Join family visa appeal

[Aysha2018]

Hello, my husband's join spouse of irish citizen visa was refused last week and we are entitled to an appeal. One reason was as follows:

Information available to the visa officer concerning your UK immigration history, along with your personal, economic and family circumstances, has diminished the overall credibility of your application. As such, the visa officer is not satisfied you will observe the conditions of any visa granted, with particular regard to the maintenance of the common travel area.

I was hoping for further explanation in the refusal letter but it's just the same as the online refusal. Can anyone tell me how to go about appealing this.

Thank you.

[max307]

Hello, my husband's join spouse of irish citizen visa was refused last week and we are entitled to an appeal. One reason was as follows:

Information available to the visa officer concerning your UK immigration history, along with your personal, economic and family circumstances, has diminished the overall credibility of your application. As such, the visa officer is not satisfied you will observe the conditions of any visa granted, with particular regard to the maintenance of the common travel area.

I was hoping for further explanation in the refusal letter but it's just the same as the online refusal. Can anyone tell me how to go about appealing this.

Thank you.

Basically they suspect that your spouse will use Ireland as a back door into the UK given his previous immigration history there and the fact that Ireland and the UK are in the Common Travel Area (CTA).

Did you disclose his immigration history in the UK including any issues (overstays, entry denials, deportations, etc.)? It looks like they had concerns with the documents provided regarding economic and family circumstances as well.

If you give us more details we should be able to provide better advise.

[Aysha2018]

He came to the UK on as a dependant on his sister, they both came to Ireland two years ago. She went back to the UK and he stayed here and worked. He is finding out more about this from his sister for the appeal. He left Ireland before his visa expired at the beginning of the year. His sister and other family members are still living in the UK but he has no intention of trying to use Ireland as a way back into the UK. We want to live here in Ireland as I have children and don't want to leave my country, our relationship history was accepted in our application without question.

[2pac4ever]

the big question here is whether you've disclosed your previous immigration history to the Irish authorities. If you had an issue in the UK then will be aware of that. Any attempt to hide anything will come back to haunt you. As I said in other threads, when applying for any Irish visa, it is always good to read the weekly published decisions on the INIS website.

[max307]

He came to the UK on as a dependant on his sister, they both came to Ireland two years ago. She went back to the UK and he stayed here and worked. He is finding out more about this from his sister for the appeal. He left Ireland before his visa expired at the beginning of the year. His sister and other family members are still living in the UK but he has no intention of trying to use Ireland as a way back into the UK. We want to live here in Ireland as I have children and don't want to leave my country, our relationship history was accepted in our application without question.

Apologies for my bluntness but regardless of the intention that's the way they see it.

So he had a Stamp 4 EU FAM visa in Ireland on the basis of a permitted family member of a EU citizen? Was his Stamp 4 EU FAM visa granted for 5 years or less than that?

[Aysha2018]

It turns out he didn't declare any of his Uk immigration in the application because they didn't ask specifically for it, so that was definitely a big mistake. He was definitely not hiding anything from the Irish authorities it just didn't occur to him to add any UK immigration documentation to our file unfortunately. Putting together the application is very overwhelming and I think we were more concerned with proving our relationship is guinene.

I am not sure what visa he had, he just said he came to the UK as a dependant on his sister in 2010 and came to Ireland in 2015 and left Ireland January 2018.

[2pac4ever]

It turns out he didn't declare any of his Uk immigration in the application because they didn't ask specifically for it, so that was definitely a big mistake. He was definitely not hiding anything from the Irish authorities it just didn't occur to him to add any UK immigration documentation to our file unfortunately. Putting together the application is very overwhelming and I think we were more concerned with proving our relationship is guinene.

I am not sure what visa he had, he just said he came to the UK as a dependant on his sister in 2010 and came to Ireland in 2015 and left Ireland January 2018.

I don’t think that you need to explicitly disclose all your UK immigration as part of your Irish visa application. BUT you should be aware that any violation of your UK visa will be made available to Irish authorities. I even think that when applying for a UK or Irish visa the other party clearly will have a say on that. This is a little bit like the Schengen visa.

Going back to this case, it’s obvious to me that your partner may have breached the conditions of his UK visa and that’s what raised the eyebrows of the Irish authorities I guess. You’re absolutely right to focus on proving that your relationship is genuine.

Appealing or applying again will depend on the severity of the breach of his UK visa. But which way you go, I will suggest that you clearly mention that in your application and provide convincing reasons why it has been mitigated.

[max307]

It turns out he didn't declare any of his Uk immigration in the application because they didn't ask specifically for it, so that was definitely a big mistake. He was definitely not hiding anything from the Irish authorities it just didn't occur to him to add any UK immigration documentation to our file unfortunately. Putting together the application is very overwhelming and I think we were more concerned with proving our relationship is guinene.

I am not sure what visa he had, he just said he came to the UK as a dependant on his sister in 2010 and came to Ireland in 2015 and left Ireland January 2018.

The appeals process is a tough one to win, the chances that their decision will be reversed are very unlikely in my opinion. The fact that he didn't disclose his UK immigration history is a big red flag for Irish authorities. The good thing here is that you know exactly what aspects they had issues with so if you decide to apply again I would make sure to address those points and prepare a strong application with no inconsistencies.

He should be able to tell you from his passport(s) what visa type he had in the UK, if he overstayed, what visa he used to enter Ireland, what visa he had in Ireland, was he allowed to work, did he overstay, etc. All those details are very very important and if I was a visa officer the expectation would be that a genuine applicant will be able to answer those questions without hesitation.