12 things to be fixed in the UK visa processing based on my refusal

I applied for a visitor visa for a 4-days trip and was refused without a right to appeal. I deem this an unprofessional behavior because the officer disregarded most of my assets.

I spent some time to bring the system’s attention to this if not to reverse the decision then at least to show them what might be an abuse, to get their position on whether that was an abuse or the policy, to give them a chance to make the policy less ambiguous and to improve the instructions and the workflow for the visitors.

I failed at every step. The result is this article.

In the first part, I go into excessive details of what I did. In the second part, I explain how I would do it better with all the new knowledge. In the third part, I suggest the improvements all over the workflow.

If you are an officer who wants to improve the workflows, you can jump there.

Part 1. Short Story Long

This first part is mostly for:

• Those preparing the documents to avoid my mistakes.
• Those seeking to reverse the refusal to not waste time the way I did.
• A 3rd party who wants to learn if my refusal was just, like visa officers of other countries.

Background

I am Russian living in Georgia as a tourist since the war escalated. I last was in a western country in 2016. Those factors deem me risky to affluent countries, so I needed to improve my travel history.

In Georgia, there is this vicious cycle for Russians. We are allowed to live here indefinitely without visa or any registration. The only requirement is we leave once a year even if for a minute.

For that reason, Georgia almost never issues residence permits to Russians since we already can spend money here and have the basic needs served, and residence permits to us would annoy locals who are mostly anti-Russian since the Russo-Georgian war of 2008.

The pitfall is, no matter our circumstances here, other countries see us as refuges without a residence permit. We even cannot apply for most visas from here, because only locals and residents can apply to most consulates.

The two exceptions are Germany and the UK. Germany recognizes 6 months of living here as residence, but they had not expanded their capacity in response to many Russians moving to Georgia. All slots for applications are taken by bots minutes or even seconds after they are published, so it’s hard to get there. They do not have options to pay for extra slots.

On the other hand, the UK looks perfectly convenient because:

• One does not need to be a resident and can apply from any country.
• Slots to apply are always available even for the next day.
• There are express options. Unlike with the United States, they do not require special circumstances like health, funeral, or court hearings, but just can be purchased. Normally they aim to decide in 3 weeks. For extra £250, they will decide in 5 business days. For extra £956, they will decide the next business day.

One can also choose the length of the visa of up to 10 years for extra payment. I was unsure of my chances, so I chose the shortest and the cheapest visa.

I was employed from June 6, 2022 to June 16, 2023 in Akvelon, an american 23-years-old software company, the Gerogian office. Before that, I was a freelancer.

It would be better to apply during the employment because affluent countries see that as more stable and less risky for them. I did not, even when I learned they were cutting me on a 29-days notice. I waited for my final payment for my bank statement to look a bit more impressive. That was wrong.

Application

My purpose for visiting the UK was to leave the UK, because the travel history is one of the greatest assets a Russian can have these days. But I could not write that in the application. So my purpose was to visit the basic sights of London and to trek Ben Nevis, the highest point of the island. That was genuine, and I would love to go there if allowed. I like hiking a lot, see my Elbrus ascend.

I was self-employed by the time of applying, back to freelance, not any income from new customers yet since I just re-stared that. So I chose “Self-Employed” and put my last salary as the income.

It actually was my most vulnerable month. Not working anymore, and not yet a Google Developer Expert, an honored title with travels sponsored by Google.

Still I had:

• $13k in Bank of Georgia.
• $12k with Interactive Brokers.
• $4k in Bank of America.
• $2k in TBC Bank.
• A car worth $10: Nissan X-Trail of 2012.

I submitted the following statements and documents to prove that (yes, I am that nerdish to publish it all here, sensitive data redacted).

Bank of Georgia:

Interactive Brokers:

Bank of America:

TBC Bank:

Car ownership:

I also co-own an apartment in Russia, but I did not bother to obtain a fresh certificate and translate it, because I thought my other documents looked credible enough. And anyway, if that apartment did not stop me from immigrating to Georgia, how can it stop me from a potential overstay in the UK?

My travels in the last 10 years: United States, France, Iceland, Czech, Portugal, Austria, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, all visas attached.

I submitted all of that online.

My number was GWF071414511.

Day 0. Biometrics

I was photographed and fingerprinted in Tbilisi on July 6.

Day 21

This page shows 3 weeks as the standard waiting time for a visitor visa. Still nothing.

