After 3 visa refusals, applicant comes to us and succeeds

We acted on behalf of a Chinese national who was born in 1948. She wanted to come as a visitor to visit her only daughter who was living in the UK with her British citizen partner. The mother and daughter were very close and she used to regularly travel to the UK on a visit visa to visit her daughter.

However, ten years ago the mother made an application under Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules to come and live permanently with her daughter. This application was refused and the appeal was lodged and dismissed by an immigration judge. At the time of the application, the daughter thought that her mother would be allowed to come to the UK because of her age.

At that time, the mother’s health was deteriorating and the daughter was worried about her mother living alone in China with no support. The daughter post-refusal made sure to travel to China regularly to spend more time with her mother and to make sure that she had additional care.

The decision to make this application under Appendix FM rendered any future applications for the mother to come as a visitor seemingly doomed to fail.

We were instructed to make an application for a visitor’s visa on the basis that the circumstances in which the mother was living in China had changed dramatically enough to warrant a new visitor’s visa. We were instructed that the medical conditions are now managed and since then she built a strong support network with friends in China.

We had to face the fact that the applicant made several visit visa applications which were refused before instructing us. In each one of these refusals, the entry clearance officer stated that her previous application was taken into account as to demonstrating that she had no intention to return to live in China and that she does not have any other family members she can rely on to provide her with similar care.

In the visit visa application we submitted, we provided documents to show that her personal circumstances since the refusal had significantly changed and that the reasons underlying her application for settlement no longer remained.

It was key to show the strong bond the applicant had with China. We demonstrated the conditions in which she will be in the UK with her sponsor and provided evidence of financial circumstances. We managed to demonstrate the change of mentality between the first application and the others. We explained that the applicant had a history of compliance with UK immigration law, that she is a law-abiding citizen and that her life in China significantly changed since the previous applications.

We reiterated that The Home Office has to examine the legal framework against the evidence provided and the entry clearance officer must assess all the information and should only doubt the applicant’s intention if they cannot verify information provided despite attempts to do so.

Our application was successful and the applicant intends to come and visit the UK very soon to be with her daughter.