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THE FOLLOWING IS THE COMPLAINT LETTER WRITTEN TO THE BRITISH EMBASSY, ANKARA

UPON THE OBVIOUS HUMILIATIVE AND INSULTIVE ATTITUDE FACED AT THE BRITISH EMBASSY-ANKARA-TURKEY AS A TURKISH CITIZEN  

Dear Sir / Madam;

I am a computer engineer, graduated from the Department of Computer Engineering at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, and has also recently received an MS degree from the same department.

In order to pursue an academic career in computer science, I applied to the University of Nottingham, UK, and was offered a full-time PhD position with overseas scholarship, under the supervision of Dr. Sanja Petrovic, from the School of Computer Science & Information Technology.

By receiving the unconditional acceptance letter from the university, I found the necessary “courage” in myself to apply for a UK visa as a “Turkish Citizen”, since it was explicitly confirmed by the administrative officers of the university (Margaret Norris and Avril Rathbone) that the document sent by them would simply suffice for such an application. However, it was not stated by the university that “being insulted at the British Embassy”  is a prerequisite for studying in UK, perhaps not taking into account the country where the application was done.

In spite of the e-mailings received from the university implicitly stating the opposite, I was not surprised when I was invited for an interview at the British Embassy. If we ignore some irrelevant questions, the answers of which were already present in the documents submitted along with the application form, the interview mainly concentrated on the source of my scholarship. As an answer, I simply conveyed the information I got from the university. However, because of some “obvious reasons”, the interviewer insisted on being dissatisfied with any kind of reply asserted by me, most probably as a necessity of the “role” that was required by her managers to be put by her on act.

To sum up, as a candidate PhD student pursuing an academic career in the field of computer science, I was not able to obtain my student visa. Moreover, it is also worth mentioning that, at the end of the interview, neither I was handed over the document notifying the result (REFUSAL) of my visa application, nor it was sent to my home address afterwards. Instead, I was humiliated at the British Embassy, although I am not completely sure how should I portion out this insult among my personality, other Turkish citizens, my prospective(?) supervisor, and  the University of Nottingham.

If you plan to do something against this reality, I recommend you abstaining from responding by a message which will emphasize my exaggeration and prejudice regarding the situation, since it would be the very first idea to consume. Because, I ended up with this collection of ideas not only by depending on my case, but also the conversations in the other interviews that I witnessed, while waiting my turn to be “interrogated”.

Although I do not have a single idea whether you would care or not, I would also like to express this: Regardless of what your act will be against this specific situation, I will share with the public this experience and the “quality” of all other visa interview conversations that I witnessed at the British Embassy, Ankara, via all kinds of national and international media, including also different internet forums for different platforms.

Finally, unfortunately, I was not able to see any considerable effort that would place a cost on your part during the evaluation of my application, which can justify the collection of that “considerable” amount from the applicants under the name of “application fee”. For this reason, I kindly request my fee to be donated to a charity organization in UK that is taking care of patients suffering from mental diseases. 

Best regards,

Yılmaz Arslanoğlu

23.02.06

THE FOLLOWING IS A PART OF THE VISA INTERVIEW

INTERVIEWER:                 You do not tell the truth.

YILMAZ:                               It is true. You can also consult with the university by using the

available contact info.

INTERVIEWER:                  It cannot be true. You do not tell the truth. Why should they pay your

tuition fees? It is an overseas studentship, and overseas scholarship is

not possible in UK.

YILMAZ:                               (???) As far as I know, the project that I am going to be a member is

funded by EPSRC. Maybe the school is allocating some part of it to

the project members.

INTERVIEWER:                  What is EPSRC? Do you know what does it stand for?

YILMAZ:                               I do not remember at the moment. But, as far as I know, it must be an

institution which supports scientific projects throughout the UK.

INTERVIEVER:                   Why should they pay your fees? Even as a UK citizen, they would not

pay mine. Why should they pay yours?

YILMAZ:                               (J) I have no idea. You need to contact the University of Nottingham to

                                                learn this.

INTERVIEWER:                  Anyway, it is lunch time and I have to stop at this point. I will try to

call Nottingham and ask them. Please come at 15:30 to learn the outcome of your application.

At 15:30, I came back, hoping to get my visa:

INTERVIEWER:                  Unfortunately, I was not able to contact them. Nobody answered. You

need to provide confirmation.

YILMAZ:                               Why didn’t you try to call somebody else? For example Dr. Sanja Petrovic? You can call her now. I am supposed to arrive at Nottingham this friday, so I have to get my visa today. Do you have internet?

INTERVIEWER:                  Yes, we have.

YILMAZ:                               I will tell you the address, and you can easily get her telephone number.

 INTERVIEWER:                 I am not obliged to use the internet!!!

YILMAZ:                               (J)

INTERVIEWER:                  DO NOT LAUGH!

