Getting a refund from the Border Agency...... concerning

Hi, I'm looking for any advice on this situation. Maybe someone has been through similar?

My wife recently applied for ILR and was successful. The bad news was we were badly advised & delayed by a paid consultant, and our initial online payment hadn't cleared in time.

An officer at the agency suggested making a duplicate payment on the day to get us through, and claiming for a refund later on. At a price of £1350 this wasn't an easy decision, but we decided to go ahead. I later wrote to the Charging Dept suppling all details, & requesting a refund.

It's now been some time and I have no idea where I stand. The Border Agency makes it so difficult to make contact and to get a response. There are no contact details for this on the website, and I took a while just to find out I should address the letter to the Charging Dept.

What should be my next move? Writing another letter to the same dept. could just as easily be ignored as the first letter. Perhaps they are just very very slow? But it's frustrating for such a large sum of money!

Any advice?

Hi,
I'm also waiting on a refund. I sent a letter to the Charging Support Team on 3rd May and have had no response. How long have you been waiting for a refund?
My situation is a little different. I applied for ILR and made the £900 payment online on the 5th April, I posted the documents on the 8th April believing the application date would be considered as the 5th. Due to the visa fee increasing to £972 on the 6th April my application was returned to me on the 30th April as invalid due to incorrect fee being paid. I spoke to UKBA and was told over the phone I was due a refund and to send a letter to

Charging Support Team
Lunar House
40 Wellesley Road
Croydon
CR9 2BY

If I don't hear from them soon I will make a complaint....

I sent my letter on the 1st May. I knew it might take time, but I at least expected some response to acknowledge my letter & let me know a time-scale. A simple email would have been good enough. We're talking about a lot of money.

As it stands I'm totally in the dark, and I don't even know if they received the letter.

Like you, if I don't hear sometime soon I will have to make a complaint I suppose. I don't want to upset them either though, because it could mean the difference between a refund or no refund possibly.

I know what you mean; it would be nice to get some sort of acknowledgement. I don't think making a complaint will result in you not getting a refund. I'm going to wait another week and then submit a complaint. The letter they sent me to say my application was invalid was dated the 20th April so it has been nearly a month.

If anyone has received a refund from the UKBA it would be helpful to know how long you had to wait and what action you took to get the refund?

jrj wrote:I know what you mean; it would be nice to get some sort of acknowledgement. I don't think making a complaint will result in you not getting a refund. I'm going to wait another week and then submit a complaint. The letter they sent me to say my application was invalid was dated the 20th April so it has been nearly a month.

If anyone has received a refund from the UKBA it would be helpful to know how long you had to wait and what action you took to get the refund?

I made an application in November 2010. They came back to me after their usual 14 weeks in February to tell that my application was invalid due to fee payment and that I was due a refund. I got a cheque from them after 10 days.

Darkman - have you received your refund yet? I'm still waiting for mine.

I've not had one word of response from the UKBA to date, apart from automated. They still have £1350 of my money.

It's reaching a point where I am wondering whether to contact the Citizens Advice Bureau and get info on what my rights are. It may come to getting a solicitor to write a letter for me.

I have made an online complaint the other week, and no response even to that.

I understand they must have a backlog, but this is unacceptable IMO.

It may come to getting a solicitor to write a letter for me.

It would be cheaper, indeed free, to get your MP to write that letter to UKBA.

I hadn't thought of that. Thank you.

Well I called the UKBA again to exhaust all avenue before getting more serious with them.

Beleive it or not the charging dept. does not have a telephone number! Or more likely they never ever give out the number to the public. But this means anyone who needs to contact them promptly has no chance.

The officer I spoke to advised me to send my lettter again by recorded mail this time. Of course I should have done that the first time, but naively I didn't expect the UKBA to deliberately lose any letters that the sender can't track. That's just my opinion of course. But I suspect with their backlog (and attitude) they simply cast aside any letters that can't be traced.

Anyway I re-sent my letter recorded delivery this time. The officer told me 4 weeks is the average time to get a response.

Others may have had wonderful experiences at the UKBA, but I am not one of them. I haven't even mentioned the way we were treated by our case officer when we went in. Our visa was successful, but I've not come across an individual as rude as her for many years. If anyone is interested, I'll elaborate on it.

Anyway, in the meantime they still hold my money.....

darkman, I think you are being very patient, far more patient than I would have been in your circumstances. That is, by now I would have sent them a Recorded Delivery letter giving them two weeks to make the repayment due to you, and in the absence of that repayment being made, that you will, without further notice, commence legal action against then in the Small Claims Court.

But you have already re-sent your letter so maybe wait until Monday week, that is Monday 27th June, and if still no response I suggest you send the letter mentioned above.

And if payment still not made within the 2 weeks you will mention, do indeed start proceedings in the Small Claims Court, a very easy online procedure, as per the Money Claim. No need to contact a solicitor for this easy matter.

Still no news from my end. I made a complaint via email on the 20th May and according to the website they're supposed to make contact within 20 working days, I haven't even received an automated reply. It is so frustrating! I've been trying to look at the UKBA document about refunds http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... chapter1a/
but it is being updated and isn't available, typical.
I'm going to contact my MP and get them to send a letter.
Thanks everyone for the updates and advice.

