Please be aware that whilst UK immigration visa, Leave to Remain, and Asylum application forms appear to be uncomplicated to complete. In reality, there are multiple detailed level defects in these forms that have been purposely built in to the forms to support Hostile Environment implementation (meaning that care on completing the forms as fully and accurately as possible, gives the UKVI visa/leave to Remain/asylum forms assessors maximum contexts to refuse genuine applicants).
The Home Office and its associate Hostile Environment operational level implementation fellow Whitehall directed departments and agencies are revealed as disingenuous by the directive to anyone using those services ‘have to prove they are complying with/meeting ‘the Rules.’’
The traditional (pre-hostile environment culture) UK public service requirement / responsibility to provide demonstrably clear information about using UK government & UK taxpayer funded agencies services — such as at this very basic/essential level of completing application forms — is entirely removed by those in Whitehall who built in this complete & revolutionary change of service users having to guess or pay for legal experts to complete visa/immigration forms.
What is not shared on the .gov.uk website is that there have been since the start of the Hostile Environment 45,000 changes to those ‘Rules,’ and that most of these have not been directly scrutinised by Parliament, and are all too commonly according to Supreme Court judges, made by ‘back door’ methods through adjustments to interpretations in guidance notes to visa, LTR and asylum applications and the latter’s application forms.
It is important, to before starting to complete one of the UKVI forms, be aware that UKVI / .gov.uk webpages provide guidance notes accompanying the forms; they provide some, but far from all ‘need to know’ information and clarity on the UKVI unclear/grey areas. These notes often do Not provide information on areas of the UKVI form you are completing that you are unclear about how to answer, and concerned about. The lack of clarity regarding key parts of the UKVI forms is Not accidental: it is an important part of implementation of the Hostile Environment.
Experience of completing forms need to know information from real lived experiences:
From the very beginning, those seeking or needing to complete a UK immigration form (in the UK or overseas) are confronted by lack of clarity at so many points.
Firstly, it is a common experience for many who need to complete an immigration application form (or indeed even visitor, student, or work visa – although family related forms are by far the main target area of the architects of the Hostile Environment) to NOT BE CLEAR on what is the correct visa to apply for. This gives many opportunities for from the start, refusal of applications (commonly very expensive, with price increases also used strategically to discourage visa/immigration applications from genuine potential applicants).
Beyond this, there a number of sub-sections – especially, for example, the meeting of financial requirements — of these forms that give headline clear information (such as you have to meet a certain financial threshold; for example £18,600 for family/married/civil-partners LTR and settlement visas), but then give complex options on which to tick for a possible successful result for that section of the form, where you generally need expert immigration advisor/legal advice (this doesn’t always guarantee success on providing the correct answer, but certainly costs a great deal of money) or have to ‘trust to your luck.’
A further complication in completing forms, as many find is that there are still forms — such as for example SET (0) — on the internet that applicants may download and use (a) below, that one afterwards can find aren’t accepted, and have been superseded by online versions (b):
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/365535/SET_O__Version_10-14.pdf (at time of Google search still near the top of the first page of results, and on an official UK Government website)
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-to-settle-in-the-uk-form-seto/apply-online-form-seto This webpage nowhere states that only this, online form is now valid, and not to use printable ones
Confusion of these kinds in what form to use, and which ones not to use, often, understandably cause great disruption (and needless postage costs) to unwary applicants. This is a characteristic example of the implementation of the Hostile Environment at operational level, where maximum confusion caused and wont of clarity is a characteristic facet of the Hostile Environment’s minimising or preventing transparency, dimension.
Other types of defects with forms at detailed entry level include amongst many, the following:
Form entries asking one question, then in the description of what information is required, including in effect a second question: this makes it easy to answer the question wrongly.
Online forms IT defects: we have seen – the SET (0) form is the example, but there are doubtless others – on specific online forms a major, major multiple places IT glitch which sets up the unwary applicant to put in the correct information, but the online form specific entry box auto adjusts to change the number put in (amount of monthly rent paid, monthly income amount, dates of visits outside the UK, etc. are examples: see below) to a different INCORRECT number or date.
This cannot be viewed as a one-off IT defect, as on the form referred to, making an application revealed at least FOUR different places on the form where this entry box major IT glitch occurred. It is clearly NOT accidental, but deliberate and instituted by the UKVI that clearly has access to cutting edge IT in regard to developing such forms.
- For example a monthly rent correct figure could be entered, correctly, as £360 but would auto-adjust to £358, and when corrected, a second type would auto-adjust to £357 – on the third attempt, putting in the correct amount (£360) stayed in.
- Further example: a monthly income amount of £900 entered, would auto-adjust to a wrong amount, when corrected, a second time auto-adjust to a second wrong amount, and only on the third attempt would the correct amount, originally entered, be retained.
- For example, on entering details of visits outside of the UK back to ones home country for a family visit purpose, the correct year entered would auto-change to the wrong year, once or twice.
The way this perceived deliberate/not accidental Hostile Environment operational level forms-completion aspect works, is that the types of perceived deliberate in-built errors and defects that exist on the UKVI forms (most visa and LTR forms are now being made to be mandatory through Only online forms being accepted by the UKVI), means, that under the Hostile Environment, the least error on a UKVI form gives the basis for refusing the application.
The way this works is that for the type of mandatory/compulsory to provide answers to the entries referred to above, you will be required to give documents evidence that the information you provided is correct. This means, for instance, evidence of a letting agreement where your monthly payment figure is detailed, payslips for your monthly pay, and your passport, which details exit and entry dates for travel outside and back to the UK, and to the UK from your country of birth.
In this way, the UKVI auto-error registering mechanism on different sections of such online application forms as SET (0), enables a correctly completed application by a genuine applicant that met all of the eligibility criteria for the particular/given form, to be failed as dates/amounts, etc. differ on the completed application form to those details on the supportive evidence forms. An unacceptable malpractice, of a de-facto criminal (because it is rooted in a UK Government agency running a mechanism to convert true information to false) kind.
Beyond this and worse, at the core Hostile Environment implementation multi-agency level — the Immigration Tribunal through many of its judges (those that have a cases history record of being perceived to be inclined to take Home Office grounds for refusal of largely at face value/only very modestly challenged) — is in many cases revealed to have an approach of not challenging at all, or in any effective way, revealed, well-evidenced, detail in appeals relating to these UKVI forms revealed perceived contrivances to boost refusal of genuine applicants.
The above are just some examples (the IT auto-error mechanism on some parts of online forms being perhaps the most sinister clearly Hostile Environment implementation device, as it implies, clearly a structured secret technology technique that usually would associate with secret services type technology access) UKVI application forms completion, traps.
These mechanisms cannot be accidental — by any reasonable standards of objective interpretation — purposely set hurdles/traps set for genuine applicants who have entered the Hostile Environment at operational level, are further multiplied and deepened by the role of UKVI guidance on completing this form notes, that the applicant is asked to refer to, to assist in completing the application form.
These ‘guidance’ notes commonly completely lack the type of clear answers that are required for confidently completing the given section of the form being used. As such Guidance Notes are a particularly important means of withholding ‘need to know’ information, and (please see towards end of this page) a major area where many of the 45,000+ ‘back door’ changes to the immigration ‘Rules.’
And finally ….
ALWAYS inform your Ministry of Passports and/or [if in the UK applying for LTR] home country’s embassy that you have submitted a UK visa or LTR application – an email (which counts as an internationally recognised document with legal validity status due to its IP address sender, date and time particulars) – to the UKVI.
If you, unknowingly are a member of a specific UKVI/Home Office refusal / deportation target community (ethnic/nationality, or minority population group type such as LGBT) you are much more likely to be a victim of this very extreme malpractice. Passport seizures were prior to the Hostile Environment ALWAYS only associated with public safety considerations in regard to suspected crime or terrorism risks.