Indian GF tourist Visa, for English boy?

[cosimo83]

hello,

my Indian girlfriend who i met whilst in Bombay has just been refused a tourist visa. i was sponsoring her. i work for a reputable British company, provided a pay slip, utility bill, 6 months of statements (last statement stated just £160 but i have an overdraft of 1000). i now have more money in my account. can anyone advise me to the next step, for example how long should we wait to reapply? she is an unemployed student in Bombay. i will change the cover letter, refer to the refusal letter, highlighting finances, and shorten her amount of time here. i had stated a month previously.

james

[Casa]

The crucial key to any successful visitor visa application is to submit very strong reasons for a return to the home country without overstaying. Did she provide evidence of home ties? An unemployed student is unlikely to convince the Entry Officer that she has any firm commitments in India. Generally the ECO will look for ties such as long term ongoing study, permanent employment, property ownership, or dependent family. Did you submit documented evidence of her studies?

[wpilr_nov12]

Remove yourself from the picture for a moment and work on what would she needed to have shown/included for a tourist visa. The GF BF angle would have hurt the application IMHO.

[cosimo83]

thank you for the response. no we didn't provide evidence of her study. the main issues were finance, me being the sponsor. i have asked my father to transfer 500 pounds into my account and i have recently been paid, so my savings account has a total 1,400. we will get a letter from her university in Mumbai stating her study and apply again a month from now. any issues that may arise? should we stager fathers money over the course of 2 months. what is wrong with these nazi home office lot? i just want a summer romance with a girl i met in Bombay

[Casa]

Unfortunately, the innocent are victims of the guilty who enter as a visitor and then overstay.

[noajthan]

... what is wrong with these nazi home office lot? i just want a summer romance with a girl i met in Bombay

There is no girlfriend/boyfriend type visa in UK immigration; nor under EU route.

Think about it, the whole world would use such a route if there was one.

[Wanderer]

Plus in general international relationships statistically don't last, just look at all the divorced/separated threads on the board, especially in the EU sub-forum.

So it makes sense to require people to show levels of commitment before chucking visas around.

[cosimo83]

i am not getting married to her. i just want to show her the UK. we met whilst in Bombay. only finances were mentioned in the refusal letter, so with the added 1000 pounds, which we will refer to in the refusal letter, then that should be enough?

[cosimo83]

also, would it matter, if we re-applied straight away, with the extra 1000 showing on my statement

[Casa]

You can apply whenever you want, but be aware although lack of evidence showing ties to your girlfriend's home country wasn't given as a reason in this refusal, another Entry Clearance Office may assess the next application differently.

[cosimo83]

last time she supplied property papers in the name of her father and a letter written by her father. she is studying distance learning at the University of Mumbai.

[Casa]

The ECO would only be interested in property ownership if it was the father applying for his own visitor visa. 'Distance study' may not be overly convincing of home ties but it's certainly worth including in the application.

[noajthan]

also, would it matter, if we re-applied straight away, with the extra 1000 showing on my statement

It's not about having money in UK and coming here; it's going to be more about the going back at the end of the trip.

[cosimo83]

right, even though finances were only brought up in the letter. till she gets a job i may as well forget it then. this country!

[secret.simon]

Think about it this way. She is, at the moment, only your girlfriend and only applying for a tourist visa. One of the moderators on this site had a 9 year struggle to get their spouse to this country.

Pretty much the only way to get family now into the UK is through the Surinder Singh route, which will be tightened if we stay in the EU and dropped altogether if we leave.