Recently, the legal team at Oracle group was faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem.
The team was advising an employee who wished to apply for a Tier 1 (Post Study) visa, as his Tier 4 Student visa was expiring. The problem facing the applicant was that he did not meet the financial maintenance requirement as he did not hold sufficient amount of money on his bank account. According to the UKBA requirements taken from its website:
“You must show that you have enough money in personal savings to support yourself for the entire length of your stay in the UK ‘without recourse to public funds’. You will not be able to claim most benefits paid by the state.
You must have:
- £2,800 in available funds if you are applying for a visa from abroad; or
- £800 in available funds if you are already in the UK and applying to switch.
These funds must be cash savings held in your bank account(s) and/or shared bank account(s). If they are held in a bank account overseas, we will convert the amount to pounds sterling using the exchange rate published on the OANDA website on the date of your application.
The funds must have been in your bank account(s) for at least 90 days before the date of your application. You must show that the required amount was in your account(s) at all times over this period.
You will not score points for any other accounts or financial instruments such as shares, bonds, pension funds or agreed overdraft facilities.
You must prove your maintenance (funds) by sending evidence to support your application. The most recent evidence must be dated no more than 1 month before the date of your application.”
Since the applicant did not meet these requirements, it seemed that he would not be eligible for the Visa. But the legal team at Oracle Capital Group decided that it would try to find another way to meet the financial maintenance requirement, despite there being no alternatives presented in the formal rules.
The applicant employee revealed to the legal team that his mother kept a substantial amount of money for her son in her bank account in Kazakhstan. The legal team was able to prove that the employee was a beneficiary of his mother’s deposit account (i.e., mother was holding the balance on account in trust for the applicant). The application for the new visa was subsequently submitted with this financial information as representation of financial maintenance, in lieu of the regular requirements. Though the legal team did not anticipate resolution in his favor, they were pleasantly surprised last week when approval for the new visa was received.
Oracle Capital Group has continually found success in business through knowledge, creativity and thinking outside the box. This most recent example shows that the legal team at Oracle Capital Group is also capable of finding creative solutions for difficult problems.
