Have Right of Abode but just want to enter UK on visit visa

[debsking]

Hi, apologies if this issue the wrong board.

My problem is a bit different. I am English. My husband is Indonesian. I have 3 kids who are Indonesian but automatically have the Right of Abode because there mother is English. We live in Indonesia and at this point have no plans to live in the UK. I want to bring my 3 kids back for a holiday for 3 weeks only. I've applied for a visit visa which is £64 each. They have refused it on the grounds that my kids automatically have the ROA. They said I need to reapply for Certificate of Entitlement to put in their passports. The problem is this is very expensive, about £350. Times that by 3 for my 3 kids it makes visiting England very expensive. Indonesian passports only last 5 years and you have to reapply for the COE everytime you get a new passport.

My kids only have 2 years left on their present passports and we have no immediate plans to come back for a second holiday either, so I don't understand why they just won't give me a visit visa. Has anyone had experience CV with this? Is it indeed true that if you have the right of Abode you cannot apply for a visitor's visa to the UK.

Thank you in advance.

[zimba]

Because people with Right Of Abode are not subject to immigration control. So they cannot be issued a visa which makes them subject to such controls. You may choose to apply for British passport for them that might take a while but will be cheaper

[debsking]

Thanks. The problem is Indonesia doesn't allow dual nationality. And if this is the case why in the past have they given visit visa to my kids. Also friends in the same position as me last year got visitor visas. Is at the discretion of the officer processing the visa I wonder? It's a ridiculous situation as I have no need if the COE. We just want to come back for a 3 week visit. This situation makes it extremely expensive for me to come back. It would actually be cheaper for me to get a visa to elsewhere in Europe than take my kids back England. . It's such a crazy situation. And all this has happened 3 weeks before my flight they are asking me to reapply.

[debsking]

Update. Just spoken to someone in the home office in the UK and he says what I have been told is wrong. That my kids can enter on UK on a visit visa and that the UK embassy in Manilla is wrong. I do not have to apply for COA if I'm not intending on staying. O ly a visit visa if I want to visit.