The UKBA must refuse 30% of settlement visa applicants

Spoke a moment ago with an immigration advisor who told me some interesting things, mainly that they have sources who say the entry clearance officers are targeted on refusing 30% of all settlement visa applications!

I was also advised the the entry clearance managers will rarely even reconsider a refusal simply because it messes up their figures for the month. An appeal could find in favor of the applicant when it gets to the judge, but that won't distort the figures coming out of the ECM's office.

So basically, when applying for a settlement visa the UKBA will refuse if they have the most minuscule of reasons to do so.

I've sent them a freedom of information request last week to confirm a similar question, I await their response!

Basically, a favourable Judge would go my way. But that itself is a gamble and it could be 7 months to a hearing.. Stuff I already knew when it came to time-scales. The interesting part was really when he told me some stories about fights they have currently with people and the silly reasons the UKBA refuse applicants. Just putting across the fact that these people are basically trying to stop you getting a visa, you really have to pass with flying colours!

In my opinion, it has been made harder on purpose, as appeals will be charged for, eventually, and they are trying to make a bit of a profit to show some kind of productivity....

The recent census shows how immigration in the last ten years really only boosted after 2004! What happened in 2004? The EU was extended..

This country never used to mess with partners of British citizens, just a decade ago you could have walked into Manila's British embassy with your wife, shown evidence of the relationship and a visa would have been issued. It is funny how everyone blames Labour for the state of immigration, but they were the party that actually introduced controls, fees and a pretty tough application system.

Personally, I am all for interviews by UKBA staff to applicants. I think it should have been the case from day one! But this government has set the bar when it comes to actually trying to restrict immigration by people who should be given the right to live here. A British expat could lose their business in a natural disaster of some kind in Manila, or a tragic incidence happens in their home town involving their parents and for some reason they really need to come home. This government has made it pretty much impossible for their partners to join them - I don't think that is right!

Again it is just pandering to the Daily Mail reader who lives in a bubble and couldn't deal with the nuances of this subject.

Also, for those Nigel Farage lovers out there. He would make it worse! First thing he would do would be to cut ALL immigration to the UK for 5 years. Secondly, he would leave the EU which would force all UK based EU citizens back home as the UK would no longer accept any new immigration application (untold families forced to be relocated overseas despite the jobs or property they own). The EU countries in turn would probably kick out the 100,000 or so Brits living in their countries and a forced repatriation would occur with people leaving the UK and people forced back to the UK. It would be utter chaos and would blight British industry for many years, so I truly hope the loony right wing (just like the loony left wing) don't get any real power in this country..

Dom is right, it has been made harder on purpose. If the UKBA can pay for itself with massive fees and a virtually guaranteed 30% failure of applications rate (forcing them to re apply) it reduces the burden on the tax payer.

I also think the way they are reducing student numbers is wrong for this country, students provide a massive boost to our economy and for the most part either leave after their studies or stay on in well paying jobs that add to the talent of professionals we have here. I mean, those Asian born doctors have done nothing but provide welcome service and taxes to this country! This current governments policies will reduce the sorts of immigrants who this country could really do with keeping and attracting in the future..

I also dispute the notion that immigration is bad. Yes, some of it is bad and it grabs the headlines, but let's just look at one aspect of immigration. The EU aspect..

People like to criticize the Poles for coming here and taking jobs, but for those old enough the same mantra was spouted about the Irish who came here a generation or so ago to build roads, given the mass employment of the Irish by British authorities. Like the Poles, the Irish came and took jobs that were there and essentially offered to them. To use one example, one of our users here (Marek Wawro) is a highly educated computer programmer and entrepreneur, one of the founders of Azimo and without knowing his tax history I would bet he has never taken a penny out of the British taxpayers pocket but is a net contributor to this country. We need people like that to stay!

Even a Polish manual worker contributes to this society in more ways than most people could ever know. They provide work, pay taxes and through their continuing culture will enrich our society even more.

