UK visitor visa for GMC ID check refused

Question

What subtype of business visitor visa should I apply for?

1. (business) single, double, multiple valid up to 6 months
2. (business) permitted paid engagement
3. other type which I didn't mention?

Answer 1

To deal with your stated question, and based upon the content of your refusal notice, it seems you will rely upon your brother's sponsorship and your GMC appointment could not take place without his sponsorship because they infer that you are in reduced circumstances. So on those assumptions, your online form would look like this...

You would apply as a family visitor under the sponsorship of your brother who is an Irish national and thus has de facto settled status in the UK. We'll assume that he has a clean sponsorship history.

That answers your question.

Commentary by pnuts (to whom thanks) suggests that to apply straight-away would be adventurous. It's a good point, so this answer will include some tips on how to do better. To completely delve into your refusal would be too ponderous for this site's format, so you may wish to take some ideas and ask your brother to instruct a UK solicitor.

For your brother to sponsor you, he will need to submit 3 - 6 months of bank statements and salary slips. Each and every inflow into his account should dovetail to a salary slip or be annotated with the source of how the money was obtained. Reading this question/answer pair may be helpful in understanding why it's important to be transparent.

If your brother owns the premises where you will stay, he should include the deed or mortgage statements. If he rents, then he should include a letter from his landlord giving you permission to stay there OR if permission is stated in his tenancy agreement, then a copy of his tenancy agreement. I know this was not mentioned in your refusal notice, but they will certainly nail you the next time once he clears the financial hurdles.

He should include his employment contract so that the assistants in Cairo can double check his status there (and by the way, they will check, Cairo checks everything).

You need to follow the same template for your bank statements and salary slips and employment contract, but yours will need translation. They told you how to do that in your refusal notice. Genuine visitors very rarely take four months of holiday, and it's even rarer for a junior physician to do that. Get a letter from the Ministry clarifying your status and explain that it's ok for you to be gone that long.

Nate Eldredge (to whom thanks) noted that asking for four months when the occasion for a visit is prompted by a GMC verification that takes less than one day invites a credibility problem. It's worthwhile thinking through if a more focused visit would be more appropriate. There is nothing wrong with wanting four months in the UK, but it should make sense in the bigger picture of your job, apparent lifestyle, family situation, social presence, and so on.

Your father needs to follow the same template as your financial evidence. It's not enough to offer GBP 3,000 to help you; he needs to clear the same transparency hurdles as everyone else (including translations). If they do not know where the money came from, they will refuse again and matters will be worse.

Finally, they got you because they think you will overstay and you will resort to public funds at some point. They also don't believe you represented your circumstances in a transparent manner (4.2(c)). Given everything they wrote, I think their grounds are fair. You'll need to be a lot more transparent with everyone's financial evidence and your own employment situation.

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Adding...

General information about the issuing post in Cairo... Applications go through the commercial partner in Alexandria and are sent to the visa section in Cairo. The visa section has a lot of highly experienced and well-trained local staff who help the ECO's by verifying everything. They write up clear refusal notices that give a full account of the grounds for their decision, and when they refuse you can be sure they found some serious problems. They have a long-standing record of efficiency and turn around applications within 10 days.