Originally Posted by
grate-britte
Frances and Phillip, I do not have a long experience of the visa process but I have some experience of Court procedures and how matters are dealt with there.
I assume you have not appealed yet, but I would tend to be more in favour of making an appeal rather than to marry in the Philippines and applying for a spouse visa.
To marry in the Philippines you will need 22 days to obtain a certificate of no impediment in the UK, then about 20 days in the Philippines for the marriage process, about 10 days to get the marriage certificate and apply for spouse visa, then 90 days to get the spouse visa. I would say in total, a minimum of 142 days, about 5 months.
To take both routes would appear to adopt a conflictual approach and the Embassy is likely to be reactive. I would feel quite sure about advising against that.
At all times dealings with the Embassy should be cooperative, polite and open.
If you appeal the judge would focus on the grounds for the refusal. I think the two grounds are not too difficult to overturn.
You would need to provide stronger evidence that the wedding arrangements had been made using papers that are dated prior to the application. It may be useful to see a solicitor in this respect who may also be able to write a covering letter to state that he has examined material and inquired of parties who were concerned with the wedding arrangements. The contention that the marriage arrangements were fake is an acceptable basis for refusing the visa so it is necessary to produce solid additional documentation for the judge to be able to decide they were not fake.
Concerning the notion you intended to see Frances during her visit to your aunt. Well, the visit visa was not granted and your intentions at the time are really private to you. The fact the visa was not granted was stated on the fiancee visa application so you did your duty. Now this idea that you were hoping to see Frances during a [refused] visit is really not within the government grounds for refusal. A visit visa for an aunt is, these days, a slightly tenuous family link and it happened the visa was refused - fair do's. Visit visas are a bit the luck of the draw, but this is past history and the refusal was declared on the fiancee visa application.
How long does an appeal take to go through? I think it can depend a bit on if they want to be nice to you, so I would recommend that all paperwork submitted is very politely arranged.
Hope this helps, there are lots of very knowledgeable people posting on this site so worth thinking over carefully what everyone says, but don't get cross with it all.
