Implications of settlement visa rejection.

[Clare]

I am a UK citizen and I am seeking some advice regarding my Kiwi husbands settlement application.

The problem that we have is that he originally came here 10 years ago on a working holiday visa, overstayed and then eventually left to go to Australia and work. While he was in Australia he applied for another UK working holiday visa which was given to him (although technically it should not have been) and he came back.

We met 18 months ago and got engaged and then married in December last year.

We have tried to apply for a spouses settlement visa as I qualify to sponsor him: I have a good job, I own my own house, I have a very good income and we supplied engagement cards, 18 months of mobile phone bills, wedding vows, a years worth of my bank statements and payment slips, references from family and friends as well as numerous other examples. And I wrote a covering letter explaining our motivations, my financial position and a short history of our relationship and wedding.

However we did not know how to explain that he had come over to the UK with a second work visa and was overstaying it when we met.

My husband was interviewed by the High Commission and unfortunately was not given the opportunity to concentrate on answering questions about our relationship or sponsorship.

The ECO asked him what he had been doing for the past 10 years, which he tried to explain as best he could, and he was confronted with the second work visa which he admitted he had been granted and he had used.

We haven't yet received an answer from the High Commission but it will be a rejection and I am now desperate to find out what the implications of this rejection will be. Will we never be able to apply for a settlement visa again as we cannot explain this second visa?

[John]

We haven't yet received an answer from the High Commission but it will be a rejection

That is an assumption ... you do not know for certain. The BHC clearly want time to reflect upon the situation, and may even be talking to the UK about it, before deciding what to do.

Hopefully you are being far too pessimistic. Let's just wait and see.

[ilm]

If you havn't proved some of the requirements to the ECO, or have lied on the application your application will likely be rejected. That is why it is always recomended by members on this forum that the truth be told on any application and make it as thorough as posible, especially when an overstayer is involved.

I agree with John that you should wait the outcome but if it is rejected there is nothing to stop you appealing or reappling, depending on the reasons for a rejection.

Not sure why you feel you can't explain the second visa just because it technically should not have been given? You have no real option but to explain it truthfully which in some ways makes it very simple.

[Clare]

[Not sure why you feel you can't explain the second visa just because it technically should not have been given?]

In retrospect neither can I and I really wish that we had found this forum prior to applying as it would have made the whole process much easier, clearer and probably much faster and a great deal less stressful.

Instead I have got entangled in an unnecessary situation that will probably result in the application being rejected!

I am still waiting for a response from the BHC....which is fair enough given the circumstances!