Visa refused for my wifes sister to visit uk

[martin3030]

My Russian wife is on a 2 year leave to remain visa and been in uk for 16 months.
We applied to Embassy in Moscow for a visa for her sister who is 17 to come to the uk.
We stated the reasons as being 1. To visit us.2. To study English.
We did not apply for a Student visa.

The Embassy refused on following grounds.

1.That she had only recently left school and had no plans for further education or work in Russia si it was considered she had no ties to return to Russia after the 6 months visa was up.

2. Her parents offers of financial assistance was not conclusive since they would need this money for their own living expense.No proof of her parents savings were submitted.

3.My wifes bank account had been overdrawn on the statement submitted.

4.There was no breach of the human rights act since as we were in Russia it was evident contact could be maintained.

5. No evidence of an English course had been submitted nor any details of a planned one.On being asked to demonstrate her use of English she could not do so.
It was felt there was reasons to believe she would not return to Russia after the 6 months was up.



The officers doing the interview gave neither me nor my wife opportunity to address any of these questions My wifes sister was clearly overwhelmed by the questioning and also frightened.

My wife took her first bank statement and the £8.00 overdrawn was actually paid back the next day .........she has in fact an overdraft !!!!!!

We spent almost £1100.00 on our trip and her account being low on funds was because of this.

Her parents did not get an account statement as there are different rules for this in Russia.

No account was given to my finances which were submitted.

The interviewing officer from the UK side was the same 1 that had made it extremely difficult 2 years earlier for my wifes visa.........asking on 4 different visits to the Moscow Embassy for more documents and information.

We are now looking at appealing on the Uk side.

We plan to say that we did not apply for a student visa we actually proposed to pay for 2 day a week lessons at our local college.

The reason my wifes sister had not made immediate plans for further education or work in Russia was clearly because she was making the visa application and hoped to be in the UK for that period.

My wife and myself can demonstrate an ability to be financially responsible for her without the need for public funding.

The question of her not returning after her 6 months cannot be a proven one equally there is nothing to suggest she will NOT return and as my wife is due to re-apply for her own visa next March means she would not seek to jeapordise that application by making sure her sister returns.

We feel we have a good case to put forward and would like to hear from anyone who has appealed here in the UK .or alternatively applied again after a refusal.

We believe we have not had a fair deal here.

We are told there is a queue now in the appeals system which suggests more refusals lately .