BritCits

Claire

“Just because the ECO appears to not have bothered to look at the paperwork, we may have to wait for two years.”

Claire is a British citizen living in South Africa with her South African husband and British daughter.

They applied for a UK settlement visa but were declined on the basis that they don’t meet the financial requirement as defined in paragraph E-ECP.3.3. This is even though they do meet the financial threshold. The ECO claimed that Claire did not have a firm job offer in the UK, even though she had enclosed a copy of her contract of employment in the UK with a start date of 1st July, also showing she would have been earning over £18,600.

This family has naturally appealed the decision. However they are now waiting for their appeal to be dealt with, simply because an ECO appears to not have bothered to look at all the paperwork.

An additional point of concern is that they have been informed their appeal could take up to two years; they’ve been told that it’s unlikely that her husband would be issued with a visitor visa now, given he has applied for a settlement visa.

So this family waits and waits, considering perhaps the exercise of EU treaty rights just in order for three British citizens to be able to return home as a family.