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I am an Indian passport holder working in Germany as a Researcher since March 2018. I have been living in Germany for 3 years and I graduated this year in January. I hold an EU Blue card at the moment. My visa to the US was rejected last year under section 214 (b) explained here UK tourist visa after US tourist visa refusal under 214 (b). I waited for 10 months for my circumstances to change(from student to working professional) before going for a new visa application. I would like to apply for a tourist visa to the UK and in the visa application, there is one question about previous visa refusal.

How should I answer this question? Shall I just mention "section 214 (b): ties with the home country are not strong" or should I explain in detail about the rejection and attach a cover letter?

I was really not convinced by the previous rejection as I was a student and I had every reason to come back to Germany to finish my studies. Since the letter that VO gave me was rather generic, I am not sure how to explain it in my new application.

Any help would be appreciated.

Update: So I applied for the UK visa and received it within 15 days with no problems at all. For the previous visa refusal question, I described the case very briefly giving details about why I wanted to travel and how my circumstances changed.

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  • What detail about the rejection are you considering including in your application? As you note, the letter is generic, so you don't have much in the way of details, do you?
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 9, 2018 at 14:53
  • I read in some of the posts online where people have advised to attach a letter to explain the person's point of view and how the rejection was unfair.
    – Arpit Bajpai
    Commented Jul 9, 2018 at 15:05
  • I would be careful about that. It might come across the wrong way. Explaining to the UK that the US made a mistake should not be necessary; you should focus on making your application to the UK as strong as possible. It could be a good idea to differentiate your present application from the past one as much as possible, by pointing out your changed circumstances, or, even for someone whose circumstances haven't changed, by noting any evidence included in the present application but omitted from the past one.
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 9, 2018 at 15:08
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    Another way of looking at it: a past refusal, whether by another country or the UK, does not directly disqualify you for a visa, so you do not need to rebut it directly. It serves rather to point the visa officer in a certain direction in the evaluation of your application. So you should expect that the officer will look more closely at your ties with the home country than otherwise, and you should therefore give extra care to demonstrating those ties in your application.
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 9, 2018 at 15:12
  • Thank you so much for commenting. I really appreciate that. So as I understood, I can just write "Section 214 (B) Ties to home country are not strong" in the form and just leave it there?
    – Arpit Bajpai
    Commented Jul 9, 2018 at 15:17

1 Answer 1

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In applying for a UK Standard Visitor visa, your application itself will show that you reside in Germany, now a working professional, evidenced by the information in the sections on personal finances, employment, income and expenditures.

After selecting Yes where it asks Have you ever been refused a visa for any country, including the UK?, explain it as you have here: at the time, you were a student, without strong ties to either your home country or country of residence. Your circumstances have changed, you're now an employed professional. Further explanation in a cover letter is unnecessary.

A separate question ask what permission you have to stay in Germany, since you are not a German national: your Blue Card evidences your residency, employment, academic qualifications, and certain income level.

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