LilyMay

Hello everyone,

Hope you all are doing well!

I'd just like to share my experience regarding Standard visitor visa application to the UK (while I'm waiting to apply spouse visa application later). I hope this might help those people who are looking for the answers for same experience as me.

I applied Standard visitor visa (family visit) in June this year and it was rejected based on incorrect assumptions by ECO. It looked like he/she didn't read my application and all the supporting documents carefully. I didn't mention those wrong assumptions here as it's not my main point of this post.

All the family members were devastated of visa refusal and we all looked for what we can do. I searched on many different forums to get help. I found on another forum that a few people tried to complain about their visa refusal though they were not allowed to appeal or judicial review. After doing thorough research on both forums and UKVI website, I got a link, email to complain about UKVI's visa decision. I sent my complaint to the email provided and got a reply from them after 2 weeks saying this is not the correct email address responsible for my complaint and gave me the link of International email inquiry service page for visa application overseas. I replied to them saying I complained the refusal decision according to their guidelines so please accept it. After a week, I got an email from Entry clearance manager of BKK UKVI office, the one responsible for my visa refusal, to provide supporting documents for my complaint. After a couple of days, I got an apology from ECM of BKK office for their mistake and visa refusal decision was overturned.

So, I concluded if ECO made a decision by incorrect assumptions and if you can point out and prove it with strong evidence, you can lodge an official complaint to the following email and the refusal might be overturned. Here is the email address to send complaint letter, download link of complaint form and the link of web page for more details.

How to complain
If you have a complaint about our service or professional conduct, we encourage you to email us at [email protected], as you’re likely to receive a quicker reply.

If you are unable to email, you can also write to us at:

Complaints Allocation Hub
Customer Correspondence Hub
7th Floor
Lunar House
40 Wellesley Road
Croydon
CR9 2BY

You can download and print the Home Office complaints form for UK Visas and Immigration (PDF, 812KB, 2 pages)



https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration/about/complaints-procedure

Good luck everyone
May

SanDiegogirl

Official website of complaints department:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organi...ints-procedure

spouse of scouse

Thanks for advising the forum of your situation and how you resolved it May. Wishing you good fortune for the future

LilyMay

Thanks SanDiegogirl!
The link I provided is not active ^_^

LilyMay

Thanks spouse of scouse!
Good to hear that my sharing might be useful for people out there.

I feel lucky to have found this forum before I applied for my son's passport application. I was well informed by reading all the questions and answers on this forum. Now I'm in the stage of preparing spouse visa application (plan to apply it in next year April), so already following all those threads relating to settlement visa on the forum.

Hope it'll go smoothly and painlessly, and not with hiccups as with my visitor visa!

Wish you all a sweet December and Good luck in everything

May

Aleksandra

Hi May, I really can't thank you enough for sharing your success here and achieving it in the first place.

I'm now in exactly the same situation. My husband and his family are now going to celebrate Xmas without me because of the absurd refusal I got. I've tried my British friend's contacts in UKVI authorities, but they ignored our letters. So, the last resort for me is this complaint procedure.

I'm very happy to find out that someone managed to overturn their refusal through a complaint.
I'm now filling in the complaint form and I'm feeling very intimidated because it feels like any wrong word or comma may result in them ignoring my complaint, although I have very solid grounds to complaint since the ECO's decision has no factual explaination for the refusal at all, but wrong facts that are based on them not reading my documents.

If you could send me your complaint form, give me some advice on how you did it, or look at what I've made and give your opinion, I would feel so much safer.
Like, do I need to print out the pdf they provided or can I just create a MS Word file that looks like their form? On what should I focus more in my complaint - my documents or rather give references to laws and their Rules and how the ECO broke them? Or did you not bother with giving references to legal acts and Immigration Rules?
Thank you, I'll be looking forward to your reply.

LilyMay

Hi Aleksandra,

I know how you feel now. It took about 5 days for me to organize the complaint letter, form and additional documents and very stressful indeed.

1. I just used their provided complaint form in pdf. I wrote and signed in the form using Adobe. I filled out the personal details on the left and I wrote "Please see the attached complaint letter and additional documents sending together with this form." in the details section on the right.

2. Complaint letter for Family Visit Visa Refusal

For the letter, I started like this.

Application details
ENTRY CLEARANCE OFFICER:
DATE OF REFUSAL DECISION:
APPLICANT NAME:
GWF NUMBER:
PASSPORT NUMBER:
NATIONALITY:
DATE OF BIRTH:
GENDER:
DATE OF APPLICATION:
TYPE OF VISA / APPLICATION: Visit Visa
SERVICE OPTION: Priority service
DURATION OF VISA: 6-month
TOTAL FEE:
SUBMISSION METHOD: Online
ISSUING OFFICE:
CONTACT EMAIL:
RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:
TELEPHONE NUMBER:

Spouse / partner details
NAME:
DATE OF BIRTH:
PASSPORT NUMBER:
CONTACT EMAIL:
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS:

Dependant (My son) details

And then, I explained the reasons why I thought ECO made incorrect assumptions backing up with evidences. I read the visit guidance of Home office for visitors thoroughly(You can download it form UKVI website) I referenced my explanations with their immigration rules. I tried my wording of the letter to be more like a lawyer, more of a positive way, not too overwhelmed by emotions

If you want to, you can share your complaint letter (blocked out or not included your personal details) here and I'm wiling to look at it and give my opinion. Please remember to read both visit guidance and ECO's refusal letter very carefully and list down what are the most important points you can point out to change their decision.

Wish you all the best!
I know it would be hard for you to enjoy Christmas away from your family but I hope you have a happy Christmas there.

With love,
May

Aleksandra

May,

Sorry it took me so long to thank you for your reply.

Thank you for all the information you shared! I included all the information you recommended, and basically followed your advice on how to do those forms.
I sent it on the 20th of December and specifically sent them a link to the page that prescribes the procedure so that they don't waste my and their own time replying "You're doing it wrong, go away" ))
Hopefully, I will also manage to get my groundless refusal overturned. In any case, I'll write here about what will happen.
Unfortunately, there are almost no stories on the Internet like yours. This is why what you did is so important (sorry for being overly dramatic, but it was your story that gave me confidence).

I'll be singing Christmas carols with my husband's family via Skype, as usual, and get my piece of the Christmas cake when gets back
Merry Christmas to you too!

LilyMay

I was quite down at that time, Aleksandra. I couldn't stop crying for many days. When I searched on internet, I found some threads talking about visitor visa refusals, a few of them tried complaint procedure, but unfortunately none of them provided the outcomes of their complaints. I was so lost. That's why I decided to share my story here so that at least I can give a bit of hope for people like you. I do wish you get good news soon. I remember I read somewhere in UKVI's statistics, saying about 18% of visitor refusal decisions were overturned in 2013. (I'm not 100% sure though, you can check it there)

Hang in there! Cheers Aleksandra!

May

mawood47

Morning I am hooping I am Posting in wright place as my questions are directed to UK entry Visa from Ukrainian Wife rejection of Visa's first was 6 Month Visitor Visa June 2016 and rejection Fiance/Marriage Visa July 2017 rejected I have been able to ask my MP to look into Wye they are rejecting as many points are do to the Fact the Application is being Processed in Warsaw and they have Little or no Knowledge on Life in UK, My Question is Simple if we fail after Refusal Again we are Intending to us Visa VAF4A For my wife to enter UK. using this Visa cut out a Lot of Questions about My Wife and it is Becoming Imperative she joins myself in UK as My Health is deteriorating digger47

spouse of scouse

Hi Digger - to make sure your post is seen by as many people as possible who might be able to advise you, you would be better off starting a new thread here Citizenship/Passports and Spouse/Family Visas (UK) - British Expats

Unfortunately, your plan about using VAF4A wouldn't work as this is just a supplement form that goes with a visa application - it's not a visa or a visa application. Try posting a new thread, give us a yell if you have any problems doing that.

GapYear

Thank you LilyMay for sharing your experience with all of us here. I am in a similar situation and my question is did you send all documents in your first complaint letter? Or did you send the letter then wait for the response before sending all the documents?

LilyMay

Hello GapYear,
I attached all the documents including complaint form and letter when I emailed to complaint office (I chose email over post which was quicker and more convenient as they advise). Later, Bkk office emailed me saying complaint office accepted and passed it to them and requested me to send all documents back again to their email to conduct a review.
Wish good luck to you!
LilyMay

GapYear

This is quite helpful LilyMay. I will do likewise and post the outcome here. Thank you once again.
Thank you for the best wishes!
GapYear

LilyMay

Glad to hear that it helped!
It's good of you to let us know how it goes. Hope to hear good news from you.