Beware Of The Leopard

It turns out that the British Embassy ruled against my Tier 1 visa request because they did not accept the signed and countersigned contract letter from Duke that stipulated my salary for last year as adequate evidence that Duke paid me that sum. The rejection notice indicates that it is not a “specified document” under paragraph 245C of the Immigration Rules. Since it was the contract under which I worked last year and I received none other, it’s a bit vexing that it doesn’t satisfy the Home Office. Apparently there’s a regulation hidden somewhere in the labyrinth of rules that determines what counts and what doesn’t — but since that regulation was not apparent when I filled out the forms, and indeed I still haven’t found it, I expect that I’m out of luck, and out $1,000 application fee (I can’t appeal the decision unless it was wrongly decided based on the documents I already sent — and since I can’t figure out what the rules are concerning “specified documents,” I can’t tell whether the matter was wrongly decided.)
 
[Added later: The rejection notice says that they want two different sorts of documentation for last year’s salary — not that the letter from Duke didn’t satisfy them. In that case, they did decide the matter rightly, because I didn’t submit two different sorts of documentation, although I haven’t found that requirement in the application guidance yet.]
 
All of this even though I have a signed contract to work at the University of Glasgow next year, so there’s no question of my being a burden on the government.
 
The package arrived too late for the relevant Human Resource employees at the University to step in and give their guidance; I’ll talk with them tomorrow, and we’ll presumably reapply under Tier 2, with the University sponsoring me. It will be a nuisance, it will take up extra time, and it will cost even more money, but it will work out.

7 thoughts on “Beware Of The Leopard

  1. It sounds absolutely infuriating, AKMA. Full (renewed) sympathies. Glasgow’s International Office (or equivalent) really ought to have been guiding you through all of this.

  2. You have my sympathies. Kevin and I have been through various immigration shenanigans and have all the fun of UK citizenship to look forward to. I wouldn’t mind all the jumping through hoops, if they were clear and up-front about the hoops that needed jumping through, but they’re not. It’s dreadful that the Home Office is treating you like this, but you’re not in any way alone. There have been many cases of unfair treatment of visitors to the UK lately. The British Government is acting increasingly shamelessly about immigration; their policy seems to be based more on the strident whinings of the Daily Mail than on evidence or common sense.

    Good luck!

  3. AKMA,

    We have a friend from Cambridge who has been hired by UW-Madison. Surprise, surprise, he had the same issue, just with the home office on the other side of the pond. You academics causing all kinds of unrest.

  4. Been there and done that, with teh US government. It makes things hard for a while too if you’ve been turned down once, even on administrative grounds.

    Surprising that the University isn’t helping you do this up front. Seems strange that they don’t take point on the immigration details.

    Good luck AKMA.

  5. I just got the title reference 🙂

    Be patient. Patience is supposed to be a virtue.

  6. You could try hijacking an aircraft from Afghanistan and claiming “political asylum.” Well it worked for a bunch of Afghans, all still here.

    The problem is the torrent of alien immigrants leads to pressure to tighten the rules; but since the authorities *want* a torrent of alien immigrants — the more alien the better –, they just tighten the rules for people like Americans, Australians, Rhodesians and the like. Sorry that you are being troubled by this nonsense.

Leave a Reply to Roger Pearse Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *