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Refusal of a Visit Visa - UK Visas & Immigration

Refusal of a Visit Visa - UK Visas & Immigration

I am really confused about my refusal letter, and I don't know what I should do now. I want to apply again, but I'm not sure whether I was banned for 10 years or it's just a warning.

There is only one reason stated and that was my mistake. I forgot to mention the details of my first refusal details on the visa application. I didn't have the record of it, as I had applied back in 2007.

Can I reapply now?

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    Pretty much. You are now walking a minefield, your next misstep results in a 10 year ban. So better lawyer up. But stop. If you're so desperate as to get a lawyer -- that raises the other question of why? There are dozens of perfectly nice countries to vacation in. The very fact that you're focused on the UK is a yellow flag for "not mentioning people known here", "ulterior purpose" etc.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Aug 26, 2017 at 16:50
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    "The ECO thinks this was a deliberate attempt to deceive." This part seems weird to me. Do not all passports expire after 10 years? And do not all expired passports get confiscated and kept at renewal time (because new security measures now demand it)? For those reasons, and since this was almost 10 years ago, I would expect him not to have his old passport. Also, the idea that travelers do not know that their passports are linked to a single identity is pretty far-fetched. If I were you, I'd visit elsewhere, or I'd hire a lawyer, but I'd wait at least until Theresa May was out of power.
    – Stephan Branczyk
    Aug 26, 2017 at 17:42
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    @StephanBranczyk Old passports don't get confiscated in the UK. They cut one corner off and give it back to you. After all, it might contain visas that are still valid and needed.
    – Mike Scott
    Aug 27, 2017 at 6:02
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    You did not forget to mention the details of my first refusal. You decided to leave them out because you felt you did not have enough data. Untrue language like that will get you into throuble.
    – user40521
    Aug 27, 2017 at 8:06
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    @MikeScott, Well, I don't know the nationality of Ali, but my old French passport certainly wasn't returned to me when I renewed it recently at a French consulate. Like I said, this is a brand new security practice. Before that, they just punched through the passport to invalid it as well, but they still required you to tell them if you had an unexpired visa in there.
    – Stephan Branczyk
    Aug 27, 2017 at 9:06

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There is not much to be confused about. You were asked about previous visa refusals, and you did not mention that you had one. Whether this was a mistake or not, they now allege that you lied on your application, and that is the reason for your refusal.

You are not technically banned from further applications. However it is extremely unlikely that any application of yours will be approved for many years to come without addressing the issue raised in your refusal notice, and another refusal may result in a ban. As Gayot Fow's more comprehensive answer says, you absolutely need to make use of a UK lawyer who is a practitioner of immigration law in any further applications.

If you had waited a few more months until the previous refusal was ten years old (and the old form was still in use) this might have been less of a problem.

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This appears to be one of the more borderline cases of "deception" and the use of paragraph 320(7a). Applicants are to be refused under paragraph 320(7a) where false representations have been made. There should have been a deliberate intent to deceive.

https://www.freemovement.org.uk/general-grounds-refusal-alleged-deception-innocent-mistakes/

Even though your last refusal was almost 10 years ago, and therefore, it is plausible your omission could have been an "innocent mistake," The ECO's assessment of your deceptive intent is based on the following combination (it is likely that you could have been given benefit of doubt had it only been one of the two factors):

  • You had appealed. This means you were more likely remember.
  • You did not submit the passport associated with the refusal. The ECO thinks this was a deliberate attempt to decieve.

You should most definitely consult with a member of the UK law society to determine your future course of action(specifically with a firm that deals with deception in immigration cases). Non-action will affect your future chances of obtaining visas. You will need to show that you have a plausible innocent explanation for why you did not mention your refusal. In my opinion, this could be shown by:

  • The fact that the refusal was almost 10 years ago. You could have simply forgotten that you had applied (this could be especially true if you had traveled to other countries extensively during this period). You could have miscalculated the dates--it was a matter of a few months. You remembered only 2017--not the exact month and assumed this meant 10 years had passed. You did not apply for almost 10 years. If you really wanted to hide your "deception" you would have simply waited a few more months.
  • The new application process asks you if you have previous passports. However, unlike the old form, it only gives you the oppurtunity to include details of one previous passport. It could be argued, that this implies that the UKVI is only interested in "your previous passport" and not--since they haven't asked for details--your "previous passports."

However, only a practitioner in immigration law can tell you if there is a chance of success. The decision date on your refusal notice tells us that you applied using the old form where the history questions are limited to 10 years. On the new form the questions are unbounded by any time frame. Here's a screen shot...

enter image description here

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    If you were refused twelve years ago, is it correct that you would still need to tick "YES", tell them about it, and they wouldn't / shouldn't hold it against you, but if you don't mention it you are in trouble?
    – gnasher729
    Aug 26, 2017 at 16:39
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    And someone around here posted they were refused a visa because they had the right to enter without a visa. I could imagine that any EU citizen would automatically be refused a UK visa because they don't need one. That would also have to be mentioned, but would definitely not held against them? And not mentioning it would be trouble?
    – gnasher729
    Aug 26, 2017 at 16:41

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