My sister in law is applying for a Visa (for non Brits, not a credit card but a permit to enter the country) to study for a Master’s Degree. Speaking with her yesterday, she told me she read on some forum online that if her application was rejected they’d stamp a huge REJECTED VISA on her passport, and that this stamp is going to give her lots of trouble whenever she’d go abroad, as customs officers worldwide would be suspicious of this.
This sounded funny to me. Surely they would do that only in cases where there were severe reasons to do so - maybe for criminals? And why trust what somebody at random writes online? Chances are he’s misreporting, or hiding some facts. Better to go to the source, I told her, and call the Home Office.
Well, I forgot the kind of people the UK Home Office hires to answer the phones. Nobody would commit to an answer, or let her speak with somebody who knew better. She called again in the hopes of finding someone more knowledgeable, but she got a Yes, a No, and a Dunno. So helpful.
So, I turn here to the opinion of knowledgeable Dopers. Let’s make it clear that I do not look for legal advice, but just for this bit of information: does the Home Office really put this Visa Rejected stamp on the passports of all people that had a visa request rejected? And are the consequences so dire anyway?
Is your s-i-l applying abroad for a visa at a British Embassy/High Comission or from within the UK for leave to remain?
If she is abroad a visa refusal is signalled on the back page of the passport. It takes the form of the Embassy/HC location and date of application with the date underlined eg Bombay 01/03/09. The underlined date is the actual refusal signal. It’s small and actually quite discreet.
Within the UK the date of expiry of the applicant’s current leave to enter/remain will be underlined. Again discreet and not noticable to anyone who doesn’t know what to look for.
There are very definitely NO whacking great “rejected visa” stamps. There’s no need anyway because all refusals are entered on a database and any UK official will pick them up from that alone.
From outside the UK, so what you said afterwards should apply.
That’s good to know and it does help me. Thanks! Do you happen to know if being rejected prejudices applying again? If the application is rejected (and it could be, for income reasons) she wants to have a go at it again next year.
I’ve had two visa rejections for the UK, and it hasn’t adversely affected my ability to get either a UK visa or a Schengen visa after that. Both rejections were stamped (discreetly, as Some Whelks noted) on my passport, with a date.
For the record, both rejections were for clearly explained reasons, and when I corrected those and re-applied, the visa was granted, and I haven’t had any trouble getting or extending leave to remain in the UK since.
What is the your sister-in-laws nationality? If she is from a commonwealth country who needs a visa (technically “Entry Clearance”) then rejection will be rare and for clearly explained reasons. If she is not from a Commonwealth country… then no reason is ever given.
This was true when I applied, no idea of its changed.
As **Devorin **says a visa refusal doesn’t necessarily prejudice subsequent applications but it very much depends on the circumstances. A failure to submit all the required paperwork for an application, for instance, shouldn’t prevent you successfully obtaining a visa in the future; a criminal record might well do.
All visa refusals are accompanied by a notice outlining the reasons, Commonwealth or not, for the simple reason that you have a right of appeal against a refusal to issue. There’s no real difference between a visa and an entry clearance - they are in effect the same thing.