Mumbai office - visitor visa declined - bonafide

[Jazzi254]

My brother’s visitor visa application got declined in Mumbai, India as the Officer wasn’t satisfied he’d be a bona fide visitor.

The following evidence was submitted: marriage certificate, letter from employer confirming time off for 4 weeks and will resume work upon return, letter from his 7 year old son’s school confirming they couldn’t give time off for him to attend with him, joint bank statement wife to confirm funds are together, home ownership document, support letters from myself, my wife and his wife. I was the sponsor.

Reason for travel was to attend my son’s first birthday and all evidence was submitted for that too.

There’s no option to appeal so I’m considering submitting the application again but I’m unsure of what new/additional evidence I can submit for consideration as we submitted everything possible. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for reading this far.

[JandM]

Sorry to hear about his refusal. I hope someone may have some suggestions. Has anyone re-applied?

[Jazzi254]

Hi JandM, thanks for your acknowledgment. I spoke to an Immigration Adviser yesterday and he advised that we shouldn’t bother unless my brother earns over 50,000 Indian rupees a month as that proves he has a good job to return to. Oh well.

[JandM]

I suppose the LIA was going on something from experience. But there's nothing in the regulations that calls for a certain level of salary. Retired people, and homemakers with no job, have been granted visas to visit before now.

[ysc5]

whats the reason for the decline ? seems reasonable for uncle to visit his newly born nephew for a couple of weeks

[Jazzi254]

Yep the LIA said that any male under the age of 35 with an income under 50k INR will be declined full stop. I agree that he’s most likely working off his experience.

The Immigration Officer believes that if an opportunity to stay back in NZ arises at the end of his stay he’ll be discouraged from returning to India. They consider him to be at risk of overstaying/breaching his visa conditions.

I know how important the bonafide criteria is and to address this I actually added 16 pages of evidence to prove that he will return to India and his family at the end of his stay. I actually sponsored my sister to visit in June this year and she came to visit my son for a month.

I’m still thinking of re-applying for him to visit but only for one week rather than one month. A religious evening prayer has been planned on the day of his birthday (which falls on a Monday) and then the birthday party is on the Saturday.

I know that lessening the visit period alone doesn’t fully address the immigration officer’s concern but I’m truly at a loss as to what further evidence I can provide.

[Lens]

Hi - I feel for you. A friend of mine visited from South Africa recently and had her visitor visa declined despite the application being well supported. As you know, there is no right of appeal and there is a very strong sense of being in system where a visa can be declined with no apparent reason. She opted to gamble on a second try and was required to complete this extremely intrusive document https://www.immigration.govt.nz/docu...es/inz1200.pdf. But in the end, the visa was approved.

You could try request more information "You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you and have it corrected if it is wrong. You can also ask to change your details on an NZeTA" https://www.immigration.govt.nz/cont...st-information. This 'might' be useful.

[Jazzi254]

Thanks so much Lens. Your advice has been super helpful.