UKBA refunded money for Sponsorship License Application,HELP

[talktonight]

My company applied for Sponsorship License around 2.5 weeks ago
They've sent all documents by next day recorded delivery and made sure UKBA received it. They paid for application via UKBA's web site, using credit card. Payment of £515 was successful.

Yesterday they received an email from WorldPay, informing that they've received a refund of £515 from UKBA.

Does anybody have ideas what this could mean?

As far as I'm aware, even if UKBA refuses application, the fee is not refundable.

Any help would be highly appreciated!

[Jeeves]

Sounds like the case has been rejected. The typical reason is that a mandatory document was not received by UKBA. They write out and ask for more if a non-mandatory document is missing but reject and return everything where a mandatory document hasn't been provided.

Ask the employer to call 0300 123 4699 and ask what the reason is.

[talktonight]

Sounds like the case has been rejected. The typical reason is that a mandatory document was not received by UKBA. They write out and ask for more if a non-mandatory document is missing but reject and return everything where a mandatory document hasn't been provided.

Ask the employer to call 0300 123 4699 and ask what the reason is.

Thanks for the tip, will do that!

Today we received a letter from them confirming the refund, but no other information whatsoever! Is this normal - to refuse the application and provide no details why...?! Also, what about all the original documents company sent them? They need it back in order to reapply.

[The Station Agent]

In my experience the sponsor company HAS received email notification of the refusal, but it's gone into the spam filter and/or been deleted. It will be a problem with one or more of the documents. They love refusing apps on the support docs - it's a default position.

[iworker]

they dont refund the fee in case of refusing an appliocation to become a sponsor.
Hence IMO, it is the case of UKBA not recieving the doc sent.

[talktonight]

My company finally received reply from UKBA, as well as all original documents they sent when applying.

UKBA is saying that application was refused because they failed to submit mandatory document, which in the case of my company was food certificate. The problem is that my company does not deal with food at all, therefore hasn't got any food certificates whatsoever. It's a hotel, but no food is served in premises.

I instantly thought that my company should've made this application as Limited Company (Group 5) and not a Hotel (Group 8 ), because it looks like UKBA required food certificates from all hotels by default.

Does anybody know can Ltd company who runs few hotels apply for sponsorship license as Ltd company (Group 5), not as hotel (Group 8 )?

[iworker]

they defo can
this is what they should have applied in the first case.