HELP - Child Settlement Visa Refused - To Appeal or Re-Apply ??

[mpat]

Hi,

I hope if you can provide us some insight here, despite the fact that I am not of Philipinnes origin :)

The situation is as follows:

Parent: British Citizen, has a child from first marriage. The child has always lived in India, since her birth, with her grandparents. The parent has been visiting, calling and financially helping the full upbringing of her child. The parent even has UK 'Residence Order'.

Applicant: 6 year old child (daughter), who is an Indian Citizen. She is being cared for by her grandparents.

Application: In October 2013, an application was made by the daughter to apply for Entry-Clearance to UK.
ECO Decision : Last week, the ECO refused the entry-clearance, stating that the Parent/Sponsor doesn't meet the required £18,600 'Finance Requirement'.

We think that the ECO has applied wrong rule; the generic rule where £18,600 needs to be proven in case of Spouses, etc. Rule 297 (which I believe this application falls under) doesn't mention anything about £18,600 financial requirement. Only 'adequate accomodation' needs to be proven and we had already submitted relevant documents for that. We are extremely frustrated because of this.

(1) We have been consistently told my various people/forums/lawyers that the appeal route would favour us but it WILL take anytime between 3 months to 9 months.

We are NOT prepared to wait that long. We need to bring over the daughter asap, since the grandparents' health is rapidly deteriorating. We need to assess whether to APPEAL or RE-APPLY with stronger documents to nullify the refusal-reasons. So, we are leaning towards Re-application because its much quicker and we are willing to supply extra documentation towards financial requirements (despite us thinking that it's wrong rule).

** What is your advice in this matter? Appeal or Re-Apply?

(2) The parent can still not satisfy £18,600 income rule. but to mitigate the risk of the ECO refusing the Re-Applicaton (again), on the basis of finances....
** do you think that adding a second Sponsor (The Stepfather) will help?
** Is co-sponsor/joint-sponsorship allowed in such cases?

Help appreciated.
Kind Regards
Mpat

[Terpe]

Hi Mpat,

Based solely on what you've divulged and also that I haven't misunderstood anything I don't see any basis for an appeal route.
The application made was under the Immigration Rules that demand a financial requirement to be met by a person applying for UK entry clearance as the Non-EEA national partner or dependent child of a person who is a British Citizen or who is present and settled in the UK.

No third party sponsors are allowed.

As the parent is British Citizen what are the reasons that the daughter has not been registered as British Citizen?
She would then not be subject to Immigration Rules.

Are you the father?
Where are you currently located?
Which application form did you use? and why?
Where is the mother?

Given there is a UK Residence Order why has the child spent her whole life in India?

[mpat]

Now that is news to us. And certainly a disheartening one :(
Are you sure? Please have a look at the Page 26 of this document (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/279716/Immigration_Rules_-_Part_8.pdf), states that "..will be accommodated adequately by the parents..".

If you still think that the immigration rules ask us to fulfil the Financial requirement, Can you please point me out to that exact Immigration rule? I would be grateful.

To answer your question:

At the time of the birth of daughter, the parent was Indian citizen having an ILR in UK. Hence, the daughter, I believe doesn't automatically become a British citizen by Descent. I wish I was wrong here!

To answer the rest of your questions :

I am the Step-Father. Child's father (my wife's ex-husband) has never been on the scene, right from day 1. No contact whatsover. This fact actually formed the basis of getting the 'Residence Order' from UK Courts.

I am the Step-father. I, along with the Child's mother (my wife), are currently in UK. Both of us are British Citizens.
The Visa Centre in India asked us to use VAF4A. We did not have any choice and infact, did not know about any immigration rules in Oct 2013. Is there any other form in this situation?? I would be happy if there is.

Child's Mother (my wife) is a British Citizen. Currently in UK.

[mpat]

Question: Given there is a UK Residence Order why has the child spent her whole life in India?

Answer :

(1) At first the child could not be brought here straight away because we needed her passport. There were issues in getting the child's first passport in India. The Indian system is very complicated and bureaucratic, when it comes to a British Solo Parent applying for a child's passport. We only got the child's Indian passport in September 2013 and straightaway applied for UK Visa in October 2013.

(2) Secondly, we knew that the UK Visa rules will definitely demand a 'sole responsibility' and for that a UK Residence Order was needed. This was only achieved 18 months ago.

[mpat]

Where are my manners...I got too indulged in answering your queries! Apologies.

Thanks for looking in to this. Much appreciated :)

[Terpe]

Your circumstances demand the considered opinion of an immigration advisor with experience in similar caselaw.

There are too many issues unresolved issues.

[mpat]

Yes, you are right. It seems to be a rare, if not unusual, case.

Thank you very much for your insight.

And please keep up the good work. You give hopes to humanity and that is an admirable quality :)

I just wished if the laws were not this ambiguous and the ECOs started to give some empathy (in such cases) then we would all have been happy!

Kind Regards