I logged in to the website to check the status, but the page there was confusing:

https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/nextSteps

It makes an impression that something is not yet complete on my side. Same goes for the payment step, a link to which I have recovered somehow:

https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/paymentConfirmation

Combined with the expired standard time and no notice, this left me unsure if my application was really received, a frustrating wait.

Day 60

On September 3, I filed a complaint here with the following text:

It has been almost two months, and I have not heard anything, while the standard processing time is three weeks. If you need longer to verify any of my documents, I expect a letter letting me know of that, so I know my application is not lost.

Additionally confusing are following pages if I revisit them:

https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/paymentConfirmation

https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/nextSteps

They read that I must perform some additional steps. Their content is likely static, relevant for the appropriate steps, and does not reflect the current status, but it still leaves in my mind a chance that something was lost or not processed right. I expect the final page to say something like “We have received everything and processing it, just wait”.

Since I am writing you anyway, there has been a substantial improvement in my professional credibility as I was included to a short list of experts recognized by Google (the “Google Developer Experts” program): https://developers.google.com/profile/u/alexey-inkin which I would add to my application if I was applying anew.

I know I cannot amend my application at this point, but it could not hurt letting you know. I would be happy if you can pass this information to a reviewing officer, it would make up for the long waiting time. Thank you for your service.

Day 70

On September 13, I got a refusal letter:

Note that the decision was made two days ago, so this time could be saved.

The response itself on the second page was almost offensive:

REASONS FOR REFUSAL

You have applied for a visa to visit the UK.

In deciding whether you meet the requirements of Appendix V: of the Immigration Rules for visitors (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-v-visitor-rules), I have considered:

- your application and any additional relevant information you have provided with it

- your immigration history

The decision

I have refused your application for a visit visa because I am not satisfied that you meet the requirements of paragraph(s) 4 of Appendix V because:

You are seeking entry to the UK for 4 days tourism.

You state you are self-employed and I note the documents submitted in this regard. However, said supporting documents do not demonstrate that your business is currently generating revenue that supports your stated income. The documents you have submitted do not demonstrate that you are earning the level of income you state from your self-employment.

As evidence of your financial circumstances and of the funds you have available to you, you have provided bank statements in your name. I note the balance of your account benefited from a significant uplift in funds on the last day of the statement, tripling the account balance. From the evidence submitted, I am not able to establish the origin of these funds. Therefore, I am not satisfied that these funds are an accurate reflection of your current financial circumstances. I am not satisfied that said funds are genuinely available for your exclusive use.

The documents you have submitted do not demonstrate that your personal circumstances are as stated. I am not satisfied that you have given an accurate reflection of your personal and financial circumstances. This undermines the credibility of your application to the extent that I am not satisfied with your intentions in seeking entry to the UK.

You state you resident in Georgia. You state Russians can stay in Georgia for one year, visa free. You state you have left Georgia recently and returned a few days later to restart the 12-month period. Furthermore, you have declared that you are single with no dependants. The submitted documents do not demonstrate that you have any assets in your name.

Given the above, I am not satisfied that your circumstances are such that they would give you the intention to leave the UK at the end of the limited period stated by you.

I am therefore not satisfied that you will have sufficient funds to cover all reasonable personal costs yourself without working or accessing public funds. I therefore refuse your application under paragraph 4.2 (e) of Appendix V of the United Kingdom Immigration Rules.

I am not satisfied as to your intentions for visiting the UK, that you are a genuine visitor or that you will leave at the end of the period specified by you. I therefore refuse your application under paragraphs V4.2 (a) and © of the United Kingdom Immigration Rules.

NEXT STEPS

In relation to this decision, there is no right of appeal or right to administrative review.

Come on, is it really impossible to determine the origin of funds from this line?

The line that costed me visa.

That response was also breaking the very first characteristic in the long list of the UK Visas and Immigration:

From that point on I had two goals:

1. I vaguely hoped to reverse the decision.
2. I wanted to at least learn if that was the policy or an abuse. I hoped for someone to tell me “Your documents look fine, that was a mistake, re-apply”.
3. Restore justice.

I wanted to exhaust all options before re-applying, because my standing got a bit worse. I did not go into a new job and was taking my time preparing my EB-1A green card petition and a startup, so:

1. I already spent $5k out of my $31k in savings.
2. Worse, I had no income in the past 3 months, which renders me a bum.

Restoring justice looked the most realistic of my goals. I may not be allowed to appeal or to apply for administrative processing. But this definitely falls under unprofessional behavior, which is listed as a reason to complain.