Well some progress here. After making an online complaint, I received a letter explaining they may have backlogs etc. It said my refund had been authorised, and I should hear from them within 20 days.

It's good to get news, though I would have preferred a letter with a cheque in it. So until I actually get the money, it isn't over.

jrj wrote:Still no news from my end. I made a complaint via email on the 20th May and according to the website they're supposed to make contact within 20 working days, I haven't even received an automated reply. It is so frustrating! I've been trying to look at the UKBA document about refunds http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... chapter1a/
but it is being updated and isn't available, typical.
I'm going to contact my MP and get them to send a letter.
Thanks everyone for the updates and advice.

Hi , Did you finally get your money back as my situation is exactly like yours. How much time did it take in total? Thank you

I haven't received my refund yet. I've re-sent my letter to the Charging Support Team and re-submitted my complaint - both have been ignored so far. I've asked my MP for help but have only had an automated email saying it could take 4 weeks to get a reply (that was 2 weeks ago). I paid via credit card and my bank has said they can refund the money if I fill out a declaration form which will be my next step if I keep getting nowhere. Still haven't received ILR yet either after re-applying at the beginning of May.

I received a letter today from the complaints team saying that according to their records a refund has been issued. The letter didn't say when or how the refund was issued I certainly haven't received a cheque. The card I used for payment isn't in my name so I haven't been able to find out yet if the money has been refunded to the card.
I received my ILR on Thursday so it was nice to get some good news from the UKBA!

I had a lady on the phone one day. She applied for ILR and was charged twice by the UK BA.

It took some 1.5 years for them to issue a refund, which came in the form of a cheque.

darkman wrote:Hi, I'm looking for any advice on this situation. Maybe someone has been through similar?

My wife recently applied for ILR and was successful. The bad news was we were badly advised & delayed by a paid consultant, and our initial online payment hadn't cleared in time.

An officer at the agency suggested making a duplicate payment on the day to get us through, and claiming for a refund later on. At a price of £1350 this wasn't an easy decision, but we decided to go ahead. I later wrote to the Charging Dept suppling all details, & requesting a refund.

It's now been some time and I have no idea where I stand. The Border Agency makes it so difficult to make contact and to get a response. There are no contact details for this on the website, and I took a while just to find out I should address the letter to the Charging Dept.

What should be my next move? Writing another letter to the same dept. could just as easily be ignored as the first letter. Perhaps they are just very very slow? But it's frustrating for such a large sum of money!

Any advice?

IMMIGRATION LAWYER wrote:I had a lady on the phone one day. She applied for ILR and was charged twice by the UK BA.

It took some 1.5 years for them to issue a refund, which came in the form of a cheque.

Well thank you for that post. You've helped me decide what to do.

I am going to make a case through the small claims court.

I've just completed the claim online. It was very simple.

We'll see what happens.

It took some 1.5 years for them to issue a refund, which came in the form of a cheque.

Why on earth was it allowed to drag on that long? I would say it is extremely reasonable, after say two or three months, for them to be sent a Recorded Delivery letter stating that if no refund within two weeks that legal proceedings in the Small Claims Court will be commenced without further notice .... and as necessary to carry out that threat.

Darkman - how are getting on with your claim?
I've finally received some good news. I've had an email from RBS Worldpay to say the £900 has been refunded back onto the credit card today!
So it has taken 3 months for this to happen, unbelievable.
Darkman and Elena_G I hope you get your refunds ASAP.
Thank you all for your replies - the only people that have helped me with this issue are strangers on the internet My MP has done nothing!

darkman wrote:Hi, I'm looking for any advice on this situation. Maybe someone has been through similar?
An officer at the agency suggested making a duplicate payment on the day to get us through, and claiming for a refund later on. At a price of £1350 this wasn't an easy decision, but we decided to go ahead. I later wrote to the Charging Dept suppling all details, & requesting a refund.

Any advice?

Don't understand why no one just didn't dispute the charge with their credit card company.

Well, I finally got a refund. It took a court case to do it, but we got there in the end. An email arrived simply saying a Worldpay refund has been made. It's not showing in my account yet, but will hopefully clear soon. So that's a victory, but one I shouldn't have had to go through in the first place.

The naughty bit is they didn't pay the court cost of £70. I'm in two minds now whether to pursue them for it or not. Any opinions?

The naughty bit is they didn't pay the court cost of £70. I'm in two minds now whether to pursue them for it or not. Any opinions?

Absolutely pursue them for those Court Costs.

Where are you at with the Court proceedings? Judgement has been granted in your favour? If so that judgement would be for an amount including the court costs. And now they have made a part-payment! So get the rest!

The online claim status is only issued, so they've sent the claim to them.

The only options I can select now online are archive it, request a judgement (if they've ignored me or admitted they owe me), or finally request a warrant.

I'm not sure what the next step should be. The UKBA has just sent an online refund to my card. No correspondence at all, email or letter.

Even if they refunded me without seeing the court claim, they still caused me to pay for the claim through their long delay.

What should I do next, contact the UKBA perhaps?