the refusal of my visa

[dess29]

hi,

its so sad to post here about the refusal of my fiancee visa, i never thought that i will receive a refusal.. the ECO refuse my visa to the grounds of

* my fiancee and meet only for 8 days.

ans.. we stated there that we meet at the month of april and he came to visit me on june and he stay here for 8 days and we are together at the hotel on the time period that hes here..

* not satisfied about the picture that we sent as an evidence and stated that theres someone following on me and my fiance to take a picture of him and me..

ans. my fiancee and i take a snap shot picture on skype everytime we talk, i send that pic. as an evidence of us that we in contact every day..

*the ECO stated the considerable age gap of me and my fiancee.

ans. my fiancee is 54 and im 30 .. i just wonder what the exact age of our future husband will be? is there really an age limit of loving somone?

*my work is not qualified in uk.


ans.. my work now is a food cart service crew.. is it still a reason why he refuse my visa? i will go to uk to get married not for employment, and i applied a fiancee visa not working visa..

they didnt give me an apointment for them to interview me.. so that i can explain to him those reasons that he is not satisfied.. they send me an form an appeal.. is it a point basis that the eco refuse my visa?:(

[RickyR]

It looks fairly straight forward, they essentially aren't convinced about the strength of your relationship based on the information you provided. There is a lot of information on the Border Agency website which can advise you what you should send in, and you could submit this evidence in an appeal. Without wanting to seem rude, and whilst I understand the whole visa procedure is quite complicated, it seems you haven't really prepared fully for this and I think both you and your fiance need to spend some more time getting together the right information and going through the guidance on the border agency website.
Essentially, they have to make a decision based on the information you have provided. Try to flip the coin, and think if you'd been handed the information given and had to decide whether to issue the visa based on the evidence, would you have issued it to yourself?

Don't worry too much about your employment situation, unless it is absolutely necessary that you work in the UK for financial purposes. You can however explain that you'll complete the relevent food hygiene qualifications on arrival in the UK (though in fact you can do these online as well for a fairly low cost).

I wish you all the best, and I recommend you go through the evidence again with your fiance and decide what documents you need to submit. If you have a genuine strong relationship, this will show through in a good set of evidence and you'll have no problems in applying again or an appeal.

[Arthur Little]

Hi, Dess ... and a belated from me.

to read that your visa was refused - albeit cannot say I'm unduly surprised about the reasons given - and, like Ricky, would suggest more preparation is needed.

Goodluck.

[lastlid]

WOW. I read with interest as our circumstances were not so disimilar.

Our age gap is larger. 57 and 24.

We met in person twice. First time for about 8 days and second time for just over 2 weeks in the Philippines.

When we applied we were both worried about the age gap, worried that the ECO might think it was a sham application. However we were not refused....our application was successful. Hence my surprise at your result. We did submit about 50 photos of the two of us spread over the 2 meetings at different locations and in different attire, with some with my wife's family and a good range of yahoo chat logs along with a good accompanying letter detailing our relationship history.

Maybe the fact that we met twice helped tip the balance in our favour?

One last thing.....we married during my second trip to Phils and therefore applied for a Spouse Visa. Some say that this helps under such circumstances......

I imagine one or two of the experts on here will be able to advise you more specifically......and maybe on the possibility of applying for what is known as "reconsideraton", which appears to be a whole lot quicker than an appeal.

Good luck.

[grahamw48]

The age gap should be irrelevant !

(It had better be. My g/f is only 26 ! )

That is blatant discrimination, and 'ageism'....one 'ism' I'm fully in favour of.

Other parts of the submission may indeed have been weak though.

I can't see what employment has to do with anything either, other than their possible suspicion that you're PRINCIPALLY coming here for employment purposes. ie 'economic advantage'.

I only wish they were as zealous about pursuing the 100s of 1000s of REAL wasters already hiding out in our country.

[Marie]

maybe you did not supplied or your evidence is not that convincing to the ECO...try to make it detailed......I don't think meeting just once is a ground for refusal ...it maybe once but you already know each other for a year or two before you enter in a relationship........hopefully your appeal will granted and be with your partner soon.....

[joebloggs]

you first chatted in April , he came in June to see you for 8 days, when did he propose to you ?
did you not supply photos of you both together ? other evidence such as emails, chat logs, letters, receipts for plane, hotel etc ?

the age difference should not come into it.

Applicants/Sponsors with a large difference in ages The rules do not state that the applicant and sponsor must be within a certain age differential, but if there is a disproportionate age difference (for example, more than 25 - 30 years), additional care needs to be taken.

[rusty]

Each of these reasons alone should not be an issue if the rest of your application is well prepared, but it seems there are too many issues that the ECO did not believe the relationship is genuine.

As has been said the age difference should not be a factor if the rest of the evidence is up to the standards they require.

I think Tony only met once, but took the time to present a good application and it was successful.

[toging]

hi dess and welcome to the forum....im pretty sure "age gap" is not an issue anymore now adays...take it from my own experience im 34 and my hub is 63...as reliable members told u it might be something about the genuinity of the relationship that they are looking for,its not that ur relationship is not genuine but u need to

[toging]

CONVINCE them by giving an endless supporting documents......

[Terpe]

Des29,

I'm sorry to hear of your visa refusal.
It's always sad and frustrating whenever that happens.

Without seeing the actual wording used in the refusal letter it's difficult to really understand the context of the major objections.

Certainly age gap is not a reason for refusal, and I would doubt that the ECO has actually clearly stated that it is.
Also any reference to your qualification for specific employment in UK is not a reason for refusal.

