No Interview, No Same-Day, just Appeals

UKBA staff are slowly all becoming computer operators.  This is why human contact is discouraged.  Is it better to clog up the 'appeals' system than to exercise judgement to resolve a case?  Well, follow the money: each application brings thousands of pounds in 'fees' and many more thousands in consultant and solicitor/barrister fees.

Would it surprise you if I said that many of these advisors in the appeals business worked for the Home Office at some point, and still have strong connections?  It cannot be termed corruption, but it it is an incentive for more revenue on all sides and pressures the system in a certain direction.

UKBA says: Appeal our Blunder

In this interesting case, UKBA is asking the person to appeal their blunder, and then rejecting the appeal as being late.  The story also contains an interesting anecdote about kids being forced to return due to income rules Daily Mail Story.  The mother of the children in the story had died in South Africa and the British father cannot keep them in the UK with him as his income is too low.  They would be deported to South Africa to live in foster care.  Of course, an appeal would solve it!

Deterioration of Same-day Service

A few years ago, tired about complaints about long delays for routine renewals, UKBA put in 'same-day' service at some of its public offices with substantial additional fees.  It was a good idea: an officer would make the decision based on the provided facts, just as UKBA officers at the border make.  In case the information provided needs to be verified, it would take a few extra days but the decision would stand if the information was verified.  According to what some foreign professionals in UK told me, it used to be a valuable service and the additional cost was well worth it.

Increasingly, same-day service became just another place to submit forms, and the decisions themselves were delayed.  In the time-sensitive scenarios of renewals, it is a minefield.

Avoiding Overstaying Crime by 2 hours, thanks to the Web

Overstaying is a crime, but the various 'rules' - 28 days, six months etc. - make it almost into a non-crime as the 'rules' do not provide any notice.  Nevertheless it is a crime.  In one case, the same-day officer was asked by an applicant to calculate timelines properly and she said it is all fine, but 'additional verification' is required.  The additional verification turned out to be a refusal although the information was verified properly.

The notification of refusal was received by this Australian professional through a mailman dropping a parcel notice in the mailbox on a Friday.  When he returned home at 7 p.m., he rushed to the post office which was luckily open until 8 p.m.  At 8:30 p.m., he read the letter that was 'curtailing' his leave to midnight on the same day.  At 12:01 a.m. he would become a criminal.  He whipped out his laptop and filed the appeal online by 10 p.m.  Whew!  Thanks to the Ministry of Justice that provides this service and thanks to the builders of this government website -- a website that actually works.

Needless to say, our friend left the UK within weeks, disgusted with UKBA processes.  When he came to the UK on a trip a few months later, he was held for additional questioning at Heathrow.  Guess what?  They pored over his past and let him in, observing wryly that he had filed the appeal on the same day as the curtailment deadline and thus had not been an overstayer.  Had he been an overstayer, he would be denied entry.

Of course, had he not read the letter on the same day, he could have appealed to clear his name of the sheer unjustness of the curtailment.

And of course, he could have appealed the decision and probably won the appeal.

No common sense allowed.  Only computerized application of rules.  And then -- appeal, appeal, appeal, appeal.