[JoannaJ]

My husband's spouse visa has been refused. We applied under cat C - non-employment income. The two reasons given were both under the financial requirement - everything else was met:

1. We did not provide bank statements from all three banks where the income from rental properties was going.. However, when we looked through our returned documents, all three bank statements for 12 months immediately prior to application WERE there. How can I prove this??

Secondly, we did not provide a current lease for 2 of the 6 properties we own. The leases had expired, but tenants were still in the properties, and income was clearly shown. PLUS, the four remaining leases more than covered the required 18,600GBP.

We met the financial criteria by double the required amount.

I know we shouldn't have booked the flights, but we have. We leave Australia in 7 weeks.

Apparently an appeal can take up to six months, and even if we are able to provide the 2 leases that had expired (now renewed), the likelihood is they may still refuse the appeal.

We may also be able to apply under cat A as I have a job offer in the UK. Apparently, if I get that in writing, we can use rental income from our Australian property as income as well.. I have been told that this might be the best option for us - apply again under a different category, and pay for the priority processing, meaning we can still (providing we put in the correct documents this time), leave as planned.

This of course, will cost us an extra $4500.

We are so devastated.. We really need to get to family in the UK. We're exhausted and fed up and need the support with the kids! x

 

[Joppa]

Not having seen all your documents, this is just my speculation but like so many people you provided more than was needed to meet the requirement, and you didn't specify exactly how, so ECO got confused and turned you down. You should have said: I have three sources of income, A, B and C which come to £18,600. Here are the required documents for each. Instead you stated: I have sources A to F. Please select any combination to meet the requirement, because in total I have earned over £38,000. They won't do the job for you. Instead they looked at sources, say D, E and F at random and saw you didn't include leases for two of them. So lack of vital documents = refusal. For bank statements, did you show, on a separate sheet of paper, how rents from different properties are evidenced, like: Property A - rents received shown in bank statement for account number 1234567, with dates and amounts as follows, and so on?

I think you should reapply, as your original application was too confusing and lacking in clear focus for ECO to make much sense of. It's up to you if you want to apply under Cat C or Cat A. But this time, make it crystal clear how you are meeting the requirement, and how documents match up.

 

[JoannaJ]

Thanks Joppa. I'm pretty annoyed with myself right now. What you're saying makes sense, and thank you so much for the explanation.

 

[JoannaJ]

Joppa - an appeal is not worth it?

 

[Joppa]

You can try appealing, but it will probably go to full tribunal hearing (average wait about a year), as ECM review is unlikely to uphold your appeal because of complexity and confusing evidence. What you can do is to appeal and reapply. And if your reapplication succeeds, just cancel your appeal, losing only £80 appeal fee. This is allowed. Put in your re-application about a month after your appeal, to see how things go.

 

[JoannaJ]

Hi - It's all so awful. And they're so inhumane! If they had just sent one little email saying they can't find our bank statements, or, can we provide a 'current' and not an expired lease, we would have done so.. I also thought that a lease just continues if it 'expires'.. For example, a shop my sister and I jointly own in the UK has been tenanted by the same people for 13 years, but 2 years ago they chose not to renew their lease... So we can't include the income! I can ask them to sign a lease for 12 months and see if they'll do that.. I think our decision is going to have to be to reapply and schedule all our documents and make it a lot easier to read and understand than we previously did.. We should have presented all the documentations in a clear and simple way, and I now realise this costly error. Yes, my husband could enter on a tourist visa, but obviously wouldn't be able to work, and would also have to return to Australia within 6 months.. This obviously isn't ideal. I guess the other option is to do that and at the same time to appeal the decision of the visa and submit the documents they require and ask them to check their inventory for our bank statements (presuming they took copies)... It's pretty unfair, considering we meet the 18,600 requirement by double etc.. I just want my little boys to be with their grandparents I've given Australia 13 years and I've paid taxes in the UK on properties etc all that time. I feel hard done by that they could have resolved this with just one phone call or email - but I guess they don't have to and they were having a bad day.. I'll be looking for a Brisbane based UK agent to help us with this one!

 

[nyclon]

I know you're upset but it's your responsibility to provide the documents that best support your application and according to FM-SE UKVI are under no obligation to contact you for additional documents.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...06_immigration_rules_appendix_fm_se_final.pdf

With a visa refusal, your husband should apply for a visit visa before travelling to the UK. He may or may not be granted entry.