Thread by @ankitanandbgr

The absolutely inhumane and incompetent practices of @ukhomeoffice have ruined my academics and mental health. I was supposed to be in #Glasgow to attend @UofGlasgow @UofGEngineering for semester 2 but my visa was refused.

The refusal wouldn't have hurt if u had genuinely made some mistake. But i had meticulously checked every detail and made sure that I had included all the required documents.

So, I had applied for priority visa through @VFSGlobal on 16th November, 2021 spending around Rs. 1,23,000 (~1230 GBP) and completed my biometrics on 22nd Nov hoping to get a decision within 5 days. I recieved this follow up email on 24th. Note the [insert relevant mailbox]

This was one of the first instances of error from the #UKVisa student's team. I was asked for certain documents but given no reason for the issue, were the documents missing? Or was something else wrong? Alright, I have the documents, but where do I send it to?

Also, make a note of the paragraph asking me to send documents within 10 days. Since, i had no idea where to send the documents to since you cannot reply to the same email, i reached out to their customer support through web form. Mainly because no one seems to pickup the calls.

Here's their reply. @ukhomeoffice expects me to wait 15 days for their reply and also requires me to send the documents within 10 days. Note that the enquiry update was given on 26th November. Now, this is when I began to freak out.

I searched through the internet for a possible solution and eventually made a post on @Reddit r/ukvisa. The good folks at the subreddit provided me with the relevant student's office e-mail address where i finally sent the documents.

This did not ease my anxiety as i hadn't received any positive acknowledgement of the documents from Sheffield students department which handles #tier4 visas. The only response you get is as below.

I was still hoping to get my visa, as I was quite positive that i had made no mistakes in my application or document submission. But alas, I received my rejection message on 6th December (14 days instead of @VFSGlobal's stated timeline of 5 days for priority visa)

The refusal message stated that my maintenance funds were lacking (~12000 GBP) instead of the required ~15000 GBP since I had only paid ~18000 GBP as part of tuition. This was the second error as I had paid around 23600 GBP in tuition and uploaded receipts for the same.

Ironically, I also recieved the response about my query on the same day (6th December) acknowledging the successful delivery of my documents, which i was only able to send thanks to reddit. I am not sure if an automated apology means anything but here's their response

I was aghast by the decision. How can someone be so careless in handling documents that they decided to ignore or couldn't take time to properly calculate the amount mentioned on the receipts?

My anxiety was off the charts considering the amount I had spent on the visa application and tuition fees paid towards @UofGEngineering. My next step was to apply for an administrative review as clearly some error was committed, which I did hoping to get a response within 28 days

At that moment, I felt helpless, quite skeptical of @ukhomeoffice's stated timeline of 28 days for administrative review. But I still gave it a shot as I didn't want to spend another thousand pounds on the visa. Call me dumb but I am not rich by any metric to be as frivolous.

Now I waited for the decision, finished my exams and still waited. Sent multiple enquiries only to obtain standard response asking me to wait for 28 days. Recieved a what sounded like an angry reply in capitals from one of the executives 😅 Can't blame them either.i

I was desperate because my CAS had stated deadline of arrival to be 15th January 2022, which as I have learnt today is a hard deadline decided by @UofGEngineering. Thus, any further delay could hamper my studies adversely.

Coming back to the #ukvisa administrative review. 28 days had passed and quite unsurprisingly, I recieved no response whatsoever. I made another query and recived the same response that I will recieve a reply within 15 days. Note the 28th day passed on 4th Jan

And I had only less than 11 more days to avail visa and fly to UK. Today it's 13th Jan and I have recieved no reply whatsoever from the Sheffield Escalations team. I was also trying for a new CAS to apply for a new visa but apparently @UofGAdmission wouldn't be able to issue it

As the deadline set by @UofGEngineering is 15th Jan. At this point, I feel dumb, helpless and just lost. I have spent so much money, much of it belongs to my hard working parents who would like to see me successful. They have been as anxious as me, if not more after refusal

In retrospect, I should have applied for new CAS and visa asap. Oh only if humans had the ability of foreknowledge. Besides that, my life as of right now is completely ruined thanks to @ukhomeoffice @VFSGlobal Still awaiting your pointless reply regarding my administrative review

Hey @UofGVC Anyway you can help me out?

An apt adjective for the situation: Kafkaesque

Hey, @alisonthewliss Someone suggested me to reach out to you regarding my situation. Please give my story a read and help me, if possible.

Some posters on reddit have asked me to provide a clarification regarding my mental health as a case of mental instability might hamper my chances of obtaining a visa. So, I am making it clear that what I am referring above is anxiety and anguish about the situation.