A RULE THAT THEY SEEM TO HAVE MADE UP TO REFUSE MY APPLICATION AS THIS RULE IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND IN THE GUIDANCE OR IMMIGRATION RULES!!!

suse76,

Please help me understand ur case in better way, so that I can try to assist you/give you an opinion.

You had statement

Statement A was for the account which you wanted HO to considr for your maintanance fund, i.e min of 800 pounds in this account for 3 months at all time

Statement B was to show your earnings for past 12 months.

Que - did u apply for Extension of HSMP/WP/Tier 1 ? or anything else ?

Assuming you were applying for Extension on any of the permits (ex Student), I guess you should response to the clarification you recieved from HO.

You are correct in assuming that your application was refused due to lack of evidence of £800 maintenance funds. The requirements is that all applicants should have the required amount of funds, in your case £800, for the 3 months immediately prior to the application being made. The last statement provided must fall within one calender month of the application being made. In your case you applied on 29th January 2009, the most recent bank statement supplied ended on the 20th January 2009 therefore we would assess the period 21 October until 20 January as the one in which you would need to show maintenance funds.
The account mntioend herewith by HO was your maintanance fund or your Earnings showing acc ?


The period to be assessed is always 3 months running back from the last statement provided no matter what sort of account that the statement is for. Therefore in your case although you had submitted evidence from your savings account the most recent statement was from your current account and thus it was from that one that we worked out the dates of the period to be assessed.
This is not available to be considered to us at a time of application. You should have all the rights to fight against it. (unless I am missing out a section somehwere)

We are unable to reconsider your application at this stage, however it remains open to you to re-apply and I hope that the above helps to explain and clarify our previous refusal reasons.
Your Response - We are not willing to make a fresh application and insist on HO to "Rectify their own MISTAKE"

Fill in the blanks above and I shall be able to draft something for you. To my knowledge, you have a case in your hand. If you want to take a legal advice you are more than welcome. If I were you, I will try to resolve it myself since solictor aint cheap here

Thanks,
R

Hi Raxs1983,

Further comments in BLUE below:

Statement A was for the account which you wanted HO to considr for your maintanance fund, i.e min of 800 pounds in this account for 3 months at all time - CORRECT - This was my ONLINE SAVER ACCOUNT - 3 months maintenance funds dated 29th Aug 08 - 29th Dec 08 (just within one month)

Statement B was to show your earnings for past 12 months.
CORRECT - This was my CURRENT ACCOUNT - 12 months previous earnings dated up until 20th Jan 09

Que - did u apply for Extension of HSMP/WP/Tier 1 ? or anything else ?
I am switching from a WP to Tier 1

Assuming you were applying for Extension on any of the permits (ex Student), I guess you should response to the clarification you recieved from HO.

You are correct in assuming that your application was refused due to lack of evidence of £800 maintenance funds. The requirements is that all applicants should have the required amount of funds, in your case £800, for the 3 months immediately prior to the application being made. The last statement provided must fall within one calender month of the application being made. In your case you applied on 29th January 2009, the most recent bank statement supplied ended on the 20th January 2009 therefore we would assess the period 21 October until 20 January as the one in which you would need to show maintenance funds.
The account mntioend herewith by HO was your maintanance fund or your Earnings showing acc ?
The HO is referring to my current account statements provided for previous earnings, last date on statement was 20th Jan 09 so they used these for the maintenance fund criteria because they were the closest date to the application date - 29th Jan 09


The period to be assessed is always 3 months running back from the last statement provided no matter what sort of account that the statement is for. Therefore in your case although you had submitted evidence from your savings account the most recent statement was from your current account and thus it was from that one that we worked out the dates of the period to be assessed.
This is not available to be considered to us at a time of application. You should have all the rights to fight against it. (unless I am missing out a section somehwere)

No there is nothing missing, they have disregarded the evidence provided for the maintenance funds because the statements for the previous earnings had a later date on them which was closest to the application date - which is absolute rubbish!!

We are unable to reconsider your application at this stage, however it remains open to you to re-apply and I hope that the above helps to explain and clarify our previous refusal reasons.
Your Response - We are not willing to make a fresh application and insist on HO to "Rectify their own MISTAKE"

I have in the meantime re-applied due to the changes making me not qualify so I had to get in quick but I will still fight this as I have had to pay again!!
Do you think I should fight it now or will it jeaopardise my new application?

Fill in the blanks above and I shall be able to draft something for you. To my knowledge, you have a case in your hand. If you want to take a legal advice you are more than welcome. If I were you, I will try to resolve it myself since solictor aint cheap here

Thanks,
R[/quote]

Thank you for your help much appreciated

Well, it is hard to fight for it now, esp since you had gone and reapplied. I have not heard the case wher HO have refunded anybody for their mistake unless you go to an extreme level, you might be in history books

I can probably understand why you gone ahead and made a fresh application. To the best of my knowledge, its no harm in writting an email to Complieance team to see what they say. It will only be fair for you to get your money back, since HO is the culprit in your case

If i were you, i will email them with clarification exactly the way you replied to my previous comment. Complieance team is very good in terms of undrstanding, I can assure you from my personal exp. I was advice incorrectly by IEB advisor about my bank statements, I raised a complaint for that via email. I had my visa few days after I recieved an reply from IEB complieance team of being apologatic. This could be purely a coincidence but you never know untill you take a chance.

UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk

Mark - FAO - Complieance Team

Let me know if you need anything else

|Wish you a plenty of luck with your new application mate
x

I have just spoken to the HO and obviously they are telling me there is nothing else I can do as I have no right to appeal or get a solicitor invloved (which I am not willing to pay out more money).

The email address you have given me is a for the immigration enquiry bureau - so you think if I email this and explain exactly what has happened with copies of the HO letter etc that they will be able to handle this?

Or perhaps do I send another letter into the case worker and ask for it to be looked at by someone else?

suse76 wrote:I have just spoken to the HO and obviously they are telling me there is nothing else I can do as I have no right to appeal or get a solicitor invloved (which I am not willing to pay out more money).

The email address you have given me is a for the immigration enquiry bureau - so you think if I email this and explain exactly what has happened with copies of the HO letter etc that they will be able to handle this?

Or perhaps do I send another letter into the case worker and ask for it to be looked at by someone else?

i beg your pardon, the correct email is

NEYHCustomerSE@ukba.gsi.gov.uk You can also call them Phone: 0114 207 2966

Thanks,
R

Anyone who wants to make a complain to UKBA about any mis-information, mis-handleing of their case, or any non-satisfactory responses from HO - Please refer to -

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/conta ... t/#header2

Thanks,
R

Great, thanks I'll work on this and let you know how I get on...

This is very urgent and any help on this matter is greatly appreciated.
This is the extract from UKBA’s Tier 1 general Policy Guidelines.
I am submitting this particular letter to prove my Maintenance Fund Requirements.

Letter from bank confirming funds and iii) that they have been in the bank for at least three months:
The letter from a bank or building society should show:
the applicant’s name;•
the account number;•
the date of the letter
the financial institution’s name and logo;•
the funds held in the applicant’s account•
that the funds of £2,800 or £800 have been “• in the bank for at least three consecutive months on and immediately before the date of the letter.â€

Looks like a scam to me.
I think there was at least one other person in this forum complaining about the same situation.
I think that if you clearly stated in your application what account for what purpose they were not supposed to reject it. Fight them.
They just try to get more money from us.

Many thanks Xfer for the Boost..

I am still waiting for their response and hope it comes out to be positive.

If not I will prepare myself to defend my case.

One more doubt related to Online Bank Statements:

I have managed to get my Online statements printed on Bank’s letter head from Local Branch ( NOT STAMPED AND SIGNED ).

Do I need to provide the Bank’s Cover letter as well confirming these statements?

sunny2004 wrote:One more doubt related to Online Bank Statements:

I have managed to get my Online statements printed on Bank’s letter head from Local Branch ( NOT STAMPED AND SIGNED ).

Do I need to provide the Bank’s Cover letter as well confirming these statements?

Not compulosry letter head should be more than enough.. it would b an advantage if it is stamped though...
x

Thanks ...

I did try to get the letter and stamp but had no luck.

they neither provide such letter nor they certfiy the statements.

sunny2004 wrote:One more doubt related to Online Bank Statements:

I have managed to get my Online statements printed on Bank’s letter head from Local Branch ( NOT STAMPED AND SIGNED ).

Do I need to provide the Bank’s Cover letter as well confirming these statements?

Is it an online account? i.e. one for which you would normally would not receive paper statements. If not then I think you can not use printout of the statements whether or not these are on official stationery. See below:

ii) Personal bank statements showing the payments made to the applicant: Bank statements provided must be on official bank stationery, and must show each of the payments that the applicant is claiming. If the applicant wishes to submit electronic bank statements from an online account he/ she should also provide a supporting letter from the bank on company headed paper confirming that the documents are authentic. Alternatively an electronic bank statement bearing the official stamp of the bank issuing the statements will be accepted. This stamp must appear on every page of the statement. For the purposes of this guidance an online bank account is one that operates solely over the internet and sends their bank statements to their customers electronically (for example over the internet or via email).

Now, may be I am being too cautious but if "the guidance" refers to the entire guidance note then even for maintenance funds one can not submit printout of statements for accounts for which are not "online accounts".

Please note the subtle difference between "online bank account" and "electronic bank statements"

thanks for the response push_hsmp.

Please can u clarify as how the case worker will determine whether the account is online a/c, because my statement delivery option in the internet banking for that a/c, states "online only". however we do get the paper statements quartely .

Since the statements are not due yet and if requested will take 5 working days and due to limited time period we opted for the online statements.

sunny2004 wrote:thanks for the response push_hsmp.

Please can u clarify as how the case worker will determine whether the account is online a/c, because my statement delivery option in the internet banking for that a/c, states "online only". however we do get the paper statements quartely .

Since the statements are not due yet and if requested will take 5 working days and due to limited time period we opted for the online statements.

To tell you the truth, I do not have an answer to this. I just highlighted a point which I saw in the guidance notes. I am not sure if case workers are following it to the T. Once observation I can make is- this provision has been added in the latest guidance notes and I came across a rejection recently on the same count (though it was a bit unclear and the outcome of the appeal is not known yet). The safest option therefore is to provide formal paper statements. In any case the printout should carry Bank's stamp in line with the guidance.