UK tourist visa after 10-year ban due to an error in documents

As a child I wanted to visit the National Gallery in London to see Van Gogh's Sunflowers with my own eyes. Thanks to the timely assistance of Imperial & Legal, my childhood dream has come true!

Miriyam 26 years old

citizen of Kazakhstan

Clients’ names and photos have been changed

Mariyam is an energetic journalist from Astana. She has invested a lot of time and effort into her favourite project – an author’s podcast dedicated to fine arts. Mariyam’s love for painting was instilled in her by her grandmother, who spent most of her life working as a simple history teacher at a secondary school.

She recalls with warmth how as a little girl she used to look at large, heavy albums with reproductions of world-famous paintings while visiting her grandmother. She was particularly impressed by Vincent Van Gogh and his bright, cheerful painting “Sunflowers”.

After school, Mariyam enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in cultural studies at the L.N. Gumilev Eurasian National University, one of the best educational institutions in Kazakhstan. After school, Mariyam enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in cultural studies at L.N. Gumilev Eurasian National University, one of the best educational institutions in Kazakhstan.

Unfortunately, after university, Mariyam did not become a fashionable art curator or an art exhibition organiser, as her work on the radio took over. The girl’s long-standing passion, combined with her university knowledge and natural curiosity, transformed into her own project – an entertainment podcast dedicated to art.

Mariyam can talk for hours about the artists and sculptors she loves, and laugh infectiously at the curious stories of the birth of some of the masterpieces told by the guests of her project. The podcast began to slowly but inexorably gain popularity.

The only thing that upset the girl was that she knew many paintings only from reproductions. And she would like to see with her own eyes the original of Diego Velázquez’s Venus with a Mirror or Van Gogh’s Sunflowers!

So Mariam applied for a tourist visa to England again. She had already tried to get it once when she was a student, but something had gone wrong then. Now, with her knowledge of English, the girl was sure that everything would be fine, so she even started looking for cheap air tickets to Heathrow, when again she received a refusal….

Our client

Mariyam – 26 years old, citizen of Kazakhstan

Task

Get a visa for a tourist trip to London after 2 refusals.

Task conditions

Imperial & Legal first decided to find out the reason for rejecting the previous applications. Fortunately, Miriam did not delete the very first rejection letter.

Our experts found out that the girl was not just denied a tourist visa – she was given a 10-year ban on entry to the United Kingdom. The reason for this was a single document that the then very young student had uploaded with her application. A Home Office representative found it to be inaccurate, which was the basis for such a serious measure.

Later, when Mariam submitted a new application, this time in full compliance, she was again rejected – already on the basis of the earlier ban.

It is important to understand that a certain amount of time must elapse between the first rejection and resubmission before you can challenge the decision. If you have received a 10-year ban and you think it is unjustified, the only possible solution is to resubmit your application with a detailed explanation of the circumstances of the situation.

We strongly recommend submitting such an application from your country of residence – this increases the chances of an objective review and demonstrates the good faith of your intentions.

What was the difficulty of this task?

1. Our client was already listed on the UKVI database as an offender.
2. Her file was already flagged for filing false information.
3. The second visa application ignored the current ban, increasing suspicion and complicating an already difficult case.

Solution Algorithm

Having assessed the situation, our lawyers started to draft a new application, in the process of submitting which they carried out “work on mistakes”:

1. They gave a detailed explanation of how the very first fatal mistake was made – uploading the wrong document. Imperial & Legal emphasised that their client had no malicious intent to mislead the UK immigration authorities.
2. They backed up their words with documentary evidence of the applicant’s bona fides, a voluminous cover letter and a perfectly drafted package of supporting documents for the third application.

Our experts have honestly warned Maryam that despite the efforts made, the probability of getting rejected is still high.

Result and outlook

The third application was considered within the standard timeframe. The UKVI representatives took into account the arguments of our lawyers, so Mariam received a long-awaited tourist visa for six months and after a month she was already studying the collection of Pre-Raphaelite works at Tate Britain and finally saw the treasures of the National Gallery in London with her own eyes.

A successful application will enable our client to subsequently obtain a visa for a longer period of time to visit even more art exhibitions.

Conclusion

The UK immigration authorities take every document that an applicant sends along with their visa application extremely seriously. Our client, due to her inexperience, did not appreciate the seriousness of the situation.

A second application was made several years later, but the entry ban was still in force. If you have no experience of dealing with visa officers, it is better to seek help from our consultants as soon as you receive a refusal letter.

In the case considered, the successful resolution of the problem was helped by: the first letter from the UKVI, which outlined the reasons for the refusal and ban, as well as the integrity of our client, the professionalism of Imperial & Legal staff and the understanding of the representatives of the British immigration authorities.