Skip to main content

Written question asked by Adam Holloway (Conservative) on Monday, 17 July 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 19 July 2006. It was answered by Liam Byrne (Labour) on Monday, 11 September 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.


Bogus Marriages

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many marriage visas were refused on the grounds that the marriage in question was not considered to be genuine in each of the last five years.
Answer

The figures on the number of spousal visas refused are contained in the following table. Also included is another table showing the number of refusals of extension of leave to remain in the United Kingdom on the basis of marriage.It is not possible to determine how many were refused on the grounds that the marriage was not considered to be genuine without examination of individual case records at disproportionate costs.

Refusals of extension of leave to remain¹ in the United Kingdom excluding EEA nationals² and Switzerland, 2001 to 2005³— United Kingdom
Number of decisions
Category All refusals Of which: Spouse (probationary period applications)4
20015 15,485 1,850
20025 18,575 735
20035 33,175 2,445
2004² 24,730 1,895
2005³ 27,175 1,265
¹ Excludes dependants of principal applicants, asylum related decisions and withdrawn applications. ² Includes nationals of the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia before 1 May 2004, but excludes them from this date. ³ Provisional and subject to change. 4 Data include unmarried partners. 5 Excludes the outcome of appeals. Note: Figures rounded to the nearest 5. Source: Immigration Research and Statistics Service, RDS-IND, Home Office
Visa applications and refusals for spouse endorsements, 2001 to 2005
Endorsement 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
To accompany spouse
Applications received 5,011 3,931 3,536 5,032 5,077
Refusal decisions 64 60 63 162 325
Refusal rate (percentage) 1 2 2 3 6
To join spouse
Applications received 5,058 3,818 5,442 6,635 6,672
Refusal decisions 182 189 385 854 1,260
Refusal rate (percentage) 4 5 7 13 19
EEA Family Permit: to accompany spouse
Applications received 660 12,948
Refusal decisions 4 272
Refusal rate (percentage) 1 2
EEA Family Permit: to join spouse
Applications received 150 2,586
Refusal decisions 3 90
Refusal rate (percentage) 2 3
Note: ““UKvisas makes every effort to ensure that statistics produced from our ‘Central Reference System’ are accurate. However, the complexity of our global business, including technical failures or occasional inconsistencies in data entry across any of over 150 offices, means we cannot 100% guarantee accuracy. UKvisas continues to work on IT and working practices to improve the quality of the statistics we provide.”” Source: UKVisas Central Reference System 24 July 2006

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
86682; 449 c2210-2W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Applications Married people Visas
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk