In-laws' Visitor Visa rejected - Urgent Help required

[jieu2969]

Dear All,
First of all a little background. Me and my wife are in Canada, me on Study permit and my wife in OWP. My wife is expecting and the date is in next 3 weeks. My inlaws applied for the Visitors Visa and it was rejected. The rejection reasons stated in the refusal letter are:

A. You have not satisfied me that you would leave Canada at the end of stay as a temporary resident. In reaching this decision, I considered several factors, including:

1. Your travel history
2. Length of proposed stay in Canada
3. Your personal assets and financial status

B. I am not satisfied that you have sufficient funds, including income or assets, to carry out your stated purpose in coming to Canada or to maintain yourself while in Canada and to effect your departure."

C. You have not provided sufficient documentation to support your/your host's income and assets

Ok, we mentioned that we are expecting a baby and would like to call our inlaws. We did also mentioned that its not a 'Nany arrangement' and that our inlaws want to be part of this exciting moment and hence they are visiting us. Did we do a mistake trying to be completely honest ?

My inlaws have travelled to UAE for a short interval of time. Not sure why did they gave 'Your travel history' as a rejection reason. We cannot do anything about the travel history now.

Length of stay that we applied for is 4 months. This is their first travel to Canada and is 4 month a long time ?

We showed the following Funds: (Including both parties, ours and my In-laws)
1. State Bank of India, (My Father In-law account) --- $25812.40
2. Scotiabank, (My wife's 4 months stmt, chequing) --- $5047.61
3. Scotiabank, (My Wife's 4 months stmt, savings) --- $2991.80
4. ICICI Bank, (My account in India, 6 months stmt) --- $5302.68
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Total: $ 39,154.49 (CAD)

Is this amount not sufficient to stay for 4 months ?. Could this be a strong reason to reject. Also, the amount shown by my father inlaw is a bit unclear. Meaning, its not a general savings bank account stmt. Its a MOD account. Dont know what does it means.Could this have confused the Visa officer ?

For point B: My father in-law has showed shares, Fixed deposit and one flat and one house in India.
For point C: My wife has given her pay stub, offer letter. I have recently joined a short term contract and has submitted ONE pay-stub along with my offer letter.

I am totaly stressed out and need your urgent suport. The tickets were confirmed tickets and guess has to be cancelled now.

Please help with your advises and experiences ,,.

 

[rednwhite]

I was in a similar situation almost 3 years back. Didn't apply after the rejection and managed without them. As far as I can see there are two things that went wrong.
1. Length of proposed stay. Should not be more than 2 weeks.
2. The hosts income/assets. It is on the low side and since you just started working, it can be seen as a red flag

I don't understand why TRV is such a difficult thing to get and that is the only complaint I have about Canada. In comparison, USA is paranoid about outsiders and it is much easier to get a visitors visa.

 

[jieu2969]

I was in a similar situation almost 3 years back. Didn't apply after the rejection and managed without them. As far as I can see there are two things that went wrong.
1. Length of proposed stay. Should not be more than 2 weeks.
2. The hosts income/assets. It is on the low side and since you just started working, it can be seen as a red flag

I don't understand why TRV is such a difficult thing to get and that is the only complaint I have about Canada. In comparison, USA is paranoid about outsiders and it is much easier to get a visitors visa.

Hi rednwhite,

Thanks for your reply. We can change the length of stay next time. But how do the VO decide if the hosts income/assets are on the low side ? What can we do about it ?
Are there any other major reason that I am missing which prompted the VO to reject the application. I was confident that our application is solid with all the forms and supporting docs.

Regards,

 

[Bryanna]

Hi,

Firstly, its unfortunate that your in-laws' TRVs were refused..... particularly when your baby is due shortly.

On going through your points, I feel their applications were refused because they probably did not present their documentation properly..... or some documents/evidence was not provided.... although your father-in-law has strong financials + property + bank term deposits.

I will try to answer each point separately


a. Travel History: Dubai/UAE does not really count as travel history because it is easy to get a visa.... having stated this, you cannot do much to improve their travel history at this point


b. Length of stay requested: 4 months for the TRV is very long.... normally one should ask for 2-3 weeks maximum.... as this will indicate the applicant has strong reasons to return to their home country


c. Personal assets and financial status: I feel your in-laws probably did not present facts and evidence properly for this point.

The ICICI bank account is yours.... and it will not help in this case as your in-laws do not have access to those funds.... nor does it help you as the host because that money is held in India

For the TRV, the applicant (ie your in-laws) financial situation is considered more than you/your wife's financial situation.... in the list you stated, the SBI account (State Bank of India) MOD account is the only one owned by your father-in-law

Now an MOD account is a combination of a debit/deposit account.... it is a time deposit but has full liquidity.... perhaps, your father-in-law did not submit an explanation for the MOD

This MOD would have made the visa officer to believe the funds in the MOD are locked-in..... which implies that your father-in-law does not have sufficient funds to support his visit to Canada.... hence, Reason 3 for the visa refusal.... hope you understand this error in documents they submitted


While parents are not likely to take any kind of remuneration for taking care of their daughter/new born baby during/post pregnancy.... if the purpose of visit states something to this effect then it indicates the parent is violating a visit visa to work illegally.... even if no payment is made for "taking care"


A few other points
Did you provide Property Documents (translated by an accredited translator, if required)?

Did you mention that the funds in the Fixed Deposits are not locked-in and can be available as liquid funds, if required?

Did you provide a day-by-day Itinerary with expense estimates (including for some sightseeing, meet friends/relatives)?

Do your in-laws have any other family members who live with them in India? This will help to show "family ties"

Would you share the list of documents that your mother-in-law submitted to demonstrate her strong ties to India?


Hope this helps

 

[rednwhite]

I've read on the forum somewhere that the way the officer sees is, 1K/person/week of visit. I'm assuming approximately the same amount should be shown from both the applicants and the hosts side. And 2 weeks is the typical vacation duration in the west.

 

[jieu2969]

Hi Bryanna,

Thanks for your reply !

Please find my response in Blue.

perhaps, your father-in-law did not submit an explanation for the MOD
Answer: No , he didn't.

if the purpose of visit states something to this effect then it indicates the parent is violating a visit visa to work illegally.... even if no payment is made for "taking care"
Answer: We have been completely honest. Anyway, what shall we write while re-applying for the second time. We are planning to invite for a short duration, maybe 3 weeks , but what should the invitation letter include. By the time they arrive(hopefully after approval in second time), the baby would have already arrive. Can we say that they want to see the new born and want to spend some quality time.


Did you provide Property Documents (translated by an accredited translator, if required)?
Answer: Yes
Did you mention that the funds in the Fixed Deposits are not locked-in and can be available as liquid funds, if required?
No
Did you provide a day-by-day Itinerary with expense estimates (including for some sightseeing, meet friends/relatives)?
Answer: I did provide a Iternary. But it was not on a daily basis. It talked about the sight seeing plans, shopping around vancouver, visiting Victoria etc. etc.
Do your in-laws have any other family members who live with them in India? This will help to show "family ties"
Answer: Have a second daughter, but she is married and do not stay with them. We did write about her in the explanation letter.
Would you share the list of documents that your mother-in-law submitted to demonstrate her strong ties to India?
Answer: Just a clarification that both my father-in-law and mother-in-law applied for TRV. My father-in-law was the primary applicant, and my mother-in-law is a house wife.
- Application Forms -
- Marriage Certificate
- Itinerary (Non- refundable Confirmed Tickets)
- NameChangeAffidavit
- Invitation letter
- Letter of explanation
- Representative form
- Covering Letter_ Proof of Means of Financial Support (This gives the complete overview of the financial proof that we submitted such as account stament, pay stub etc.)
- spouse account stament
- my acc stmt in India
- spouse pay stub
- my pay stub (just one, as I recently started working)
- Our status document
- Both of our employer offer letter

Docs from My In-laws side:

- Properties (house and flat documents)
- Fixed Deposits,
- Shares,
- Social Ties ( Member of Community certificate , housing society membership document , participant in voluntary/charity work certificate)
- Bank Account statements

I am not sure what else shall I need to submit. I would give the extra documents that we talked above. Anything else that I am missing ?

 

[Bryanna]

Hi,

Here are some suggestions when you re-apply. You can provide the following:

Explanations with cross-references to the relevant Evidence (whichever point is applicable):
Individual Strong Ties to Home Country.... state amounts where possible in both INR and CAD: separate sections for Employment/Business + Property + Financial + Family + Legal + Social


Financial Situation in Home Country.... sort of like a personal assets statement by listing all.... Bank Statements + FDs with maturity dates/amounts + Shares portfolio (give approx market values at the time of applying for TRVs) + Mutual Funds + Gold/Infrastructure Bonds + Jewelry value + Foreign Currency (if purchased from a RBI registered Forex dealer, not the regular Forex guys), PF/PPF updated passbook, LIC, NSC, etc.... if the properties are not mortgaged/no loans against it then you can state this, too, as a positive financial point


Why your father-in-law holds an MOD account.... get a letter from SBI that the amount is not locked-in and can be liquidated at any time + take a print of the SBI website page which states the same


Itinerary..... day-by-day, to a large extent, with expense estimates in CAD.... and refer to the financial situation explanation to prove that they have the funds to cover the visit..... also mention that you will take care of their accommodation and living expenses during the visit + your mother-in-law's airfare, etc will be paid by your father-in-law

Itinerary can be to meet you/your wife and the newborn baby, sightseeing, meet other friends/relatives.... nothing to the effect that they want to "take care of your wife and the baby".... and do not mention that your wife will be resuming work shortly after the baby is born


Is your father-in-law employed or he has a business?

Is your father-in-law a member of the Managing Committee of the housing society?


Other suggestions
Do property evaluations.... not necessary to get this done from a CA.... you can give realty market values (attach references/prints from Property Times, MagicBricks, etc) as indicative values for the area where these properties are located.... and state these current prices when you mention property ties..... obviously, current property prices would be much higher than the buy price

Give photocopies of the latest Property Tax receipts + Housing Society Maintenance receipts

Give FD Interest Certificates.... plus letters from each bank where the FDs are held... which state that the FDs are not mortgaged.... and not locked-in

If your mother-in-law jointly owns the properties then state this clearly because it will prove her stronger ties to India

You may also want to consider buying Overseas Travel Medical Insurance policies (to match the dates of the visit).... these can be cancelled/amended, at a small cost, if travel plans change


Also, in the Covering Letter they can mention they must return by XX date.... for example, to attend a close friend's wedding.... or to attend the Society AGM.... or any other such reason.... submit proofs for the same


Hope this helps