Hi Everyone
Just to update you on this saga and get some feedback if possible.
Well we submitted a letter of reconsideration to the Embassy and received an email reply saying that this had been passed to the ECM.
The email also stated that this should take the form of an appeal in accordance with the appeal procedure. We immediately submitted the appeal to the Embassy returning all the original documents to them. I must add that the appeal forms we had indicated that the appeal could either be submitted to HMCTS in the UK or to the Embassy who had refused the application. On the basis of this we tried to speed things up by submitting it to the Embassy which with hindsight was a big mistake. A few days later they sent another email saying that we could not submit the appeal to them and had to submit it to the UK and this was confirmed in another thread by Joe Bloggs.
In this Email they requested we send them a pre paid courier envelope to return all the documents and my wife done this immediately. 3 days later we received another email saying that they had not yet received the envelope and to please note that they had not reviewed our appeal.
A quick check with LBC revealed that the bag had been delivered immediately and they confirmed the name of the person who signed for it. We then replied to their email and appealed for the return of the documents asap as we running out of time. Phone calls to the Embassy by my wife were met with rudeness towards my wife by the filipino staff. Finally we received an email from them yesterday confirming that they had now found the courier bag and would be returning the documents to us . They were eventually received this morning obviously well outside the 28 day limit for the appeal. Whilst I can accept a degree of responsibility here the appeal documents did say that they could be submitted to the Embassy which was obviously wrong. The old cynic in me says that both documents and courier bag were sitting on someones desk waiting for the 28 days to expire.
However the documents are now in transit to me together with the completed appeal form and I will still submit them with an explanation as to why they are late as there is a section on the form to address this . Hopefully they will still let the appeal go forward.
One point I would like to clear up if anyone knows ,we have completed the form and a detailed letter pointing out the errors and oversights of the ECO aswell as responding to his ridiculous comments regarding my divorce and the abandonment of my Wifes son. Do I need to send all the original documents in with the appeal? as the embassy have obviously retained the copies that were sent with the original Visa application.
On a better note I have been intouch with my MP and she has submitted a detailed letter requesting this be reviewed by a manager in view of the errors that appear to have been made. Please God this will help our case.
Thanks to you all for your support in what has been a really difficult episode thus far and please God things will start to get better because they certainly cant get any worse.
Mark
