refused 6 month family visit visa for my wife and need help

[White Rose]

Hi all,
I am new to this forum and I am sorry for the length of my letter.

I am a British citizen and was born in England and recently got married to a woman from Moldova, my wife still lives in Moldova as she is half way through her Masters Degree and very much wants to complete this.

So we decided to apply for a 6 month family visit visa or spouse visa and correctly filled in form VAF1B and sent in all the usual required supporting documents plus our original marriage certificate, wedding photos, honeymoon photos, flight tickets and photos from my previous visits to Moldova, flight tickets from our honeymoon, flight tickets from her proposed visit to England all paid for and the return tickets, a signed and stamped letter from the University which she attends and say her course starts again in September and her signed and stamped letter from her employer saying that she had been granted 3 weeks holiday for this visit and that her position within the company would be held for her until she returned, a letter from me giving the full postal address of where she would be staying and saying that I and my parents would be taking full financial responsibility for her during her entire 3 week stray.

Yesterday the British Embassy in Moldova refused her visa request on the grounds of

You have failed to provide any evidence of adequate accommodation available to you and you have failed to provide any evidence of your husbands income, financial commitments and personal circumstances, I am therefore not satisfied that you are genuine visitor or that you intend to leave the UK at the end of your proposed visit

Never while filling in the form VAF1B did we notice that we needed to supply evidence of my income and personal commitments etc, how can you provide this if you do not know you have to??

We honestly thought that we had provided much more information and documents than was necessary, it just never occurred to me once that the visa would not be granted and very naively this is the reason I paid for the air tickets, booked and paid for hotels in Edinburgh, York and London and booked tickets for the Edinburgh military tattoo, Castle Howard proms night, the Leeds music festival etc.

We do not know what is the best and quickest way forward to tackle this problem because my wife’s flights are booked for 3 weeks today the 11th of August, I know we can appeal against the decision but this will take too much time I think, do we contact my local MP or the Home office???
Please if any one can help us here or advise what is the best way to go about convincing the British Embassy in Moldova that this is a genuine case and my wife will be returning back there after her 3 week holiday, any help will be very very welcome and very much appreciated!!!!

Many, many thanks,

Dave.

[Wanderer]

Visit visas are almost always refused when the sponsor and applicant are married. The presumption is made the applicant will unlikely to return, especially when there is economic advantage involved.

On VAF1B part 11 asks for supporting evidence of employment/finances etc, how did you miss it?

Appeal is pointless, since you didn't provide the core docs, plus appeals take ages, I suggest you reapply with all the required docs and keep your fingers crossed they there is enough time and they don't refuse you because of the reasons in my first paragraph.

[White Rose]

Thank you Wanderer,

God knows how we managed to miss part 11 asking for supporting evidence, my wife checked the online application countless time to make sure she had not missed anything!!!

But how do you make the British Embassy beleive you when you say that my wife will return when she says she will???

They must hear so many lies as well as the truth,its just so hard trying to convince some one that you are genuine and we have so little time to play with!!

I cannot believe because we are married it actually seems to working against us, it makes them think that we will not seperate and she will stay on in England!!!

Any more help and ideas will be most welcome.

Dave...

[Wanderer]

Thank you Wanderer,

God knows how we managed to miss part 11 asking for supporting evidence, my wife checked the online application countless time to make sure she had not missed anything!!!

But how do you make the British Embassy beleive you when you say that my wife will return when she says she will???

They must hear so many lies as well as the truth,its just so hard trying to convince some one that you are genuine and we have so little time to play with!!

I cannot believe because we are married it actually seems to working against us, it makes them think that we will not seperate and she will stay on in England!!!

Any more help and ideas will be most welcome.

Dave...

I think the crux of this application has to be her return-abilty, that's the main worry the ECO will have.

I think you've done the right thing with that, letter from uni, letter from employer etc, all I can suggest is an accompanying letter explaining basically what you said about her needing to complete her education, that you understand many abscond in this situation and that you intend to apply for a spouse visa via the normal channels after the visit and after her education is finished.

I think that would show you understand the ECO fears and you know the immigration rules.

Also mention you are aware that it's not possible to switch to spouse visa in-country and that's not your intention as above. That's another issue - many come on visit visa and attempt to switch claiming Human Rights etc, so you see why they over-compensate.

So I suggest a new app. with as much evidence, proof, supplementary evidence as above as you can, enforcing the return-ability aspect and of course, the finance and employment bits!

I think you have a good chance.