Myself and my immediate family UK General Visitor visa was refused for insufficient funds evidence

Question

We applied for UK General Visitor visa for 10 days, and were refused:

• You have submitted an employment letter to confirm your occupation in KSA. Although your employment letter details your income, the bank statement you have submitted does not reflect your income. You claim an income of SAR xxxxxx. Whilst I acknowledge you may not be paid directly into your bank account, you have not demonstrated regular deposits in amounts matching your income. As you have not substantiated this income through clear evidence I consider that the documents you have submitted, in isolation, do not reasonably demonstrate your own circumstances in KSA.
• As I have been unable to ascertain your financial circumstances and specifically your income in KSA, I am not satisfied that you have reasonably demonstrated that are travelling to the UK solely for the period and purpose you state (paragraph 41 (i) and (ii)). I have therefore refused your application because I am not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that you meet all the requirements of the relevant Paragraph of the UK Immigration rules

1. We are all Indian nationals living in Saudi Arabia, and applied there.

2. In 2012, I applied for a Family Visit C visa for UK and received the visa but did not travel.

I did not bother much as I was a bit overconfident that I would be granted the visa.

I am thinking of reapplying and will do the following:

1. Submit the payslips (that will show the Gross Salary and the amount deposited in bank account). A big reason from the mentioned salary versus "deposited in bank amount" is that I get Housing Allowance for six months in January and June. This is deducted from salary every month, and the deposits will always be less than what is shown on company letter.

2. Also I got bonuses twice in span of four months, and it was through bank deposits by company, and I will also get a company letter justifying the payment made to me.

My intention is to visit London tourist attractions and my uncle, who is recovering from cancer treatment.

Also, I want to do the following:

1. Instead of hotel booking (as in the previous application) I plan to get a letter from my uncle (father's real brother, who is a UK national) for accommodation. (This would not match with previous application, where I showed hotel bookings.)
2. I am thinking of applying for myself first and once I get my visa I will apply for my kids. This will be again mismatch, as in previous (rejected) application I said that my wife and kids would be travelling with me.

Again I will state that I have no intention of staying in UK, as I have a fairly good job and I am sure I will not get such a job in UK.

Can anyone suggest what should I do especially on the two issues (no hotel bookings but letter of invitation for accommodation and food, and applying myself first and then for the rest of the family)?

This time I will try to be meticulous as I do not want to face another rejection.

Answer 1

For your first question, about hotel bookings: They do not care about hotel bookings, they do not prove any of the criteria needed to qualify. If anything it hurts the application because it shows you didn't read the guidance.

They will look at your salary and bank statements and determine if you have the capacity to get accommodation. If your capacity is weak, you can include the letter from your uncle (as long as he was identified as UK family in all your previous applications), but if they think your finances are sound they will not rely upon support from elsewhere.

For your second question about applying separately from your family, this depends upon the premise of your visit vis-a-vis your previous application(s). Is your visit contingent upon all the family receiving entry clearance? If so, then apply together. Since no bookings are needed the incremental cost to apply is £83 for each family member. The risk of applying separately is that they would be able to conclude (and rightly) that you did not reveal material circumstances governing your application.

For the part about making a personal attestation that you will not overstay, note that everybody in the world is happy to say the same thing. What it means to them is that you haven't read the guidance because the attestation is explicit in part 10 of the application form.

The refusal formulae they gave (and thank you for including this in your question) shows that your finances do not tie out. They will be looking for a strong correction to this in your next application.