Unmarried partner visa REJECTION

[sisart]

Hello,

I am reaching out to this community to give you reasons my visa was rejected today, in order to assist any future applicants. I am a Canadian applying for an unmarried partner visa. Online application: August 13th, 2018; Biometrics & documentation taken at immigration office: August 16th, 2018. Email update that a decision-making officer was about to look at my application: September 27th, 2018. Decision made: November 1st, 2018. Good news is that they gave me a decision at the 12 week mark. Bad news is that it was rejected. I am sharing so that future applicants thoroughly "cross their I's and dot they T's" so to speak. I included original payslips, as well as a letter from my partner's employer indicating his employment and that the payslips are authentic. On a side note, I am cross that the office did not contact my partner to request further information they might need if the information his HR people submitted in the letter was not sufficient, and instead just gave us a flat-out refusal. I am shocked and appalled at the way their system handles applications. I hope you have more success with your partner visas.

Below were the reasons:

You do not meet the eligibility financial requirement of paragraphs E-ECP.3.1. to 3.4. because your sponsor is not exempt from the financial requirements as defined paragraph E-ECP.3.3. I am not able to take into account any potential employment you have available to you in the UK or any offers of financial support from third parties. In order to meet the financial requirements of the Rules your sponsor needs a gross income of at least £18,600 per annum. You have stated in your Appendix 2 that you are relying on your sponsor’s income from salaried employment in the UK to meet the financial requirement.

The Immigration Rules state the following specified evidence must be provided in order to demonstrate that you meet the financial requirements: In respect of salaried employment in the UK (except where paragraph 9 applies), all of the following evidence must be provided: (a) Payslips covering:
Appendix FM Partner Refusal Version 01 17

(i) a period of 6 months prior to the date of application if the person has been employed by their current employer for at least 6 months (and where paragraph 13(b) of this Appendix does not apply); or (ii) any period of salaried employment in the period of 12 months prior to the date of application if the person has been employed by their current employer for less than 6 months (or at least 6 months but the person does not rely on paragraph 13(a) of this Appendix), or in the financial year(s) relied upon by a self-employed person. (b) A letter from the employer(s) who issued the payslips at paragraph 2(a) confirming: (i) the person’s employment and gross annual salary; (ii) the length of their employment; (iii) the period over which they have been or were paid the level of salary relied upon in the application; and (iv) the type of employment (permanent, fixed-term contract or agency). (c) Personal bank statements corresponding to the same period(s) as the payslips at paragraph 2(a), showing that the salary has been paid into an account in the name of the person or in the name of the person and their partner jointly.
You have failed to provide pay slips in support of your sponsor’s employment. Furthermore, you have failed to provide a letter from your sponsor’s employer which contains the specified information as outlined above. Therefore, you have not provided all the evidence as specified by the Immigration Rules.
Your application is refused under paragraph EC-P.1.1(d) of Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules. (E-ECP.3.1)

[Edwardo]

While you say you sent original payslips the HO says you did not.

From their letter:

You have failed to provide pay slips in support of your sponsor’s employment. Furthermore, you have failed to provide a letter from your sponsor’s employer which contains the specified information as outlined above. Therefore, you have not provided all the evidence as specified by the Immigration Rules.

Who is correct?

[sisart]

This is what I'm puzzled over. We have a UK visa office in Toronto that collected original documentation from me at my appointment (and then I got my biometric data taken). I gave them original versions of payslips(combination of online and paper version) with a letter authenticating them from my partner's employer. I had 3 months worth of payslips that were paper version and the Toronto office DID NOT want the originals, they photocopied these and gave the originals back to me. I guess I should have fought them on their decision to do that, as I know UK office likes all originals. How am I supposed to know to have done that when I am not an immigration worker? Workers in this system does not speak to each other, and applicants pay. In retrospect, I should have had a lawyer do it all for me, but I have read stories that applications still been rejected. Feeling confused.
Thanks.

[Edwardo]

It is hard and a shock I am sure to be refused the visa.

It does seem from reading your post that you correctly supplied 3 months of payslips and while these would have been accepted by the Home Office.....you needed to supply at least 6 months of payslips.

Still very harsh they did not call you and let you rectify this. The government has instructed the HO not to refuse applications because one paper here and there is missing but again, 3 important statements may still fall outside these guidelines.

It might be worthwhile taking advice to see what options you have. Appeals are, I think, long and costly. If the above is true (you only supplied 3 months of slips) then it is difficult to see how an appeal can be successful.


Yes, another application is also expensive but you can very clearly see (or at least find out) exactly what you need to do next time.

[sisart]

Hi there,

Thanks for your response, much appreciated.

To clarify, I did provide 6 months worth of bank statements, with an accompanying letter from employer stating they were authentic, as well as 3 employment letters stating his time of employment, salary, and type of employment.

From my perspective, I have been wrongly refused, and again, it was wrong for them to not follow up to clarify the information they need. Given how much time and money you put into an application, this is terrible customer service, even unethical, given the amount of emotion energy, time, and money put into the application.

I wonder how many other people in the world have experienced this and feel this way? I would be interested in hearing other people’s views !

Thanks for taking time to read,
Sis

[sisart]

Sorry, just clarifying that I meant 6 months of PAY SLIPS !! And corresponding bank statements.

[Londoner007]

Was there an option available to post the bundle to UK rather than scanning it. I have seen many cases where the VAC staff completely mess up the scanning process.

Why was there 3 employers letter submitted and what did they all contain details about?

To be honest you do not need a lawyer for these things. In your case it appears documents weren't scanned properly. You can perhaps go to VAC and get them to confirm the documents had been submitted, then appeal which may be overturned by a ECM. Or just re-apply making sure this time all required documents are indeed submitted to UKVI properly.