Fellow NL’s your opinion will be of great value here.

A friend of mine has come to me on advice for how to go about his UK visa application and seeking advice from me because of the previous mistakes he has made in the past maybe due to ignorance or lack of knowledge about the immigration requirement. Well cutting the long strong short I will narrate his ordeal and want you to air your views, opinions and suggestions.

Frank my very good friend in university of Ibadan decided to travel to UK in pursuit of better education and he applied through an agent .He contacted an agent who once came on a presentation in UI and with them He paid about 4,000 pounds which is equivalent to 50% tuition deposit and accommodation registration fee. He also paid the agency fees for getting the admission and visa counseling. This was 50k naira

The agent collected the said money and never sent it to the school, but yet presented to him with a fake admission letter and receipt of payment and ask him to get his passport so that he can apply for the student visa. Frank been so glad that every thing is working fine and believing so much on the agent, He made his visa application via the agent who prepared all required documents for him. All he was asked to provide was his personal details and his transcripts and passport.

The visa was applied for on 2007 January. Then no thumb printing in place and you just submit in Ikeja office. It stayed about 3 weeks and frank was refused based on 4 facts.

1. Abnormalities and inconsistency in statement of account used ,
2. Abnormalities and inconsistency in Tax clearance ,
3. They doubt that he would return back home after studies,
4. That he didn’t make proper research before choosing the said course.

Frank, like everyone refused a visa was sad and in fact never knew what to do, the agent advised him to re-apply instead of appealing, but I advised frank to appeal than re-apply after he called me to inform me of the status of his application. Now as I was helping him prepare his appeal documents , we both wrote the letter, so we decided for the first time to call the school and tell them the status of his visa application and that if they could also provide any supporting documents to aid the appeal since he has paid 50%.And he was very eager to come and study.

This time the whole truth was out, the agent never sent money to the school, and even the admission and everything they used were later discovered to be fake.Although the embassy refusal never said this on the refusal.
When I came to Lagos and we both went to the agents place, they still denied that the money was paid, Frank got physically out of annoyance and threw the refusal pack on the manager telling him to produce his money back. He over acted and well the said news is that the pack fell into water and some of his transcript and passport were destroyed .Although frank got his waec certificate re-issued and he did a new E- passport now.

We decided to call the police and arrested the manager of the company, after he accepted to have false fully collected money from frank , he decided he will pay. The police made him write and undertaking and when the date came, he didn’t show up, the police when to re-arrested him again and the case was taken to court.
The manager immediately pleaded guilty to 419 and collecting money under false pretence. And pleaded that the court give him time that he will pay back. Then a payment plan was made and for every court appearance the manger paid as he said he will.

Now the court case has only one hearing left which is for pay off and Frank wants to apply for a new UK visa to go and study this December, He applied directly to the school and, also made payment directly for his full tuition fee and his accommodation registration which cost 8,000 pounds. The court gave Frank permission to go and study that he can present someone who will appear in court on final hearing and receive the payoff balance.

Now the question is should Frank reference that he has applied before through an agent, or should he just say he hasn’t applied before since the old passport is no longer available and he has the new Ecowas passport. If frank is to say no, what are the chances that he will be given a visa this times , because he didn’t thumb print .

Or should he say, he has applied. if yes how does he handle the fact that he went to an agent and the agents sins might be used to judge him. Also what documents should he provide to back his claim up in case he says yes.

Already, his sponsors and personal documents I have advised him with little experience I have gathered from immigration both on this forum and outside and that is fully ready now. He is filling his form and needs help with this now.

But I need other opinion about this very question?

Sorry if this post is too long.

opensourse,

from my own view please let your friend be clear and admitt that he has applied before and write out the reasons why they dennied him visa also which you have written here. if he lie to them by saying he has not apply before cecause he has the new e- passport,they will know because the have his information on their data, they are not fools, every of his data are with them.is better to tell the truth

for more clearification on how to go about his new application pls experience people in the house should kindly help on this.
more advice.

@promise2 thanks for your contribution

Please i still welcome response from other NL's because he intends applying in the last week of this month .

Thanks

Comments highly welcome, in less than 10 minutes of post this section gets populated with scam agent advertising VIsa in 2 days and 24hrs,

hello.
am no visa agent but i must agree your case is a bit complex. the ECO will need a lot of convincing to persuade him to reconsider you without recourse to your previous application.
As this case is, I bet the best option is to reapply stating the TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH. I think it makes your case more genuine and persuasive.

I was denied visas to the UK sometime in 2003. I went to the american embassy and was denied also. my passport then expired and I got another one. I had the option of reapplying to the UK embassy without the old one but |I told them I was denied visa to the US because the visa officers felt i would not come back to Nigeria. I was given Uk visa. I now have a 5 year UK visa on my passport.

Please tell the truth.

Yes that's the conclusion but the problem here still lies that the old passport was damaged along with the refusal slip , This been a long time ago and he never felt the need to keep it . not until now that he is re-applying

Saying the truth will clear skepticism and avoid so many question from the ECO true , i agree , but will this in any way play a role in judgement of the new application.

Please contribute with supporting documents,

will a court affidavit be necessary , stating that the passport was damaged during a little fight with the authoristies as he true it at the MD demanding his money.

what of a police report,

This is really complex, and quite sad really.
In the first place, I have never supported visa applications thru agents, I feel they are just opportunists. You friend should apply on his own this time.
Again, its best to always tell the truth. Since he had previously applied, they prolly will have his details so no point lying. He shd just state the truth, attach the old passport if he can, with a police report/affidavit stating the reasons for the damage. I think he will be ok.

I hope he has proper documents this time tho?

Thanks for your comments and suggestions so far as i look forward to more,

Also we preparing to make the application soon, he has narated everything and telling the whole truth ,

But the old passport is damaged and not available,

thanks

@opensource

If the old passport isnt available, does he still have the passport number? does he have a copy of the bio page? let him get a police statement and attach the copy of the bio page of the old passport to the afidavit. that ends the issue about the old passport.

thanks for the wonderful support , I just confirmed from him now and yes he has the scan copy of the passport because he once sent it in an email to the agent during the processing period. so he can just reprint

That's a nice one , more comments and suggestion please.

please, my brothers and sisters, Akolawole, funkybabe, londoncool , VOR , VicJustice, Palibus and all experts in the house I look forward to your contributions.

comments pls

bump