how long will an appeal take - husbands visa refused Pakista

Hello,

i live in the UK and married my husband in pakistan in april 08.
After 2 months, we found out that the visa was refused on the basis that we did not provide a Nika Nama, we claimed we got married on 14th May (which was the date that i came back to the UK)

We had provided all the necessary docs, including the Nika Nama, etc confirming our date of marriage which also matched the date we had put on the settlement visa application form, but it seems that the guys at BHC could not read as everything was there crystal clear. strange thing is the BHC returned the nika nama and other docs when my husband went to collect his passport.

We sent a completed appeal form to BHC in Islamabad with the Nika Nama thinking that it would (or hoping) take less time to process than if I had sent the docs to AIT in UK.

does anyone know long does it take for such appeals to go through? is it really 2 months to find out if the entry clearance managers have overturned their initial decision or in total 8 months or so? whats the process as the guide on appeals on AIT's website and talking to the AIT contradict each other.

Please can someone shed some light on the matter.

Many thanks.

Susy

My husband visa was refused on march 28th 2008 we had the 28 days to make appeal which we did, we have now had a letter to say that the ECO has 16 weeks to reply to the appeal then after the 23rd september we will get an appointment for me to attend a full hearing. This is the time scale for an appeal made in this country via AIT.

thanks Lesley15, my goodness thats a long time!!

i selected an paper hearing on the appeal form. i am so confused.
the ait say:

What happens if I lodge my appeal with the Entry Clearance Office?
If you choose to lodge your appeal with the Entry Clearance Office they will reconsider the original decision. If they think the original decision can be changed, they will contact you and explain what will happen next. If they think the original decision was right, then they will forward the appeal to us.

does this mean the appeal paper will not be sent to the AIT first? and that the etry clearance office will look at the paperwork we've sent to them and change their mind if they want to? has this happened to anyone?

how does one know that thei appeal has been lodged?

Can i ask u ! What Nikkah Nama u provided to the BHC ! its been better to process the new VISA application rather then appeal cuz appeal took so long !!!!!

Guys - you need to let everyone what this 'nikah nama' is - its not really an urdu 'exclusive' club here!

They are referring to a 'Marriage Certificate'

If you got married in Pakistan then you should have at least 4 Original versions of this marriage certificate, and also plenty of English translation versions.

What date did you say you got married on the application form? Did you keep a copy of the form that you sent?

gollywood wrote:Guys - you need to let everyone what this 'nikah nama' is - its not really an urdu 'exclusive' club here!

They are referring to a 'Marriage Certificate'

If you got married in Pakistan then you should have at least 4 Original versions of this marriage certificate, and also plenty of English translation versions.

What date did you say you got married on the application form? Did you keep a copy of the form that you sent?

sorry ppl!!!

yep nika nama is an islamic marriage certificate.

we gave them the original certificate in Urdu, called a "Mu’aqada Nika Nama, Khutbah Nikah", a "Zamanat Nama Halifah Bayan Nika Nama" which is like a guarantee that the marriage had taken place, an affidavit which basically states that we did get married, and also gave them the certificates that were translated into english.

i told them that i got married on 5th april. i have a copy of the application form which also states 5th april!! there was a section of the form that asked the applicant when he would like to travel to the uk, so we put down 14th may - so that we could travel together. maybe thats they got confused???

anyway, we have submitted the appeal to the BHC in islamabad. im incredibly worried that we've done the wrong thing. the advice we were getting from the family and friends and friends at the home office was that we should appeal - so we did, and in it we clarified exactly y we thought the visa should not have been refused.

this is so exhausting, and emotionally draining.