I may have no mechanisms to reverse the decision, but there must be a way to tell them:

A wrong thing happened.

Please look into this if only for your records and work ethics.

Otherwise, what is stopping them from doing really terrible things and not that toy offense they did to me? There cannot be a system without feedback on abuse and discrimination!

Let’s find a way to tell them this. And maybe someone will tell me I was good and worthy. You really must be in the shoes of an outcast like us, rejected on both sides of the war, to understand this crave.

The last page of the refusal letter showed a link for feedback:

But it was broken and remains like this for three weeks now:

Day 71

The next day I tried to file my complaint here:

Summary:
- The officer could not determine the source of funds, although it was present in the bank statement.
- The officer did not consider my other bank statements beyond the one caused their suspicion.
- The officer mistakenly indicated I do not have assets to my name, although a car registration document was provided.

I was denied a visa based on 4.2 (e) of Appendix V of the United Kingdom Immigration Rules, “must have sufficient funds to cover all reasonable costs…”

In the decision, the officer only indicated data from one of 4 statements I submitted, with balance of ~$12k. There is no indication that other statements with total balance of additional ~$18k were considered.

The officer did not agree that all the money are available to me because of the significant uplift in the last day of the statement, and they were not able to establish the origin of those funds. However, that line in the statement reads “Sender: shps akvelon jorjia; … Salary for June 23”, which is the last salary from my past employment. It is large indeed because it included a vacation compensation, but still it is only double average I was receiving for the whole year for which the statement was provided. This line on the statement is nothing extraordinary, and that suggests the officer did not inspect the statement before the last page.

Furthermore, my past employment there is easily googlable as “alexey inkin akvelon” with my blog posts on their website, and the company being a reputable software company with 15 international offices. I did not tick “employed” status because that employment ended a few weeks before my application.

The officer indicated they are not satisfied that I have sufficient funds to cover all reasonable personal costs. But even if all my other bank statements are disregarded, including the line caused suspicion, that would still leave me with ~$4k (out of my confirmed $30k), which sure would cover a 4-day trip I requested.

The officer indicated they considered my immigration history. My requested trip is totally in the pattern of my former visits to affluent countries: 5 days visit to the US, 3 days visit to Iceland, 4 days visit to France, 2 days visit to Czeck Republic, and others, which are older. In none of those countries I overstayed or caused any other troubles. If I did not travel in the recent years, that was because of the war and COVID-19. But since the form requests travels for the last 10 years, I expected they were to be considered.

The officer noted that due to my personal circumstances they do not believe I have the incentive to leave the UK after the stated period. If those past travels do not indicate my patterns, then basic googling of my name would have shown I am a high-profile specialist among just a thousand designated by Google as experts in their technologies: https://developers.google.com/profile/u/alexey-inkin
With that status, it is much easier to comply to laws in the countries I travel to not risk the status and professional reputation.

My only mistake in the application was that in my self-employment I projected the income from my last employment. This is because the form reads “How much do you earn from this job in a year?”, note “do” rather than “did”. I do not believe this point is severe enough to cause that chain of invalidation of the documents by the officer that followed.

I believe the officer could and should have exercised the right to request additional documents from me, as this opportunity is listed in the description of the process. Reasonable requests would be to:
1. Provide a yet more recent bank statement to show that the funds from the “suspicious” line stayed on the account.
2. Provide my past employment details since the statement read “salary”.

Also reasonable would be to leave the right to appeal or for administrative processing.

None of that was done, and the right to appeal or administrative review was explicitly denied. This should be combined with the facts that:
- The officer ignored my other ~$18k in banks and stock brokerage, including such reputable bank as Bank of America, United States.
- The officer ignored my car ownership worth additional ~$10k explicitly noting I do not have any assets.

For comparison, 8 years ago I was granted a United States visa with severalfold less money in the banks, the same income history, same worth of assets, with the only difference I was living in Russia.

This makes me believe the UK visa officer did not do their job diligently and only sought an excuse to refuse. Combined with the 2-months waiting time, to which I was given no heads-up, this results in a very poor service and makes me suspect a discrimination based on my nationality given the world’s agenda.

I was not allowed to submit it:

It suggested filing a support ticket but shown no way to do so.

Day 72

I looked for ways to contact them, and found the page to file tickets:

There is an option to enter your email to receive an answer, which I did. I got an email with a link to a help desk system with the status of my ticket, which was satisfying:

They answered me in less than 3 hours:

It had a link to the complaint process page, which contained an alternative email: complaints@homeoffice.gov.uk

So I sent the text of my complaint to that address.

