Filipino Wife's Settlement VISA Refused :(

[benjoyce]

Hello all.

My filipina wife's UK Settlement VISA was refused recently after a 5 month wait.

We failed on paragraph 281(v) of the Immigration Rules:

"the parties will be able to maintain themselves and any dependants adaquately without any recourse to public funds;"

The reasons they gave for this were that my bank account is overdrawn and was overdrawn for the 6 month period covered by the bank statements we provided.

As you can imagine we're devastated with the decision. At no time was it ever specified asa requirement that we would need to show credit in my bank account, nor was our financial situation taken in to consideration - that I earn over £50K/year and my wife has savings in excess of $75000, and that she would also remain employed by her family business and continue to receive a salary in the UK.

In hindsight we were very naive not to consider this and since investigating our options we've discovered that by my being overdrawn we didn't stand a chance of having the visa approved.

We have been advised to write a Letter of Consideration to appeal against the decision. We plan to pay off my overdraft and put the account into credit by £2-3000 and submit a bank statement to confirm this.

We are wondering if anyone has done this and had any success? We're skeptical as this course of action, a Letter of Reconsideration, was not mentioned in the official documentation that came with the Refusal, although this action was recommended to us by an adviser at http://www.uk-visa-appeal.co.uk/

We're also considering submitting an Appeal although the timescales and costs are somewhat off-putting. However, friends have told us about similar cases where the Appeal route did work for them and we should go ahead anyway (there's no initial cost so why not, right?)

It's been mentioned that Immigration often look for reasons to refuse a visa and an initial refusal in not uncommon. Again, any thoughts on this?

Our other option (and most likely to succeed) is to re-apply from scratch. With a "fixed" bank account we can not see any reason for the visa to be refused as we "passed" all the other checks.

I am in Manila for 2 weeks; we're going to the British Embassy today to see if they can advise us on anything - although we're not getting our hopes up.

Any advice or recommendations of legal services would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Ben & Liana Joyce

[bornatbirth]

how did you miss the part where you need some money in your bank account?,if your earning 50k a year how are you overdrawn on the statements you submitted.

with your earning im amazed you didnt get the visa,its best to show how much you earn and any saving you have and clear those debts!

[marlyn&kenny]

Hello all.

My filipina wife's UK Settlement VISA was refused recently after a 5 month wait.

We failed on paragraph 281(v) of the Immigration Rules:

"the parties will be able to maintain themselves and any dependants adaquately without any recourse to public funds;"

The reasons they gave for this were that my bank account is overdrawn and was overdrawn for the 6 month period covered by the bank statements we provided.

As you can imagine we're devastated with the decision. At no time was it ever specified asa requirement that we would need to show credit in my bank account, nor was our financial situation taken in to consideration - that I earn over £50K/year and my wife has savings in excess of $75000, and that she would also remain employed by her family business and continue to receive a salary in the UK.

In hindsight we were very naive not to consider this and since investigating our options we've discovered that by my being overdrawn we didn't stand a chance of having the visa approved.

We have been advised to write a Letter of Consideration to appeal against the decision. We plan to pay off my overdraft and put the account into credit by £2-3000 and submit a bank statement to confirm this.

We are wondering if anyone has done this and had any success? We're skeptical as this course of action, a Letter of Reconsideration, was not mentioned in the official documentation that came with the Refusal, although this action was recommended to us by an adviser at http://www.uk-visa-appeal.co.uk/

We're also considering submitting an Appeal although the timescales and costs are somewhat off-putting. However, friends have told us about similar cases where the Appeal route did work for them and we should go ahead anyway (there's no initial cost so why not, right?)

It's been mentioned that Immigration often look for reasons to refuse a visa and an initial refusal in not uncommon. Again, any thoughts on this?

Our other option (and most likely to succeed) is to re-apply from scratch. With a "fixed" bank account we can not see any reason for the visa to be refused as we "passed" all the other checks.

I am in Manila for 2 weeks; we're going to the British Embassy today to see if they can advise us on anything - although we're not getting our hopes up.

Any advice or recommendations of legal services would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Ben & Liana Joyce

I am up against the same judgement i think. I have a good job good pay, but my six months bank statements show me running into my agread overdraught a couple of times. This is because i used me savings to buy and sel cars. This money will be back in my account before i leave this october. What do you think guys ?? i think i wil get same judgement. Regards marlyn and kenny

[rusty]

As mentioned in other threads, the need of a clearly defined letter of support is vital to explain your individual situation.

In our case, I run my own company and my pay is made up from wages and dividens. If I had just submitted my pay slips, this would not have shown the true amount.

I explained all this in my letter of support and also I submitted 6 months of my company statements as well as my personal bank statements. I also included a letter from my accountants explaining the projected income.

[IainBusby]

Hi Ben,
Welcome to the forum. Although your earnings would make things look quite good for you on paper, the fact that your bank account is overdrawn would tend to lead the ECO to conclude that your living beyond your means when you don't have a wife to support, so on that basis they would probably assume that you would be unable to support your wife if she came to the UK.

I don't think that just paying off the overdraft and putting some cash in your bank account will work if you appeal or re-apply straight away. You need to wait six months and then submit six months of bank statements which show a healthy balance with money going into the account regularly.

Iain.

[sammy]

hi
If you earn £50,000+ a year and are allways dipping into your overdraft this is a bad sign for the ECO as sometimes it shows you are not wise with you accounts and the ECO is thinking how can you support your wife, where as if you are in the black every month, that is what they want to see. May i suggest you start again mabey with a small loan to put you in the black and show this each month as i did and had the repayments coming out out from another account which i did not show them.
Wishing you all the best with your decision
Sammy.

[benjoyce]

Hi guys.

I accidently submitted this post twice thinking the first didn't get through - the other thread is here: http://filipinaroses.com/showthread.php?t=18561

Thank you for the replies and advice. It's obvious that we were very naive to think that my financial status would not affect our application.

We're going to put the account into credit, show statements from another account with savings, and also re-emphasise that my wife has savings AND a monthly income from her company.

Fingers crossed this and a Letter of Reconsideration will get the ECO to reconsider.

Thanks again for your input.

Again, there is another thread covering this topic - it might be easier if we just use this one: http://filipinaroses.com/showthread.php?t=18561

[ginapeterb]

In the first instance, you were very ill advised, or even careless to submit and application for entry clearance with bank statements showing that your account is in the red, this is a no no when it comes to applications for visa's.

It is almost guaranteed, that bank statements showing you are in the red would lead to a refusal, and you will not find any support here at this forum for that one, its a red howler of a cock up.

And if you earn £50,000 a year as you have stated, how did you manage to be so much in the red, this as others have alluded to, clearly demonstrates that you are living beyond your means of income, and its not surprising that a refusal to issue was made.

Your only chance as I can now see it, apart from asking the Entry clearance manager to look at your case again, (providing you have information to submit that was not available when your wife's application was reviewed), if that is a negative decision, then you would likely win an appeal at the AIAT on appeal, when you can then show 6 months bank statements at the hearing showing that you can in fact support your wife without recourse to public funds.

For that, you would need a good immigration instructing solicitor, and the appearance of a barrister to sit at your appeal and do the talking for you.

Very often when the governments barrister turns up at the appeal, the barrister acting for you will talk to them, and find out what are the outstanding points standing in the way of issuing a visa.

If your barrister can satisfy the governments barrister, then you will find the hearing will be in your favor.

Suggest you seriously consider that.