Visit Visa Refused. ECO made mistakes! Help!!

[Hoggi]

I am a british citizen and brought my wife over on a spouse visa on July 2016. It has been 12 months since she has arrived and we deicded to try and get a 6 month visit visa for her dad to come over.

Her dad is a well respected wealthy business man in Erbil, Iraq.

As I already been through a visa process I know how thourough you need to be with documents.

But unfortunately the ECO refused the visa on grounds that they genuinely did not believe her dad will leave the UK.

In the cover letter and invitation letter, we stated that he will be staying with me and my wife at my mothers house. This was clearly stated, we even provided the title deeds of the house in London with my mothers name on it. Yet the ECO wrote "You did not confirm if (my mothers name) is your daughter". How did he even suspect if she was his daughter when she shares the same surname as me and we stated she was my mother. The ECO also said "you did not provide the evidence of how you funded to buy the house in London" ...... but this is not his house. Why does he think its his?

We included bank statements and did it for the past 6 months as I read this is suffice, it was in dollars and in a turkish bank which has a branch in Erbil, Iraq. The bank statement clearly stated it was an Erbil branch with the address printed at the top yet the ECO wrote "I note you have a bank account in dollars in Turkey, you did not explain the nature of your business and how you make deposits in a different country" wtf? The ECO also said "this account looks like it has been in existence since January 2016" but we only included the past 6 months... he has had the account for 5 years! But this was a document I didnt provide to prove this.

My father in law had sold some real estate in April which we mentioned in his cover letter, he deposited the amount into his bank account. We included the sale agreement in the application ans mentioned we included this in the cover letter yet the ECO said "On 24/4/17 you deposited X amount, which might be the savings you claim to have but you have no stated the origins of these funds, therefore I am not satisfied you have sole use for this to fund your trip"


What can I do in a situation like this? Was the ECO that dumb?

[Obie]

Unfortunately this has been the situation since appeal rights were withdrawn.

It sometimes help to seek a reconsideration through the Pre- action protocol system.

I have sought 10 reconsideration 2 came successful in 8 the officer maintained decision, upon addressing the issues and showing them the response from the ECM and addressing the point raised, the visa was granted . 3 was refused and another 3 flew to another country and did not have intention of reapplying.

So even based on my experience there is a 20% possibility of getting a successful outcome, it may be worth it, for you to wrote them and express your displeasure.

The more people that challenge, the better the prospect of changes coming about, as they realise that people will fight back.

Other option is reapplying, bit in your case, it is hard to see the basis of the refusal.