Day 86

14 days later I got a response that this email was only to complain about applications filed from the UK, not from abroad.

I double-checked the page with that email, and it did not have such restriction. Moreover, as one of the use-cases it lists is applying for a visa to enter the UK, which should assume applying from abroad:

So one of the following is true:

• This email is for domestic only, and there is no warning on this, which leads to applicants losing 14 days out of their 3-months complaint window.
• The email is for all complaints, but it was mistakenly forwarded to the domestic department, which dropped the complaint instead of questioning the routing.

Either way, that’s so wrong.

So I followed the link from that email:

Alright, so I am actually going to pay them to look into the complaint. No problem, the fun of telling this is worth it:

I typed this to submit:

Hello.

I was trying to file a complaint on the negative decision on my application because the check was not performed diligently and some of my documents were ignored.

I initially tried to file it with the complaint process here:
https://www.gov.uk/complain-uk-visas-immigration

But the website did not let me file it saying it considered it spam at the last step.

Next, I emailed to complaints@homeoffice.gov.uk
as advised here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration/about/complaints-procedure

… and received a response that it was only for those applied from within the UK. That response directed me here.

So here goes my original message. I would like you to route it to the appropriate complaint department for foreign applicants and also tell me a shortcut to it so I don’t follow false paths next time. And if by any chance you are in capacity to investigate this yourself, that would be amazing.

(Here goes the full complaint text from above).

Now, that form limits the message to 4 thousand characters, unlike 50 thousands for the complaint form. My message was 5705 characters which still was reasonable. I could have paid £5.48 for the double size, but there was no such option.

I had to cut the preamble and the mention of me being a Google Developers Expert the complaint body to fit. I only prepended:
“Please route this to the appropriate complaint department”.

They replied in two hours refusing to look into the matter:

Day 87

They asked me if I was satisfied with the request.

That’s good. And I am sending them this link if they ask for details after I click the last link.

Day 89 — Published

I published this article. If anything interesting happens, I will be updating it.

Today the response to my original complaint of long waiting time has come. They replied on the 21st working day instead of their target 20, and they even apologized for that. Oh, I want to hug that officer.

Part 2. How to Prepare Better Documents

If you are employed, grab all the visas you can because this is when you are considered worthy.

Even before that, start saving money if not buying assets in the country you live in.

They always suspect you borrowed the money you show. If you have received a large sum, let it stay on the account for a while. Even if your rent and other expenses cut it later, the fact of it staying on your account is more important than having some +10%.

Get every paper you possibly can. I did not bother to translate my Russian apartment certificate. This could be the deal breaker for you.

Also, I have my individual entrepreneur entity in Georgia in inactive state. This is because in this state I am not required to file zero tax returns every month. I am going to activate it again when my first payment from a customer arrives. You should probably activate your entity before applying if you are submitting the entity certificate with your docs. I don’t know if there is a public way to check whether a Georgian entity is active, but the consulate may have direct communication with the government for such information. This may also explain the two months waiting time. Sure enough, if they checked and found it inactive, they would not disclose it in the decision to keep such check informative for them in the future.

Part 3. How the UK Visa Service Can Improve

1. Show the Actual Status

When I log in, the page must show that I did everything I had to and only need to wait.

Currently, these pages are frustrating. They are static and stayed like this even after refusal. Always show the actual status when people log in.

https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/nextSteps

https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/paymentConfirmation

2. Notify if out of Standard Waiting Time

If the application is out of standard waiting time, please notify so I know the application is not lost. Ideally provide an estimate.

3. Cut the Time from Decision to Notice

My decision letter indicates September 11 as the date, while it was emailed on September 13. Please investigate why these things happen and cut that delay of two days.

4. Explain the Rights to Appeal and for Administrative Review Early

I learned I had no right for administrative review from the refusal letter, and it is frustrating to not know that before. It took googling to learn that:

1. Appealing is not available for visitor visa.
2. Administrative review is not available for visitor visa.

You should:

1. Say that earlier in the process of applying. Ideally have a checkbox like “I understand that for this visa type there are no rights to…”
2. Amend the refusal template to say: “For this visa type, there are no rights to…” so I know it’s standard and not the discretion of the officer to cut those options for me.

