Hello All,

My mother-in-law, brother-in-law and sister-in-law applied for visiting visas in January this year with the intention of spending Easter in London with us. Their application was refused and we subsequently appealed. We received a letter from the Immigration Tribunal telling us that the appeal would be heard in October. However, a few weeks ago my mother-in-law received a call asking her to attend the British HC in Abuja. She went with her 2 children last week and was told that their machine was out of order. All 3 passports were collected and they were asked to collect them on the 18th August from the HC in Lagos.

Does this mean that they've changed their mind and have decided to grant them their visas? Find it all very confusing!

Thanks in advance :-)

i believe you should start popping the champagne bottles.

the signs are good.

Thanks for ur reply Snowdrops. I hope ur right!

yes sounds like you'vde won your appeal otherwise you would have got a letter saying that you havre lost and they wouldnt take your passports for that! Congrats!

We're really hoping that their visas will be granted but don't you think it's strange that Immigration Tribunal sent my husband and I a letter saying that the appeal would be heard in London in October with us present and that then the HC just called my in-laws out of the blue requesting their passports?

Not strange. See below on Immigration and Asylum Chambers:


What happens when an appeal is lodged?

When the IAC has recorded your appeal they will send a Notice of Receipt to the visa section that refused your application. You should enclose all additional supporting documentation with your appeal. When the visa section receives the Notice of Receipt, an Entry Clearance Manager (ECM) will review the decision to refuse your application in light of your Notice of Appeal and any supporting documents. If the ECM is then satisfied that your application meets the Immigration Rules, the original decision may be overturned, and entry clearance issued.

If the ECM does not overturn the decision, an ECO will write a statement to explain why the ECM decided to uphold the decision to refuse your application. This will be sent with all your papers (the appeal bundle) to the IAC. The appeal bundle will be prepared and sent to the IAC within 20 working days for non-settlement cases and family visit cases. For settlement cases, the papers will be prepared and sent within 60 working days. These timings exclude postage and times to or from the visa section.

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/howtoapply/infs/inf19appeals#21760675

Yes it is possible for you to be expecting a hearing date and still be called to receive your visa. What would happened is that as soon as you get to the embassy you'll be asked to fill an appeal withdraal form if they've not filled it yet as you mentioned they've been to the embassy, they definitely would fill when next they visit.
They would issued their visas and the appeal withdrawal form would be sent to the tribunal.
Obviusly what had happened is that when the appeal paper got to the visa manager at the embassy they would have reviewed they ground of refusal by the clearance officer and found it not solid enough so what they've done is an administrative review. Meanwhile bravo, be expecting your relatives soonest.

Hi guys. Just wanted to thank you all for your advice and let you know that my in-laws collected their passports from the HC today - complete with visa :-) WOOHOO!!!

Congrats !!!!

woop woop woop!

Thanks so much for your kind wishes guys x

Gudafternoon,please am so confused needs your advise sersly/urgently....want to travel to the Uk but i earn 60k wia i work,but my friend that;s inviting me ask me to get any sponsor in nigeria that'll use the person acct statement ,letter of intent,my own employee leeter,payslip n also statement of acct plus her own document too in uk...please are all this document necessary or not?