New application for Wife and Daughter's Settlement Visa

Hi all,

Sorry this is a bit long!


On November 7 2005 my wife lodged a new Settlement Application for her and our Daughter, following a refusal earlier in 2005.

We presented the Visa Handling Services (who are handling applications for Visas here in Nairobi) with a comprehensive pack containing all the documentation needed, including certified copies of my passport and the pages containing previous Visas for my visits here. Also included were complete printouts of all the communication in the interim between our marriage in March and subsequent visits, i.e. phone calls and text messages, all the bank statements, mortgage statements, plans and photos of all the rooms in our house here in the UK along with supporting statements from my Mum who promises to assist if we should ever need it. My wife's substantial educational background and work history was also documented. We also included a letter from our MP which states that she is satisfied we have sufficient accommodation etc..

Obviously we wanted to be together for Christmas (although we anticipated the process would take longer) so this was indicated as the intended date of travel.

Surprisingly, on calling the VHS, we found that she had been scheduled for an interview by the beginning of December so we then just had to wait until we were allocated an actual date. A week before Christmas she called again and was told that anyone not already given a date would be seen in the New Year, so I booked a flight to spend Christmas with my family.

We called again on 1st Jan to see if the offices were open and found she had been booked for 3rd Jan, but since they hadn't been able to contact us (the previous week! - we were in Mombasa and were sometimes out of coverage) it had to be rescheduled, so expecting to be shoved to the back of the queue we were even more surprised to be called in again on Jan 5th!


Now comes the tough part.

On being called for the interview at 07:15 (05 Jan) I waited outside the BHC for my wife ... and waited ... eventually at around 10:30 she emerged, having been told she should call the next day (Friday) or Monday to be told when she could come and collect her documents, this is when we would find whether we had been successful.

The interview itself was preceded by a long wait outside the interview room from where the previous applicant could be heard to be engaged in a heated debate with the ECO. When my wife was finally called in she was treated to a verbal battering right from the outset, the ECO was very insulting and intimidating. She was grilled about financial transactions in my accounts, about my place of work, what type of job etc..

On returning to our rented place where we are staying, she had a call at around 15:00 asking for her to attend an interview (again?) at 08:00 Friday morning (06 Jan). This was a complete change to the previous day's experience, this time the ECO (same lady) managed to be moderately polite, but she challenged the date of birth of our daughter as a mistake had been found on my Wife's first visa application, in fact the Y.O.B. was entered as 1997 instead of 1998. This was explained to the ECO as being a mistake but at the end of the interview my wife was told that the decision no longer resided with the ECO and the application would have to be referred to London.


I have kept my MP informed and have told her about this, so she contacted the Foreign Office on my behalf. As yet (13 Feb) she has still had no response despite chasing them up! I called the BHC and asked a few questions about response times, apparently 3 weeks is usual for a reply from London but on asking I was told it hadn't even been forwarded to London until 24th Jan !! We are still waiting for our results ...


I wonder if the BHC are in their rights to dispute a simple mistake in a date of birth, especially as said mistake is in an old application, the child wasn't travelling and the current app includes passport, birth certificate etc. which are all true and correct?


Thanks for trawling through this - and thanks once again to all those who helped with my previous postings.


All the best

BG

BG,

I am sorry that your woes still continue. It appears that you have done all that you can on your part and the best thing to do now is to remain patient and hope for the best.

It is unusual for straight forward applications such as your spouse's to be referred to London but at least the application has not been rejected outright again (as appeals can take forever).

I don't think that the date of birth mistake will make or break the application as it has been pointed out that it was a simple mistake and verifying documents (passports/birth certificates) have been submitted.

All the best.

BG101,

Appreciate that you all want this resolved ASAP. Somewhat suprised the applications has been refered to London - something must have amiss. I can't recall your case since you did not continue your previous thread but I believe your spouse has travelled to the UK previously and there were issues over fraudelent documentation. Entry Clearance posts particulalrly in several countries require a family composition statement - it seems there may be a discrepancy that the ECO feels warrants further investigation. You may find a 'year out error minor' but in the immigration field it is not such since there are many aspects of legislation with an age 'driver' e.g. you turn 18 then no longer a dependet under the rules etc.

With respect we only have your version of events so its difficult to comment conclusively as to what the excact issue is. Note that post the 'Deya case' child entry clearance in Nairobi has mandated a fresh approach - that the immigration rules have been recently amended for child visitors shows the UK's new approach to this area.

Hi Kayalami - seems you have a good memory!

It does seem they are likely to be more keen on verifying everything after refusing a previous application.

I understand why such matters as age of the child are so important, my question was really to see if anyone else here has had a similar problem and find out what would happen if they doubted the information given, despite the provision of valid documentation as proof of the correct age etc.. especially since the mistake was on an old application where the child was never intending to travel at the time. I would have thought they just needed to check the validity of the Birth Certificate with the relevant authorities.

The issue with my Wife's old passport was resolved and it was proved not to be our fault, in any case she would not have been issued a new one had there been any doubt on the issue.

I was under the impression that old applications should not be taken into account anyway and the dates were always correct on subsequent applications, which except for the one for Settlement had never been refused!


Let's just hope we have a positive result soon, as I have heard of the length of time some of these things can take. I am also grateful that it has been passed to London rather than refused, which does give us hope.


All the best
BG

I'm sorry about taking so long to post results but just thought I'd let you know what has happened.

The application was refused on the "grounds" that the marriage was not subsisting, the ECO was not satisfied that whether or not to my wife's knowledge false documents had been submitted in support of the application and that she was not satisfied that my wife's intentions were as stated.

Despite providing a huge volume of communication evidence, attention was drawn to the supposed lack of evidence from before the marriage (by then almost a year ago) reason being we had been using calling cards and in any case the form gives the impression that 6 months' evidence is asked for. The fact that we were there together whilst awaiting the interview/results (and to spend our anniversary together) didn't make any difference.

As for the passport, this issue was resolved following the previous application and if said application was used for reasons of refusal, why were the earlier communication records contained therein not taken into account?

In short I have concluded that the ECO believes that other people travelled with my wife's passport.

The refusal letter was lengthy and damning but no mention was made of the date error. Having contacted the BHC I found that indeed the only communication to London referred to this issue and it had been verified as not being a problem.

I wrote to request a manager's review, giving a detailed statement countering each point made on the refusal letter and providing copies of the evidence purported to have been lacking in the application but this did not influence the ECO's decision.


We have, with the aid of a lawyer, submitted an appeal which is partly based on Article 8 (Human Rights) but as I have read elsewhere on the forum these are increasingly becoming unsuccessful. As it would be very unsafe for me there in the long term (not to mention the lack of prospects) I hope this is more likely to succeed for us.

Our MP is involved and has stated that there have been similar problems before with the BHC there and that the ECO is dearly beloved! (This was also included in the appeal). However even her repeated efforts over the past couple of months to obtain any answers have been fruitless, she finally got a response about 3 weeks ago that she would have an answer by the middle of the following week but nothing has been forthcoming. She has promised to negotiate with Lord Triesman on our behalf.


To be honest we have given up any real hope of settling here and are planning on moving to Europe, maybe with a long-term goal of returning using an EEA family permit. But if this is the way we are treated by the British authorities then it doesn't exactly encourage us to settle in a country where we are not welcome.


Sorry I couldn't post some good news


Thanks for your help & advice.