Uk visit Visa to meet sister,previously overstayed as a student in france

Question

I stayed legally in France for 6.5 years as a student. I then overstayed my french student Visa for 6 months in 2013. I left france voluntarily. The french immigration only asked me why didn't I apply for extension, I said I was promised a job but in the end I got betrayed by my employer. She said ok, she didn't said anything about a ban, I didn't sign any paper. I just boarded my flight.

But now I want to visit my sister in the UK for a week. I checked the UK Visa website and they asked about last 10 years travel history and if you have overstayed.

I live in Dubai now for the last 3 years, I have a good job which pays me more than the minimum wage of the UK. I have good friends here and professionally too. I have rent agreement under my name and I have paid the full rent for the year. I really love dubai and I never want to stay in the UK for more than a week.

My questions are:

• Will they know my overstay if I do not mention it on the application form?
• If I do mention it, how can I justify it?
• How can I prove my intentions to come back, which is the truth.

Answer 1

Never lie in a visa application. False representations routinely get people in much deeper trouble than the truth would have.

With a previous overstay you may still be able to convince the ECO that your situation has changed so much that you're not an overstay risk anymore. That was you then; you can ague that you now have good reason behave differently.

On the other hand, if you lie in the application you will be demonstrating that you now are a lying liar whose claims in an application they cannot trust at all. The consequence for this is not just that this application will be refused, but that you earn a 10-year ban on new visa applications, and probably a sound skepticism towards you after the ban has run.

Yes, it is possible that they won't notice the lie. It's also very possible that they will. Especially if your passport still contains the visa you overstayed and the exit stamp from when you eventually left. But even if you have a new passport, the UK does cooperate with the Schengen countries on law-enforcement databases. Exactly what information is exchanged is not quite publicly known.

Answer 2

You should tell the truth on your application.

No one here knows what information one national immigration authority might share with another. Both France and the UK are members of the EU, which suggests that immigration information is shared. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume that UKVI knows about your overstay.

If UKVI does know, and you misrepresent your history or don't mention the overstay, then you'll surely be denied and may earn a years-long ban for deception. On the other hand, if you tell the truth, your current circumstances (along with your honesty about your past bad judgment) may be convincing enough to secure a UK visa.