5. Expand the Right for Administrative Review

I understand that administrative review is made for more substantial visa types than a visitor visa. The idea must be that a visitor visa is so simple that it’s easier for one to prepare better documents and re-apply. However, this is not entirely true.

Visa applications for nearly all countries ask if one was ever refused any visa. So a refusal is painful and brings burden for the rest of life. One always wants to not have that on their record. So a reversed refusal is way better than an approval of a new application.

Please expand the right for administrative review to all visa types. If it is more expensive to you than the £80 you charge, make the price of it higher for visitor visa. I would even pay £800 to clean this off my record.

Even if a positive review does not cancel the fact of the initial refusal, it’s much better to write in the future forms “Initially refused a UK visa in 2023, overruled in admin review”, it clears all questions.

If you expand the administrative review availability, please allow it retroactively for older applications as well that have their 28 days expired before this becomes effective.

At the very least, explain why it is unavailable for a visitor visa given the burden it puts on a refused applicant.

6. Explain When Additional Documents are Requested

This page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visa-processing-times-applications-outside-the-uk
reads “You will be contacted by a letter or email if we need more information on your visa application.”

It is two different things if

• This option is reserved for higher-grade visas, and the workflow for a visitor visa does not allow to request more documents and requires the officer to decide on what is given.
• The officer had the right to request additional documents but decided not to.

This affects whether the refused applicants feel neglected and offended or just dissatisfied. The difference is really huge to someone in our shoes.

The paragon here is the United States EB-1A program that requires an officer to request additional documents if the petition cannot be approved right away, unless the evidence is fake, and there is a right to appeal in the latter case. I understand this program is in a different league, but it does not hurt to learn from programs with less discretion and higher customer satisfaction.

Please explain for which visa types additional documents can be requested. Show this during the application and on the appropriate pages.

7. Designate a Channel to Report Abuse

Officers inevitably develop their personal patterns of decisions within the framework of the policy. These patterns may be not what the policy was made in mind with.

For visa types with the right to appeal or administrative review, the officers can receive feedback on their patterns from reversed decisions. Also, the officers know that the rejection they make will be tested, and they are motivated to make decisions that will stand the test. This ensures the system works as intended.

Given that a visitor visa has neither the right to appeal, nor administrative review, nor complaint option, the decisions on it are in the dangerous shadow of no feedback. An officer knows their decision will never be tested. If they are out of time or in a bad mood, nothing stops them from arbitrary refusals. And if the officer genuinely wants to do the job right, they may not know all the details of what the system’s collective view of “right” is. Then we get things like this:

“I am not able to establish the origin of these funds.” UK Visa Officer

If for some reason you insist that visitor visa must have no right to appeal or administrative review, provide a channel for feedback for the sake of the feedback alone.

At the very least, fix the survey link in the refusal template:

But better set up a complaint pipeline with tracking.

8. Never Block Submitting a Complaint

Looking at this page that prevented me from filing a complaint, I think it is a server-wide generic page against bots that protects many other forms on the website:

It may be reasonable to protect forms that have no emergency use cases. But complaining must always be available. Someone may witness a real crime in the immigration system, and it may be urgent.

If you consider some submissions spam, put CAPTCHA or require payment for suspicious or long messages like you do with other inquiries.

Complaints must always go through because this is the last resort.

9. Separate Channels Within UK and Outside

On this page: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration/about/complaints-procedure
nothing suggests that the email complaints@homeoffice.gov.uk is only for those applying in the UK.

I lost 14 days waiting for the answer from there just to learn that it is domestic-only. I had no right to appeal or administrative review anyway with my visa type, so time was not ticking for me, but to someone this may be critical. If administrative review is only available 28 days after refusal, someone may lose half of their time if they accidentally follow this route.

Make an email like complaints-from-uk@ and complaints-outside-uk@ if you really need to separate those channels. The ability to email from outside is very important because people may have troubles filling the forms. No form has a 100% conversion because they all depend on the software on your server, its load and taste for spam. Email is the most reliable thing. After all, this is in your values:

It could be that that email was still for everyone, but someone routed my message to domestic department instead of the foreign one, and the domestic department just dropped the complaint instead of questioning the routing and forwarding it to the foreign department. If this is happening, this also needs correction.

Also, what do the values say in regard of mistaking the department I send messages to?

But best of all,

9a. Join the Processing from Within and Outside of the UK

I suggest you measure the total time spent on matters raising from those channels being separate. A lot of pages you maintain have different instructions for within and outside. A lot of ramblers like me follow the wrong paths, and you need to bounce them with meaningful letters about the wrong channel.