Sorry if I'm wrong but I have the sense that the ECO just did not have sufficient evidence presented to him with your application to grant a visa according to the rules.
I would suggest that your application was very weak in all areas concerned with 'genuine relationship'.
I think the ECO has pulled together a number of issues that when generally put together in the 'jigsaw picture' just don't portray a believeable genuine relationship.
It looks like the ECO has put his version of the story together using all sorts of dubious reasons.

You really must submit enough hard evidence to convince the ECO that:-

- You have met each other as a couple. A relationship that has developed over the Internet would not satisfy the 'to have met' requirement unless the relationship included a personal face-to-face meeting between the couple concerned. Evidence of a face-to-face meeting might include a travel history (passport stamps, boarding passes etc.), Photo's of you both together as a couple, e-mails, Chat logs and Text messages showing that you had met.
Although there is no requirement that two people must spend a specific amount of time together in person, it is reasonable to expect that the ECO may be skeptical of couples with only a very minimal face-to-face history prior to application.

- A marriage in the UK will take place within a reasonable time (usually 6 months)
The law relating to marriage in England and Wales does not allow for any arrangements to be made with a Registrar until the foreign national has arrived in the UK. Of itself, a booking at a Register Office or church is not proof that a marriage will take place.
However the ECO can reasonably expect the couple to have made some tentative plans for the wedding. Any evidence at all, however small, that's available to show that wedding arrangements are in hand will help in this respect.
Think about including any facebook messages, e-mails or texts that specifically refer to wedding plans.

- You intend to live together permanently after you have married.
Again think about all the evidence you might have (details of future plans, facebook messages, e-mails and texts etc)

- If the applicant and sponsor have been separated for a lengthy period of time before the application is submitted (i.e., longer than 3 or 4 months), then evidence of 'intervening devotion' should be included. This would normally take the form of phone records or other forms of communication.
When submitting email, chats, IM logs, it is important to keep in mind that intervening devotion means "evidence of contact" and not a complete transcript of each and every chat. Examples are enough.

If you believe you can counter the points raised by the ECO then I would strongly suggest you immediately send a letter for review/reconsideration by the ECM

Without some convincing and significant additional evidence, I would personally not give too much hope for a positive appeal result.
As always, it's your personal choice. I believe there is now a requirement for payment in appeal

Finally Des, having been previously refused a visa does not prevent you from making any further applications unless you have incurred a ban for UK entry.
Each application is reviewed on its own merits and on the supporting evidence supplied

It's always a benefit to have your fiance write a good letter to the Embassy supporting your application, and outlining how long you have been together and important events and meetings between yourselves.
You may also briefly outline the start of the relationship, how it developed, the times you met face-to-face, some things you did together, your feelings for each other, why you want to marry, plans for the future and where you will live and how you will support yourselves.
Keep it simple and above all be honest about everything.

It would certainly strengthen the application if it's all possible to include a supporting letter from the sponsoring fiance(e)s family saying that they support the future marriage and that they are looking forward to meeting and welcoming you into the family. Nothing complicated.

Whatever route you choose I wish you good luck.

[lastlid]

Des29,

It's always a benefit to have your fiance write a good letter to the Embassy supporting your application, and outlining how long you have been together and important events and meetings between yourselves.
You may also briefly outline the start of the relationship, how it developed, the times you met face-to-face, some things you did together, your feelings for each other, why you want to marry, plans for the future and where you will live and how you will support yourselves.
Keep it simple and above all be honest about everything.

We did this Des, and I think it worked well for us. I signed it and my wife signed it. It was about a page and a bit in length of A4....

[dess29]

i know that the ECO just doing his job, but maybe to be fair for me, if they dont really satisfied about my documents maybe they send me for an interview so i can explain it to them.. well i cant do anything about the refusal now because its done already, now my fiancee and i is applying for an appeal in his country and were providing all the evidence that the ECO stated about he is not satisfied on some documents... i wish that our appeal will be granted.. if ever, i will post here again if my visa is succesful already.. THANK YOU SO MUCH guys for the help in this site... MERRY CHRISTMAS
TO ALL..

[grahamw48]

Merry Christmas to you too, and good luck with the visa.

[Terpe]

Des,
Based on the refusal information you mentioned, I just feel that you have a good chance of winning with your appeal.
You must focus on proving your relationship is genuine and durable and that you have every intention to get married and live together.

[malchard888]

Well me and my fiancée have a large age difference too, 61 and 34 but we did supply reams of paper showing how much contact we have had since our original internet meeting in January, our actual meeting in singapore in september for 2 weeks and then our application soon after was successful after a tedious one month wait.
Like others here have suggested, maybe your accompanying paperwork was insufficient for the ECO to satisfy him/herself of the genuiness of the relationship so it maybe best to reassess what evidence u can provide and pad it out as much as u can as u can never provide too much information
but too little can have a detrimental affect on the view the ECO will take.
Dont forget also that your fiance must provide suitable evidence that he can support you and that you have somewhere to live here in the UK, however your career prospects should be completely irrelevant should they reconsider their decision.
Good luck to u both and keep us all informed of what u are doing.
Malcolm and Loida

[malditako]

sometimes picture of being together itself isn't enough...it should show emotions as well to be very convincing. Try to make a personal letter that speaks your heart how u feel about your man. That would help . Good luck to u both :

[lastlid]

sometimes picture of being together itself isn't enough...it should show emotions as well to be very convincing. Try to make a personal letter that speaks your heart how u feel about your man. That would help . Good luck to u both :

Yes. By the time I had finished my Sponsors letter I felt that I had done such a good job that the ECO would be in tears and wondered if I ought to send in a box of tissues with our Spouse visa application... Having said that, it was all true......