visitor visa - what went wrong?

Dear Experts,

I would like to find if there is any rules/guidelines which we are missing to clearly understand when family member visit us based on Tourist visa application.

Providing a few details before posting my query:
My wife and I both are UK citizens (naturalised) and we invited my mother-in-law for visiting us. We put in the application for six months and she got her visitor visa for 6 months. Sept 16 to Feb 17.

Last she visited us was for 4 months (6 month visa) from Oct 15 and returned back in Feb 16.

On her travel date on arrival on Heathrow she was held at the airport by the Immigration officer. My mother-in-law co-operated with the Immigration officer and gave her contact details of myself and my wife so the Immigration officer could contact us. The Immigration officer queried my mother-in-law and suggested that she would need to leave the country by December 2016.

She called my wife as well on her mobile and enquired if she was expecting anyone to arrive. After confirming initial details with my wife, officer informed that her mum could not stay for 6 months this time as she has already stayed for 2 months this year (January and February of 2016). She could stay only for 4 more months and has to leave the UK by December 2016 as this completes her 6 months. If she failed to do so, she may face issues when she applies for a visa next time. After having conveyed this to my wife, my mother-in-law was allowed to enter the UK.

My mother-in-law has travelled to the UK in the past as well and has never stayed beyond the visa validity dates.
However the suggestion from the immigration officer was that if my mother-in-law stays beyond December 2016 then it might result in rejection of her visa application next time as she has overstayed beyond 6 months(2 months in Jan and Feb, 4 months from August to December).

There was no further guidance or written advice provided.

Experts, any idea which specific rule/s became basis of advice from the Immigration Officer?

Our understanding is that it must be some rule that we don’t know or something that was misunderstood by officer.
Would it be an issue if she stays for full valid visa dates as pre-planned? Would it be an issue for any future visa application?
In case future visa application runs into difficult what recourse we would have?

Appreciate your time and responses.

Kind regards

Sounds like the officer was simply doing her duty.

MIL should spend less time in UK than at home.
6 months or thereabouts in UK (in a 12 month period) is tantamount to residing.

A related case may help your understanding:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/genera ... d#p1385931

No recourse if visa is refused.

Noajthan's comments are of course valid, but I always find it inexplicable that when the visa application has been cleared for entry on the information submitted, the IO then disagrees with the decision.

Hi,

Would you be able to list the timeline of your MIL visa application and also if you could advise which country did she apply from?

Kind regards

Casa wrote:Noajthan's comments are of course valid, but I always find it inexplicable that when the visa application has been cleared for entry on the information submitted, the IO then disagrees with the decision.

Exactly!!

We have got applications getting rejected because visitor stayed more than the time they stated on the application form and here they are telling us that it is okay to stay full 6 months.

So who is right? They don't seem to be competent enough and this impacts us directly and we can no longer raise our voice since they took away their right. Well we can but then it will cost us..

lynxukauq wrote:Hi,

Would you be able to list the timeline of your MIL visa application and also if you could advise which country did she apply from?

Kind regards

Hi,

Timelines are:
Latest Application:
Visa Dates: 20-Aug-16 to 20-Feb-17
Travel date: 30-Aug-16, return 15-Feb-17
Original application clearly mentioned travel planned for 6 months

Country applied from: India

Previous Travel and Application:
UK Arrival: 24-Oct-2015 UK Departure: 23-Feb-2016
Visa Dates: 10-Oct-2015 to 10-Apr-2016
Original application clearly mentioned travel planned for 4 months

Kind regards

Just tell my mum s case, she came UK twice and left on time both times. However her third visa got refused because of long stay within last 2 years. But before we applied her visa, we calculated her privious stay less than 6 month every year. I don't know how do they calculate.
Your mother in law was told this time luckily otherwise it might affect next application.

lynxukauq wrote:

Casa wrote:Noajthan's comments are of course valid, but I always find it inexplicable that when the visa application has been cleared for entry on the information submitted, the IO then disagrees with the decision.

Exactly!!

We have got applications getting rejected because visitor stayed more than the time they stated on the application form and here they are telling us that it is okay to stay full 6 months.

So who is right? They don't seem to be competent enough and this impacts us directly and we can no longer raise our voice since they took away their right. Well we can but then it will cost us..

Visitors being refused due to staying longer than previously stated are refused (next time) on credibility grounds, not necessarily because they stayed over 6 months.

There is no absolute 6 months rule per se, its all about visiting blurring into residency.

And worth remembering no visa gives an absolute right to enter the country.