Originally Posted by
bigmarco
Sent this Email to the Ambassador and have also contacted my MP.
Dear Mr Ambassador
I am writing regarding my wife Mrs Mary Grace XXXXXXXXX application for a spousal visa which was refused by your Embassy and the refusal was upheld by an Entry Clearance Manager.
I was due to appear at the Tribunal Service in the UK tomorrow september 12th but have now been informed by my solicitor that the hearing has been cancelled as the Presenting officer representing you has pulled the case and instructed that the visa be issued.
Whilst I am naturally delighted at the outcome I am nonetheless extremely angry at the way we have been treated by your staff. Part of the refusal says that I provided no proof that I have ever visited the Philippines in the form of a passport or flight bookings or Photographs of myself and my wife. I have now visited the Philippines 3 times although at the time of my application I provided a copy of my passport which included a visa and 2 entry and exit stamps as well as a copy of My Marriage certificate. You are no doubt aware that to get married in the Philippines requires a British Citizen to obtain a certificate of Legal Capacity to marry from the British Embassy in Manila which is exactly what I did in September last year. Why did your ECO not check this and more importantly why did your ECM not check this before upholding the refusal. Incidentally our supporting documents also included many photographs and copies of flight bookings.
It is blatantly obvious that the Entry Clearance department at the Embassy is not fit for purpose from the top down. You charge in excess of £900 for a spousal visa application and don't even have the decency to read it properly. This cannot be argued because our refusal quite clearly shows that the application was not studied properly. There are too many mistakes to argue otherwise. For your ECM to then uphold the refusal and allow the matter to proceed to tribunal defies logic. Fortunately someone in the UK spotted your staffs incompetence before the matter went before a judge.
I am pursuing the reimbursement of our expenses here and have also contacted my MP on this matter.
I would ask that if your staff have a shred of decency in them would it be possible for them to issue my wife's Visa asap. It is our wedding anniversary on the 4th October and I would very much like to spend it with her.
I don't feel that this is a lot to ask in view of the way we have been treated and would be grateful if you could in some way speed this up. Perhaps at the same time you could get a member of your staff to apologise to my wife for her treatment particularly the very insulting accusation that she was abandoning our son.
Thanking you in anticipation
Yours sincerely
