Hello greatyoungman,
Thanks for your question.
I am assuming you are a resident of Ghana looking to acquire a
visitation visa for entry into the United Kingdom for less than six
months. It just so happens that I have a friend who is visiting the
UK at the moment that went through this same process very recently.
She had to go through an interview, and was told very specifically to
bring a letter from her sponsor which needed to include a financial
statement. According to this page:
http://www.britain.org.nz/vpass/pdfs/inf2.pdf
Once your application is accepted it has a possibility of being
accepted without an interview. If an interview is required, it says
on the document that you *may* be asked for those documents. Which,
in my friends experience, and in mine in general means that you *will*
be asked for them. It also makes a note to say that it is *important*
that your letter of sponsorship includes evidence that your sponsor
could support you if you were not able to. I think the main gist of
what they are trying to say here is that they want to make absolutely
certain you will never be a liability to the United Kingdom. So, you
might have some breathing room here. For example, if you were
financially well off, and are able to prove it, they might overlook
the fact that your letter of sponsorship did not include any financial
information. It does not explicitly say that not having that
information would automatically disqualify you from receiving a VISA.
However, with all of the terrorism fears going on around the world, I
am sure that the requirements for entry have been tightened.
Therefore, you may not want to risk not having that information for
your interview.
It says that you will be entitled to an appeal if your host is a close
relative of yours. A close relative is defined as:
spouse, father, mother, son, daughter, grandfather, grandmother,
grandson, granddaughter, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew,
or first cousin; the father, brother, mother or sister of your spouse;
the spouse of their son or daughter; your stepfather, stepmother,
stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother or stepsister; or a person with
whom you lived as a member of an unmarried couple for at least two of
the three years before the day on which you applied for your visa.
http://www.britain.org.nz/vpass/pdfs/inf2.pdf
However, it does not say how long this appeal process may take,
especially considering the closeness of the holidays, so even if your
host is not a relative, you may not want to risk getting turned down.
I think the only answer to your question is, it is a 50/50 chance. It
is all up to the Interviewing Officer. He or she is trying to
determine many things about you, including potential financial
liability. If you were told specifically to bring those documents to
your interview, I would do whatever I can to bring them. Not doing so
would raise suspicion about your potential liability. You may have
some breathing room, like I said, if you are able to show you are
financially well off, or independently wealthy. However, considering
the times that we live in, that may not even be enough. My best
answer to you is to bring everything they asked you to bring. If for
some reason you are absolutely unable to produce a bank statement from
your host, make sure you have a really, really good reason as to why
not. They are looking for reasons to turn you down so give them as
little as possible. I hope this helps.
Best Regards and Good Luck,
watershed-ga |