This does not have to be this way.

I assume there are reasons why those two departments and pipelines are separate, and it would take a lot of effort to put their operations under the single client console. But it’s totally worth it.

Until 2000s, in my country there were specialized clerks, and for any government service one had to learn which is the right ministry, the right department, and the right officer to get each particular paper. That was exhausting. I am sure something like that was in your country as well.

Nowadays, when we request a service in Russia or in Georgia where I live, it is a celebration of sanity. You go to one building, take a ticket, and everything you want is there. Same is for online services.

In this age, the same should be done for geographical differences.

10. Put all Interactions in a Single Console

Seeking the truth, I used 4 different communication channels:

1. Complaint form.
2. Website issues form.
3. Complaint email: complaints@homeoffice.gov.uk
4. Paid inquiry.

All of those channels produce conversations in different places, and it’s hard to track even if most of it ends up in email — they have different subjects and senders.

A single console would be better. Take a look at the help desk screenshot again:

Isn’t is better if all complaints and inquiries were on this list, searchable and filterable by types and tags?

I understand that some conversations are specific to the visa service while others are for gov.uk as a whole. This is not a problem if you merge all communication on all government services into that console. As an expert in the science of user experience, I believe your customers across all services will find that convenient. If it’s too much of an endeavor, keep the website issues for gov.uk separate and merge the other three specific to the visa service.

I do not know if these communications end up in one interface on your side. If they are not, it would be extremely beneficial if operators on one channel would see my conversations on other channels. That would save tons of explanation I had to go through with no luck.

I understand that some conversations are more sensitive than others, but this is not a problem if you grant right access to operators in different roles.

And if you want a really convenient service, make the visa application itself and the decision on it show as a conversation in that unified system as the fifth type of conversation.

It would be useful in so many ways. For instance, I had hard time compiling the material for this article from all different emails, help desks, partner website, etc. And I did not find the exact form data with my answers to questions like the purpose of the visit, etc. that I would like to quote here. I would be able to find it in that system if the visa application was in the same realm as other conversations.

I can imagine appealing and administrative review make the 6th and the 7th channels of communication, and people awarded those options have even more domains to track. Put them also into the unified system, and it will be a golden standard in the field.

Tourists will be coming to the UK if just to have the experience with this IT-wonder.

I can help you on any stage of a technical design document for such a system — drafting, polishing, reviewing, etc. This is one of my favorite jobs.

11. Educate the Operators to Question the Purpose if Inquiries

In my last attempt to submit the complaint through the inquiry system, I started the message with: “Please route this to the appropriate complaint department”. This is because I had a specific thing to complain about, the behavior and not just the outcome of refusal, and the investigation was as important for me as the visa.

The operator disregarded this and answered as if I asked to reverse the decision. I can understand that. I think most of inquiries are just
“Please give me visa. 😭”

But this approach cuts useful signals that again may be critical for more severe cases with real crimes happening. After all, let’s get back to your values again:

12. Introduce a Collateral Visa

If you are really up to innovation, I suggest no refusals at all. A visa application should result in either approval or an issuance of a Collateral Visa.

Say, you do not trust me to leave on time, to not work, or to not use government funds. Estimate the troubles I can bring you. Make it $25k. I will have to deposit that amount on your government account before entering the UK, and you return them to me if I leave on time without causing troubles. And if I violate the visa conditions, that should be enough for you to track me, sue, and deport. Increase the next-time collateral tenfold if I cause any trouble. Make it millions for people with proven bad history, but give people in those vicious cycles of “I don’t trust you because others don’t trust you” a way out.

Name any amount so you stay profitable from those breaking the conditions. Announce a campaign to your public like “This playground for kids was constructed using only funds from Collateral Visa violations”, so your citizens will like the idea.

We are not in the 20th century where admitted people were hard to track. Use the tech.

And we are not in the 20th century where worthy people always followed predefined paths like getting a residence permit in the country they go for a year or two. For instance, Georgia is innovative enough to just let people live and not subject them to bureaucracy, and that gave them +32% GDP in 2022 and no troubles. Worthy people nowadays choose to not waste time on papers, so the criteria that used to be reliable indicators of a personality are now upside down.

Should people waste weeks and thousands of dollars for rent to get a 3rd country residence permit that would only be used as a travel pass? Is that innovative?

And

Please give me visa. 😭
I have the damn $25k.