Massive congratulations on the successful UK spouse visa application of ECO-Friendly client Rosella! Wishing you both a lifetime of endless adventures and joy as you start your new chapter together in the UK! As a general rule, applicants for a UK visa do not undergo interview and the determination of their applications is based solely on the documents submitted to the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).
It is thus very imperative to submit a complete and absolutely flawless set of document so that the person who will decide, called the Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) will have no doubt in his mind that the Filipino aspiring to travel to the UK, either to visit, settle, work and generally in some cases to study is truly qualified to enter the country.
Unlike in visa applications for entry to the United States where personal interviews are conducted by career diplomats within the US Consular Sections called consular officers to determine the eligibility of applicants, the UKVI relies heavily on document or paper-driven assessments.
Based on our experience here at ECO-Friendly Immigration Consultancy, most of our clients whether for a UK spouse visa, UK fiancée visa or UK visit visa are usually instantly relieved and grateful upon being informed that their applications are not interview-based and that they will not undergo a one-on-one conversation with ECOs.
They don’t realize, however, that the “paper-only” process where the deciding factor of the application is based entirely on what is physically submitted without a personal face-to-face interview can be a double-edged sword.
In other words, although a document-driven assessment can sometimes be considered as advantageous since the applicant will not be subjected to an interview and be open to all sorts of challenging emotions such as nervousness, self-doubt, frustration and exhaustion, it is still very hard and difficult to convince the ECO that the applicant is qualified on the basis of merely the supporting documents submitted.
Applicants must bear in mind that mere submission of all the documents listed in the UKVI website is still not a guarantee of a successful application. In fact, the VFS-Global, the official commercial partner issues a caveat saying, “The list of documents required by UK Visas and Immigration is not comprehensive, and therefore the required documents may differ from case to case, the above headings are a guide only and may not apply to all applications.”
Since it is naturally impossible and scientifically unfeasible for any two persons to have exactly the same personal circumstance, the UKVI does not provide an accurate or complete set of supporting documents checklist which an applicant should follow and comply with.
What the UKVI offers instead, are general outlines or guides that summarizes what types of documentary evidence the applicant can use as benchmark in collecting the documentary proof to show their eligibility for to the visa.
In some exceptional instances, however, UK visa applicants who have already completed their biometrics and submitted their documents at the visa application centers, are called upon by the embassy for an interview.
In one rare occasion years ago, an ECO-Friendly client (let’s call her Nina) who just filed her UK visit visa application was summoned by the UK embassy seven days after biometrics. Though clueless why she was to be interviewed, we accompanied her to the UK embassy.
An ECO-Friendly staff went with the applicant to the UK embassy in Taguig but only Nina was allowed to enter the interview room. 30 minutes later, Nina stepped out of the interview room teary-eyed. She was asked why her answers to the application indicated that she only had one (1) child when the UKVI investigations revealed she had two (2) dependants.
Dazed and confused she immediately headed toward our staff after the interview and said she was not able to answer the questions confidently since she did in fact only had one son. Finally she burst into tears because she couldn’t understand why the interviewer kept on insisting that she had two children when the truth was, she only has one child.
After a few hours of deliberation and much pondering, Nina remembered that when she was still a grade school student, her aunt borrowed Nina’s birth certificate from her mother so that her cousin could enrol in another school in the province.
Since then the cousin had been using her name and Nina's family had completely forgotten about it and absolutely slipped her mind. At the time the application was filed, this cousin of hers had two daughters. So it was her cousin who was the mother of two children after all. How the UKVI got hold of this information is still a mystery to us. But after this incident, we have made it a point to always to declare transparently, any and all information regarding the applicant’s personal circumstances, no matter how negative it may look in the application.
As they say, telling the truth is the safest and most logical option for a UK visa application than flatly lying and delivering an absolutely and unapologetic deception.
If in answering an application or interview the direct answer would completely ruin or badly affect the application, it would be better to just come clean and lay the cards on the table. The best way to counter this is to address it directly and explain everything in the ADDITIONAL INFORMATION which can be found in the end portion of the application.
Just man up, explain and provide reasonable details as to the exact reason why the negative issue happened. Always remember that being upfront about these topics will show the ECO of the applicant’s integrity and sincerity which could earn the latter extra points to help increase chances of approval.
Until next time!
It is thus very imperative to submit a complete and absolutely flawless set of document so that the person who will decide, called the Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) will have no doubt in his mind that the Filipino aspiring to travel to the UK, either to visit, settle, work and generally in some cases to study is truly qualified to enter the country.
Unlike in visa applications for entry to the United States where personal interviews are conducted by career diplomats within the US Consular Sections called consular officers to determine the eligibility of applicants, the UKVI relies heavily on document or paper-driven assessments.
Based on our experience here at ECO-Friendly Immigration Consultancy, most of our clients whether for a UK spouse visa, UK fiancée visa or UK visit visa are usually instantly relieved and grateful upon being informed that their applications are not interview-based and that they will not undergo a one-on-one conversation with ECOs.
They don’t realize, however, that the “paper-only” process where the deciding factor of the application is based entirely on what is physically submitted without a personal face-to-face interview can be a double-edged sword.
In other words, although a document-driven assessment can sometimes be considered as advantageous since the applicant will not be subjected to an interview and be open to all sorts of challenging emotions such as nervousness, self-doubt, frustration and exhaustion, it is still very hard and difficult to convince the ECO that the applicant is qualified on the basis of merely the supporting documents submitted.
Applicants must bear in mind that mere submission of all the documents listed in the UKVI website is still not a guarantee of a successful application. In fact, the VFS-Global, the official commercial partner issues a caveat saying, “The list of documents required by UK Visas and Immigration is not comprehensive, and therefore the required documents may differ from case to case, the above headings are a guide only and may not apply to all applications.”
Since it is naturally impossible and scientifically unfeasible for any two persons to have exactly the same personal circumstance, the UKVI does not provide an accurate or complete set of supporting documents checklist which an applicant should follow and comply with.
What the UKVI offers instead, are general outlines or guides that summarizes what types of documentary evidence the applicant can use as benchmark in collecting the documentary proof to show their eligibility for to the visa.
In some exceptional instances, however, UK visa applicants who have already completed their biometrics and submitted their documents at the visa application centers, are called upon by the embassy for an interview.
In one rare occasion years ago, an ECO-Friendly client (let’s call her Nina) who just filed her UK visit visa application was summoned by the UK embassy seven days after biometrics. Though clueless why she was to be interviewed, we accompanied her to the UK embassy.
An ECO-Friendly staff went with the applicant to the UK embassy in Taguig but only Nina was allowed to enter the interview room. 30 minutes later, Nina stepped out of the interview room teary-eyed. She was asked why her answers to the application indicated that she only had one (1) child when the UKVI investigations revealed she had two (2) dependants.
Dazed and confused she immediately headed toward our staff after the interview and said she was not able to answer the questions confidently since she did in fact only had one son. Finally she burst into tears because she couldn’t understand why the interviewer kept on insisting that she had two children when the truth was, she only has one child.
After a few hours of deliberation and much pondering, Nina remembered that when she was still a grade school student, her aunt borrowed Nina’s birth certificate from her mother so that her cousin could enrol in another school in the province.
Since then the cousin had been using her name and Nina's family had completely forgotten about it and absolutely slipped her mind. At the time the application was filed, this cousin of hers had two daughters. So it was her cousin who was the mother of two children after all. How the UKVI got hold of this information is still a mystery to us. But after this incident, we have made it a point to always to declare transparently, any and all information regarding the applicant’s personal circumstances, no matter how negative it may look in the application.
As they say, telling the truth is the safest and most logical option for a UK visa application than flatly lying and delivering an absolutely and unapologetic deception.
If in answering an application or interview the direct answer would completely ruin or badly affect the application, it would be better to just come clean and lay the cards on the table. The best way to counter this is to address it directly and explain everything in the ADDITIONAL INFORMATION which can be found in the end portion of the application.
Just man up, explain and provide reasonable details as to the exact reason why the negative issue happened. Always remember that being upfront about these topics will show the ECO of the applicant’s integrity and sincerity which could earn the latter extra points to help increase chances of approval.
Until next time!
Congratulations to ECO Immig client Rosella Tagala for the recent approval of her UK spouse visa application. Stay in the UK Rosella!
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