"Marriage is not subsisting" - How to defend something like this?

[farazk86]

Hi,

I am doing my PhD from Newcastle university since 2013. I got married in October 2016, I went back to Pakistan to get married and stayed till December and then came back to finish my PhD. While I was in the final stages of my PhD I could not bring my wife as I felt I would not be able to give her any time as I was in the university from morning till late night finishing my thesis.

From January 217 till September 2017 I made 2 visits to Pakistan to be with my wife. Recently I finished my thesis and submitted it. So naturally I was confident I can now enjoy my time with my partner. She recently applied for her dependent visa on 6th September and got a decision yesterday. She was refused entry to the UK.

I performed extensive research before applying in hopes of getting her accepted. The following documents were sent with the application.

• copy of recent bank statement (showing that I have adequate funds to sustain her)
• a copy of my passport and student visa (visa expiring March 2018)
• copy of my UK driving license.
• copy of my student ID card
• confirmation of enrollment letter from school office (stating that I am enrolled in PhD course from November 2013 till November 2017)
• Original and translated marriage certificate.
• Marriage photographs showing our marriage ceremony and function.
• marriage invitation card
• some pictures from our honeymoon and our other trips together.
• screenshots of our whatsapp chat from when we first started talking in May 2016.
• copy of tenancy agreement.
• invitation letter
• TB certificate

Below is the decision from the decision letter:

You have applied to join ____, who you state is your husband. I note a marriage certificate dated 27 October 2016, and text conversations covering a few months prior to the marriage (May – September 2016) have been provided. However, you have provided no other clear evidence of your relationship subsisting to the present date, or an intention to live together permanently with your sponsor. Furthermore, I note that you have stated you wish to travel on 23 October 2017, Mr ___ has been studying since late 2013 and is due to complete his course on 30 November 2017. I am not satisfied it is clear why this application has been submitted now.

I am not satisfied to the balance of probability that your claimed marriage is subsisting or that you and your sponsor intend to live with the other as their spouse or civil partner throughout your proposed stay in the UK. 319C (d)(e)

I have refused your visa application on this occasion because I am not satisfied that you meet all of the requirements of paragraph 319C of the Immigration Rules.

I have been allowed one administrative review.

I have some concerns with the decision. Firstly, it made no mention of the photographs I sent showing our marriage, our trips together, and the ECO even mentioned that nothing other than marriage certificate and chats were presented whereas we sent many pictures. Furthermore, the ECO stated that the chats provided were from May - September 2016, whereas I provided the chats from May 2016 - September 2017. He/She omitted an year of our conversations.
Is this normal for such info to be overlooked and not mentioned?

Also, ECO states that I am to finish my course in November 2017 and she is scheduled to visit in October 2017. I believe the ECO thinks that my wife joining me for a month is pointless. Which is a fair point if I was doing a Masters or any other taught course.

I argue that I am doing my PhD, the school letter stating that I am to finish by November is my thesis submission deadline. I am to submit my thesis by end of November, after which the external examiners read the thesis and then a viva exam is arranged by the university. Any PhD graduate is aware of this and knows that this takes about 3 to 4 months. So I will most probably be staying till February 2018. On this point I feel it is justified to want to have my wife join me for these 5 months.

Thank you for reading this far, and I appreciate your expert opinions in this matter. Do I have a chance for review? Will my points make any difference? Do my points even seem valid to anyone else other than me?

[farazk86]

can any mods here kindly comment on my case.

[kingkhann]

Hi,

I am doing my PhD from Newcastle university since 2013. I got married in October 2016, I went back to Pakistan to get married and stayed till December and then came back to finish my PhD. While I was in the final stages of my PhD I could not bring my wife as I felt I would not be able to give her any time as I was in the university from morning till late night finishing my thesis.

From January 217 till September 2017 I made 2 visits to Pakistan to be with my wife. Recently I finished my thesis and submitted it. So naturally I was confident I can now enjoy my time with my partner. She recently applied for her dependent visa on 6th September and got a decision yesterday. She was refused entry to the UK.

I performed extensive research before applying in hopes of getting her accepted. The following documents were sent with the application.

