Re-applying for a UK visa after getting a refusal due to unexplained deposits

Question

I am a Ghanaian studying in the UK. My husband applied for a General visit visa to come over to the UK to support me in September when our baby is due but was refused on grounds of insufficient funds. Please see below part of visa refusal letter

• you have stated that you are married and employed as a visual arts teacher and earn 1,100 GHS per month. You have provided a letter from ...your employer to confirm your employment and income, I note however that your claimed income is not reflected in the bank statement provided in your name... You have also stated that you are self employed through ..., however although you have provided company registration documents you have not provided any evidence to confirm income from this source. You have also stated that you receive income from marking as an examiner for the ....;however the evidence provided does not confirm your income from this source. I am therefore not convinced that your financial circumstances are as stated.

  • You have stated that you spend 500 GHS (£97.67)per month on living expenses and supporting your family leaving you with a disposable income of 650 GHS (£126.97). You state that the cost to you personally of your trip is 7,300 GHS (£1,426.01). This amount is over 11 times your monthly income once family and living costs have been deducted and I am not satisfied that this is credible considering your personal financial circumstances.

  • In light of all of the above, I am not convinced as to your intentions in wishing to travel to the united kingdom. Further I am not satisfied that you have sufficient funds available to cover your cost. Your application for a visit visa has been refused under paragraph V4.2 (a) (e)

We realised in hindsight that we made some mistakes in filling the form - especially the income and expenditure section - and plan to correct this

1. The amount stated as salary was stated in error by himself and his employer and we have corrected that in a new letter from his employer and on his application form and this reflects accurately in his bank statement. We are also adding a pay slip for April 2015 (the most recent he could find) to confirm this. Is this enough?

2. Income from his self employed job is received in cash and he doesn’t pay that into his bank account. In order to maintain consistency we plan to provide explanation in a supporting statement that this is the case as we do not have any evidence to support this. Is this enough or should we remove this from the new application?

3. Income from his work as examiner is seasonal paid twice in a year. At the time he applied he had not been paid for this year, but he was paid a week ago and we intend to add a pay voucher to confirm this. This reflects only in the pay voucher and not in the bank statement as he could only cash the money on the voucher from the bankers of his employer.

4. Even though the argument of the cost of travel in comparison to his income is accurate, we think this is not valid as he actually intends to pay for his trip from his savings of about 25,000 GHS (£4000 plus) – which appeared as the closing balance on his bank statement. We did not put this in the form and so have decided to record this under the question “how much is available for your trip”. Is this accurate?

5. At the time he applied, he had about 30,000 GHS in his account, but due to fluctuating exchange rates, we took out a bulk sum of 7000 GHS to convert to pounds for the trip after we got a message that his passport was ready for collection. We think they will question this huge deduction and so plan to add a receipt from the forex bureaux for the foreign exchange transaction and explain this in the support letter. Is this enough? Or should he just get a new statement that end just before he made the deduction?

Sorry for the long message, hope we can get some help. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

1. is adding a pay slip for April 2015 to new bank statement and corrected income on visa application enough?

It should be fine as long as all of the bank deposits correspond to a salary slip and there are no irregularities in the movement of funds to and from the account.

2. How do we handle his self-employed work for which we have no evidence as he trades mainly in cash? should we just delete that from the application?

No, it should be included because it impacts his apparent life-style and explains why he has been able to save so much. Otherwise they will not find his savings versus salary believable and they will not be happy about it. The 'best practices' for that situation is to include a few years of recent tax returns which help show the funds have been legally obtained and accounted for. You can optionally add a statement that explains how cash payments are common for that line of work, and show how it ties in to his tax returns.

4. is providing a receipt of foreign exchange transaction plus an explanation of the 7000 GHS withdrawal enough?

Yes, this should be fine. They will be looking for an explanation supported by some evidence.

Adding...

Trying to fund a visit solely from one's savings account is a difficult proposition because it can look like your husband has saved up for a permanent move there. And if the amount for the visit is disproportionate to the total amount of savings, they are entitled to make that conclusion. What this amalgamates to is that you are avoiding an awkward situation by replacing it with a situation that is just as bad, or worse. Try to spend a proportionate amount on the visit which does not deplete your husband's savings.

Adding...

In commentary, you added that your husband does not have tax returns. If he is working for cash-in-hand the assistants who verify all the information may conclude that he is tax delinquent. This is a situation to avoid because they are entitled to assurances that people will respect the laws when they are in the UK. The 'best practices' for this is to file retrospective tax returns so that all periods are covered. Doing this may delay your plans, but it will help prevent future refusals.

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A generic note on Ghana: Ghanaian applications go through the British High Commission in Accra. This consulate is legendary for its staggeringly high refusal rate and sometimes even lawyers are reluctant to take on casework for Accra. A lot of refusals come from people who have been earning in the black market and are unable to properly explain their financial status. This is complicated by the relatively poor performance of Ghanaians overall. Applications submitted to the issuing post in Accra need to be prepared with precision and the most exacting diligence. Legal counsel can almost always be helpful.