These people are not taking "our jobs"! The economy expands and retracts based upon market forces and it is not the immigrant who is responsible for the state of our economy. It was the financial institutions who gambled money that wasn't theirs and the corrupt politicians who bailed them out to ensure they had a cushy lobbying job to go to after they left public office. We all witnessed the biggest shift of wealth from the working and middle class to the wealthy upper class with those bailouts and nobody could stop it, because the rich and powerful scaremongered everyone into thinking that if we didn't bail them out we would have gone back to the middle ages.

And since that time the blame for the losses made have been placed on the heads of immigrants and welfare claimants, and if you're an immigrant who claims welfare then you are the scum of the earth - as the Daily Mail would like to tell you.

Granted, there will be people both born in the UK and from overseas who will sit back and live off of the benefits that we have in this country, but it is not then an excuse to punish all benefit claimants because of a few rotten apples. We need a benefits system that looks after the poor, protects the vulnerable and is available for all of our society if they need it.

Pretty much what I meant when I referred to the spouse of a British citizen as someone who should have the right to get a visa.

My socialist twaddle came in two parts. The first part directly mentioning UKIP policy when it comes to immigration and as stated by Nigel Farage a number of times on TV. The second was my analysis of what would happen if those policies were to be implemented and please tell me where you think I got it wrong? If UKIP implemented a 5 year freeze on all immigration and removed the UK from the EU, what do you think would happen?

One thing I do agree with UKIP on is where you listed how we should limit EU immigration, as it is not going to happen whilst we are in the EU!

The central idea of the EU is free trade and free movement between borders for EU citizens. But one thing they don't like to make public is how if you went to France to find work and you couldn't, and so you claimed unemployment benefits, France would deport you back to the UK - and rightly so. The fact that we haven't is due to incompetent management of the department of work and pensions and the UKBA!! Though I doubt the Tories would concede on that one, better to blame Brussels and cement the Tory vote.

Here is a quote from the UKIP website:

And when they kick everyone out, there will be no human rights act, no court of human rights, nothing. This is not me just saying this, it all comes from their website and interviews. Then the EU countries who just got thousands of homeless people dumped on them would suddenly find themselves with a hostile local population demanding that they too kick out the British...

If you want a good idea of how UKIP would act in government, look at their MEP's records. They rarely vote, rarely ask questions, do as little as possible and get paid a nice salary for wasting the electorates time and taxes. Not to mention Nigel Farage really is a loon! Seek out some of his interviews on YouTube and you will see what I mean, the best ones are when he speaks to press in other countries about how the EU is a part of the new world order taking power from the ordinary folk.... Seriously, David Icke would be welcomed in that party..

I always stated that membership in the Eu for economic and trading purposes is of paramount importance to all nations in Europe, taking down barriers, free movement and all that blarney. What I don't like and I never liked, and was never asked for my vote on the subject, was about political union, single currency and bruxelles Via germany and france calling the shots over everyone else,
Human rights that only care about the criminal perpetretors and not the victims, European laws that do not fit with individual nations cultures and heritage.... The list is endless....

By all means, let us leave this mess previous governments have chained us to.

Farage talks well, and more often than not, he hits the nail on the head, problem is that I am still not too sure about the message he is trying to convey...

As it should be! I think really any more changes should be done only through public referendums.

Of the thousands of cases that go before the courts due to human rights, we only tend to hear about the negative ones. 99% of these cases are brought by regular folk who have had their rights trampled on. Such as mine when it comes to a family life!

Dom, though I think you would be safe given your length of time spent here in the UK, though who knows in the case of perhaps your step daughter. A fellow Italian who moved to the UK to work as a Chef in 2009 would likely get deported if UKIP came into power during the next election. Nigel Farage does indeed sound good, he is a good speaker. But when you get past the bluster and look at their policies, scary people run that party..

That said, I doubt they will get any actual power, they'll just split the Tory vote.

Oh, the 30% figure given to me in a phone call some weeks ago is disputed in the Freedom of Information request I got back from the UKBA.

Here is the thread where it is located.