My application for renewal of 5-year multiple entry UK visa has been refused due to what appears to be an error on the part of the UK visa officer.
I have held UK visas continuously for the last 20 years and have traveled to the UK over 200 times during this period, primarily for Business. I also currently hold or have previously held multiple entry visas to the USA, Canada, Schengen, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Africa, etc... I have totally visited almost 50 countries in the last 10 years and over 75 countries overall. I consider myself to have an extensive travel record to establish bonafides.
I am currently employed as a management executive with a foreign owned company. My remuneration is approximately US$110,000/year before taxes including benefits. I also own investments and properties (some jointly with family members) that are valued at just under US$1 million. I am unmarried and have no family in the UK.
On my application form, I declared all of the above and provided a letter from our HR department confirming this. I also provided current bank statements showing balances of approx. US$35,000 (held both locally and in offshore accounts) and credit cards (issued both locally and from USA, Canada and UK banks) with total credit limits of approx. US$75,000.
Unfortunately, my visa application was rejected. The following is the refusal letter :
It appears that the visa officer has accidently considered the value of all financial documents I have provided in US Dollars to be valued in the local currency instead (at an exchange rate of approximately 11000 to 1).
Unfortunately, I am advised by the Embassy that I cannot appeal this refusal as it I was not applying as a Family Visitor. They will permit me to submit a new application (including the £250 application fee again), but also caution me that applying with the same set of documents will attract the same decision, as this is a subjective assesment of my personal economic circumstances. The very rude local staff at the enquiry desk advised that "the visa officer can refuse you even if you show them 1 million dollars if they think that is not enough".
There has to be some way out of this Catch-22 situation.
I have held UK visas continuously for the last 20 years and have traveled to the UK over 200 times during this period, primarily for Business. I also currently hold or have previously held multiple entry visas to the USA, Canada, Schengen, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Africa, etc... I have totally visited almost 50 countries in the last 10 years and over 75 countries overall. I consider myself to have an extensive travel record to establish bonafides.
I am currently employed as a management executive with a foreign owned company. My remuneration is approximately US$110,000/year before taxes including benefits. I also own investments and properties (some jointly with family members) that are valued at just under US$1 million. I am unmarried and have no family in the UK.
On my application form, I declared all of the above and provided a letter from our HR department confirming this. I also provided current bank statements showing balances of approx. US$35,000 (held both locally and in offshore accounts) and credit cards (issued both locally and from USA, Canada and UK banks) with total credit limits of approx. US$75,000.
Unfortunately, my visa application was rejected. The following is the refusal letter :
It appears that the visa officer has accidently considered the value of all financial documents I have provided in US Dollars to be valued in the local currency instead (at an exchange rate of approximately 11000 to 1).
Unfortunately, I am advised by the Embassy that I cannot appeal this refusal as it I was not applying as a Family Visitor. They will permit me to submit a new application (including the £250 application fee again), but also caution me that applying with the same set of documents will attract the same decision, as this is a subjective assesment of my personal economic circumstances. The very rude local staff at the enquiry desk advised that "the visa officer can refuse you even if you show them 1 million dollars if they think that is not enough".
There has to be some way out of this Catch-22 situation.