• copy of recent bank statement (showing that I have adequate funds to sustain her)
• a copy of my passport and student visa (visa expiring March 2018)
• copy of my UK driving license.
• copy of my student ID card
• confirmation of enrollment letter from school office (stating that I am enrolled in PhD course from November 2013 till November 2017)
• Original and translated marriage certificate.
• Marriage photographs showing our marriage ceremony and function.
• marriage invitation card
• some pictures from our honeymoon and our other trips together.
• screenshots of our whatsapp chat from when we first started talking in May 2016.
• copy of tenancy agreement.
• invitation letter
• TB certificate

Below is the decision from the decision letter:

You have applied to join ____, who you state is your husband. I note a marriage certificate dated 27 October 2016, and text conversations covering a few months prior to the marriage (May – September 2016) have been provided. However, you have provided no other clear evidence of your relationship subsisting to the present date, or an intention to live together permanently with your sponsor. Furthermore, I note that you have stated you wish to travel on 23 October 2017, Mr ___ has been studying since late 2013 and is due to complete his course on 30 November 2017. I am not satisfied it is clear why this application has been submitted now.

I am not satisfied to the balance of probability that your claimed marriage is subsisting or that you and your sponsor intend to live with the other as their spouse or civil partner throughout your proposed stay in the UK. 319C (d)(e)

I have refused your visa application on this occasion because I am not satisfied that you meet all of the requirements of paragraph 319C of the Immigration Rules.

I have been allowed one administrative review.

I have some concerns with the decision. Firstly, it made no mention of the photographs I sent showing our marriage, our trips together, and the ECO even mentioned that nothing other than marriage certificate and chats were presented whereas we sent many pictures. Furthermore, the ECO stated that the chats provided were from May - September 2016, whereas I provided the chats from May 2016 - September 2017. He/She omitted an year of our conversations.
Is this normal for such info to be overlooked and not mentioned?

Also, ECO states that I am to finish my course in November 2017 and she is scheduled to visit in October 2017. I believe the ECO thinks that my wife joining me for a month is pointless. Which is a fair point if I was doing a Masters or any other taught course.

I argue that I am doing my PhD, the school letter stating that I am to finish by November is my thesis submission deadline. I am to submit my thesis by end of November, after which the external examiners read the thesis and then a viva exam is arranged by the university. Any PhD graduate is aware of this and knows that this takes about 3 to 4 months. So I will most probably be staying till February 2018. On this point I feel it is justified to want to have my wife join me for these 5 months.

Thank you for reading this far, and I appreciate your expert opinions in this matter. Do I have a chance for review? Will my points make any difference? Do my points even seem valid to anyone else other than me?

last week dependent visa from Islamabad was refused more or less of same reason, tough they have provided marraige certificate, marraige pic etc infact all evidence.

after refusal, they went for Admin. Review and they got successful decision within on week.

I would advice to go for admin review but through consultant.

[keysersoze22]

IMO while you'd meet the rules, this smacks of an assessment on the fact that your Tier 4 Visa expires in March 2017 with the CAS end date of November 2017. They seem concerned as to why she is coming to the UK now, which is the underlying issue..

[farazk86]

Thanks for the responses guys.

As mentioned in my first post, I was too busy focusing on my PhD and would spend all day in the university. So I did prefer not to call her and let her stay home while I finish my write up.

As for why apply for this visa and not visitor visa.?

I would be offered a job when I finish my PhD and thus would be sponsored by my university for a Tier 2 visa. (I have already been offered and would start in December). Then in that case my wife would be able to change her visa status while in UK as opposed to visitor visa where she would have to go back and then apply from there.

Also my PhD viva would not be before Feb 2018 and I want my wife to be with me during this time.

Do I have grounds for administrative review?

[kingkhann]

Go for Admin Review, Insh'Allah you will get. Too many Dependent visa refusal for illogical reason and they got successful AR. I would rekon go for AR.

[sah10406]

Why not wait until you have Tier 2 leave, and then she can apply again on that basis? You will still need better evidence of the ongoing relationship given that you have lived apart for years, but their concerns about the timing of the application would not come up.

[farazk86]

My wife's visa application got refused based on immigration rules 319C(d) and (e), which are:

(d) The marriage or civil partnership, or relationship similar to marriage or civil partnership, must be subsisting at the time the application is made.
(e) The applicant and the Relevant Points Based System Migrant must intend to live with the other as their spouse or civil partner, unmarried or same-sex partner throughout the applicants stay in the UK.

With the original application I provided the marriage certificate, our whatsapp chat transcripts covering one and a half year of chats, and photos of our marriage and trips/honey moon.

In the decision letter the ECO did not mention the photos and only mentioned the chats of 6 months.

So my question dear members is, how do you prove to the ECO that I actually do intend to live with my wife forever and that our marriage is subsisting. Does anyone have any experience with this?

I will start the review application soon and was looking for some guidance.