UK Standard Visitor visa refused for my dad

Hi everyone,

My dad's standard visitor visa has been refused recently for the reasons mentioned below. He is now about to submit a new visa application soon but struggling to understand few concerns ECO had in his last visa refusal.

 I am aware that you were previously refused entry clearance on 08/02/2017 under visa application number Abu Dhabi. I have considered your previous application in addition to the documents and information you have submitted in this, your current, application and in assessing your application in its entirety, I am not satisfied that you have met the Immigration Rules on this occasion.

 I recognise that family visits are important. I must consider the information regarding your sponsor’s support of your visit separately in my assessment of your application. To consider whether or not I am satisfied that your intentions are as stated and that you meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules I must assess your own personal and financial circumstances.

 You state that you are retired and supported by family remaining in your home country. Whilst you have provided a copy of your son’s bank statement I note that this statement does not demonstrate an income into this account. It is also unclear how many family members your son is currently supporting or his own personal circumstances. Whilst you have also provided a bank statement in your name it is unclear as to where the funds this account have originated from and how many people you are supporting from this account.

 I have considered the documents and information submitted in your application; and on the balance of probabilities I am not satisfied that you have accurately presented your circumstances or intentions in wishing to enter the United Kingdom. This undermines the credibility of your application to the extent that I am not satisfied that you are genuinely seeking entry as a visitor or intend to leave the UK at the end of your visit. Paragraph V 4.2 (a) (c) of the Immigration Rules.

The first objection is very confusing as it is not specific. As it says, my dad's first visitor visa was refused in 2017 for not providing sufficient documents regarding his self employment. However, my dad is retired now and this is not a tie to his home country anymore and he has stated this in his recent application, so it's irrelevant anymore. Therefore, I don't understand what ECO means in the first point about my dad's previous application and how has this concerned him this time?

In the second point, he talks about my dad's sponsor who is his daughter-in-law and my wife. From above it is very unclear what is the issue about it, he did not state any specific concern about the sponsor. So what could it mean?

In the third point, he mentions all concerns very clearly and specifically. Therefore, they can be easily dealt with.

Fourth point, again, a very confusing statement. He clearly mentioned his intentions to visit UK is to see his family in UK and newly born grand child so what could it mean by 'not accurately presented circumstances or intentions in wishing to enter the UK'.

Any help, guidance and advise from you guys would be greatly appreciated and will be hugely useful in his new visa application.

Thanks in advance.

Your father has been turned down twice now and I would say he is unlikely to get a visa if you re-apply now, so applying again is a waste of money IMHO. My thoughts would be go for a PAP, do it yourself. Email them and insist they explain what information exactly do you have to provide for them to give a visa to your father, since the summary provided tells you nothing that you can use to overcome their objection. Tell them you feel he is on auto refuse without any due consideration.

Ask just what is it they expect to see that would make them grant a visa, since there is no more information you can give, as there is no more information available, does that mean you are always going to deny the visa?

Hi mate,

I can imagine how disappointing this can be (when you want family to visit but they can't because of lack of clarity of visa rules); I went through similar timeline (refused once in 2018, applied again, refused again). As THO suggests, we went for PAP and managed to get the decisions overturned (you can take a look at my other posts which has more details on reasons for refusal and the response submitted).

The first point (ref old application) is relevant as when they refused visa in 2017, they would have given reasons. The letter also states that unless there is a change in circumstances, they won't grant the visa. The reason for looking back at the old application is to see why it was previously refused, and whether the new application now addresses these points. That is why when you re-apply, you would look to address old refusal points directly.

The second point is more of a 'we know family visits are important but we need to make sure we grant visa in line with rules, not just desires of application'. This is a fairly common preamble that I have seen in most refusal letters for visit visas (on this forum posted by other members).

As THO suggests, consider whether the reasons given for refusal were addressed in the application. If they were, PAP may be a better route as you can't provide any additional information in a fresh application. If they weren't (a mistake we made in first application), I'd suggest consider addressing them in a fresh application and resubmit. As an example, if you did provide details of your father's son's (yours/your brother's) employment details, but they ignored it, that is an oversight on their part and point out to it in PAP. But if you did not provide that information, include that in a fresh application.

Hope this helps and best of luck!