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Hello BFers sorry for the delay on my promised updates as I have totally given up on the UK immigration authorities. Being a citizen of Northern Ireland we have the luxury of dual citizenship, which Im sure you know means that I can carry both a British and an Irish passport .. I have pulled my appeal and I will go no further with this bullshit system. The final nail in the coffin for me was when we were refused our Fiance visa then while it was in the appeal process we applied for a visit visa so that we could spend time together after being apart for so long, understandable yes? All of our requirements were exceeded beyond any doubt and we have had visit visas approved before, but on this occasion the reasons for refusal were laughable! .. For example the ECO made his own assumption that it would be better for me to visit my GF in the Phils rather than for her to visit me in the UK! I MEAN REALLY? WTF??? What do they really know about how hard it is or what the cost is or what is better for my relationship? If I could have lifted a phone there and then and told the ECO that it costs 1000GBP to bring my GF here compared to 3500/4000 for me to visit her in the Phils which includes saving hard and unpaid time off work then I would have phoned the ECO and burst his eardrum! .. Also my GF has visited the UK twice and returned home to the Phils twice but on this occasion she was deemed to be a flight risk! .. There was more silly reasons and because of this Brexit bollocks perhaps they have been told that there is no such word as YES or VISA APPROVED ... So I have renounced my British Citizenship and hired an Irish immigration lawyer. Now as a full Irish EU Citizen I have more rights and my GF is regarded as my extended family member so all we need to do is apply for a Family Permit and do you know that the only requirements we have to meet is to prove that our relationship is genuine!!!! Thankyou Ill be having that and the UK can float off into the North sea (no offence BFers) .....

Cant blame you at all! You have to do what is right for you and your partner. good luck friend but still keep us updated of your progress.

Cheers mate, and yes Ill let you all know how going the Irish Route compares to the UK visa system that we have all been fighting for years, abiding by the strict requirements and guidelines, following all the rules, spending fortunes, blood sweat tears stress heartache etc etc etc .... And where does it get us? Right back to square one!

Ooops sorry, my mistake... I was furiously typing and I rhymed off the name of the ECO on my application without thinking ..
I do apologize, I realize that was quite a silly thing to do .. sorry folks ...

I salute you for the fighting spirit, man! I hope the next time, things will work out in favor of you.

all the best Paddy--do keep in touch.

I have the same situation now my spouse visa is refused becoz the eco said that the net profit of my husband is only 9000£ but hes gross income for the last financial year 19435£ and also he state that i did not include appendix form which is not true even vfs staff wont accept the papers without appendix form im trying o email the eco manager.. Im totally gutted coz its obvious that we meet the 18600 required

No worries Paddy I removed just to be on the safe side. Totally understand the frustration. We can see you're fighting for your partner and you'll make it happen. Good luck and keep us informed.

sal

Salamat buddo

Yes , exactly the same problem I encountered, but what can you do? They seem to have excuses and reasons for everything now. That error put our plans back 6 months and I havent seen my GF in8 months now so im saving every pound coin I have at then minute so that I can go and visit over xmas and the new year .. The only thing is that damn exchange rate just seems to be sinking lower every week!

Cheers mate and I will keep you posted, my persistance will eventually pay off, at least thats what I keep telling myself!

Salamat po ...Yes there is always next time

Well Paddy, at a fleeting glance of your post before reading it I was rather hoping that you would have some good news to tell us, myself and bigmac were wondering how you were fairing.

One thing that stands out in your post is your determination, it will be this that finally gets your loved one to Ireland.

I personally feel that the case officer who suggested you should go and visit your girlfriend in the Philippines went above his remit, he should not have offered his personal opinion and I'd be really annoyed about that if it was me.

I am 100% confident that you will get there in the end, if anyone deserves to be with their loved one its you.

All the best and good luck mate

If you feel that the decision was not justified then appeal, remember that when submitting financial information it needs to be so clear that a child can understand it, leave no room for doubt in the case officers mind.

Thankyou very much @Timmers, kind words mate and much appreciated. You have always been a great help to me, you were the first person that I spoke to on BF and you have helped me through every application and any questions I have had you were always very quick to offer your advice and then with our many refusals you always offered your support for me to figure out how to attack our next applications . . So thanks again mate and I will definitely keep you guys posted on my new plan of action to get my little lady here

Oh and just to add to that, you must know the famous quote 'you are entitled to apply again because each visa is considered on its own individual merits'? Well I must inform you that statement is total bullshit also!!! Each and every one of our refusals have been judged on past visa applications and refusals because they quoted parts from every single one of them! Does that portray an image of the ECO on the day looking at your current application as a fresh and new application taken and viewed on its own individual merits??? NO! The answer is NO! They actually take your application and look at it and scrutinize it and compare every part of it to your previous applications .. And in my case I made a genuine mistake on our 1st Fiance/Settlement application, I realized where I had gone wrong and I corrected it to 100% so that I left them no room to return a negative result but the bullshit continued and my application was compared to every application approved and denied that we ever lodged. So for me there was no point in wasting any more time on this path because it seemed that the more refusals we gathered then the less likely it became that we would ever be successful in any future applications.....

Awww........ i think this is the time when the plane tickets are most expensive. Be prepared to pay lots of money.

Yes it jumps up by 500quid in total because I need 3 flights to get from Ireland to General Santos but you know something, if the plane tickets were 5000 quid it would not matter one bit to me because money means nothing compared to the feeling of meeting my Joh at the airport after so many months apart ... Im quite creative and a bit of a Del Boy when it comes to pulling in a few more pound notes!

You're right, every time to apply you have to tell the UKVI if you have been refused before thus prompting them into looking at the reasons why, this certainly cannot help your case although in theory they should take each application on merit.

From reading your posts you have a plan and you are moving forward with them, I'm looking forward to the day when your visa is rubber stamped, not as much as you but I am really looking forward to it.

You'll laugh about this episode in your life one day, lets hope that day is soon.

I'm sure we will be able to look back and laugh at it someday but I will be more proud on the day that we finally win our visa because it has pushed our relationship to the limit and I have never had to deal with so much stress in my life. And then there's the waiting and worrying which is a killer as all BFers must surely be familiar with and you just sit and hope that you have done enough for an approval and then the dreaded package arrives and the disappointment and total depression of a refusal is very hard to take. You feel helpless being 8000 miles away and not being able to comfort your loved one. Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about and have gone through the same ups and downs but I have learned that there is no point sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I just refocus and get to work on fixing it and keep pushing forward and working my ass off because we all do this for a reason don't we? . . How could we ever just give up? That ain't happening sir! I will not stop until my Joh is here sitting beside me on my crappy sofa once again, and then @Timmers I will be able to laugh about this BUANG journey we put ourselves through!