YILMAZ:                               (J) Why?

INTERVIEVER:                   I SAID “DO NOT LAUGH”!

YILMAZ:                               Anyway, the school told me that this acceptance letter would suffice.

INTERVIEWER:                  Why didn’t you tell it this morning?

YILMAZ:                               I told it to you several times.

INTERVIEVER:                   You do not tell the truth. It is not true.

YILMAZ:                               Maybe you don’t remember? Anyway, you can call Dr. Sanja Petrovic now and get the necessary information.

INTERVIEWER:                  No, bring a letter from the school. You have 24 hours.

YILMAZ:                               OK, I lost all my enthusiasm to study in UK and want my application back. Please reject my application and give my passport back. 

FOR YOUR COMMENTS, PLEASE E-MAIL

THE REPLY OF THE HEAD OF VISA SECTION AT BRITISH EMBASSY, ANKARA

Dear Mr Arslanoglu

Thank you for your fax letter of 23 February.

You raise a number of issues but, if I understand your letter correctly,

you do not wish me to respond to all the comments you have made. I shall

therefore confine myself to the factual issues.

Firstly, I apologise for the fact that you were not handed your notice of

refusal and appeal papers following the interview, this is our standard

practice and should have been done. I am aware that the refusal notice was

emailed to you but, as you have requested, we shall send you hard copies of

the refusal notice and appeal forms.

I am afraid I cannot consent to sending your visa fee to charity, this is a fee

paid to UKVisas for processing of the application.

I am sorry that you remain dissatisfied with the service you received at this

visa section, I can assure you that we strive to provide a good service to all

customers. I take all complaints seriously and I have not yet completed my

investigation into this particular matter. I shall write to you again when my

investigation is complete.

J R Husain

Head of Visa Section

03 March 2006

FOR YOUR COMMENTS, PLEASE E-MAIL

MY REPLY

Dear J R Husain;

Thank you for your short reply to my complain letter. I received it by post. As you would also guess, I am not satisfied with your reply. For this reason, I would like to ask simple questions and get clear answers:

In my complain letter, I roughly sketched a dialog. Taking into account your visa issuing practice and policy, do you consider that dialog as “normal”?

IF NOT:

Did you have chance to ask to the entry clearance officer the following questions:

·         How could she claim that overseas scholarship and payment of tuition fees of an overseas student by the school is not possible in the UK?

·         As an entry clearance officer, does she really have enough knowledge about the education system in the UK?

·         What lies beneath the reply: “Even as a UK citizen, they would not pay my tuition fees. Why should they pay yours”?

·         Is it an ordinary practice of an entry clearance officer to explicitly accuse an applicant of being a liar?

·         Is it a normal practice to invite an applicant for an interview at 12.25, starting the interview after a 20 minutes delay, and interrupting the interview claiming that it is lunch time?

·         When I asked her to call the University of Nottingham, she told me hat I lived in Ankara and I could easily come again.  Does an applicant have to visit the embassy at least 4 times in order to get a visa? Or the source of this courage come from the insensitivity of the other applicants? That is, does she find this courage from the insensitive nature of the general applicant profile?

·         Do you plan to impose a sanction against this situation?

IF YES:

Does the obvious unpleasant attitude of that entry clearance officer reflect your general policy? That is, do you wish to give an “implicit message” to the applicants, even if you issue the visa?

If  I submitted that confirmative document which was claimed to be non-existent by the entry clearance officer, were I again going to be invited for an interview? If yes, under what circumstances do you invite applicants for an interview?

Finally, I definitely consider the obvious unpleasant and humiliative attitude of that entry clearance officer (which may also be a representative of your general policy in Turkey) as an insult towards my personality. For this reason, I want to receive a formal apology letter from your part.

For your information:

I shared my unpleasant experience with the internet community, and in order to enable them follow the topic easily, I published my complain letter and also your reply in my personal webpage. You can also access it using the following link:

www.metu.edu.tr/~e116443/visa.htm

20.03.2006

Regards,

Yılmaz Arslanoğlu

FOR YOUR COMMENTS, PLEASE E-MAIL

THE REPLY OF THE DIRECTOR OF VISA SERVICES, TURKEY

(WHICH WAS INTERESTINGLY SENT COLLECT-ON-DELIVERY)

Dear Mr Arslanoglu,

Thank you for your further letter dated 20th March 2006.

First of all, I must say that I am sorry that you remain dissatisfied with the service you have received from this visa section. This is a matter we take very seriously.

Please note that Mr Husain has previously apologised for your refusal notice not being handed to you following the interview. There is nothing further that I am able to add to that.

I have, however, further investigated all of the circumstances surrounding your application and discussed these circumstances with the Entry Clearance Officer who interviewed you. I must advise you that I am satisfied that your application has been dealt with proffessionally.

I wish to make a number of points in response to your comments;

You list a number of statements that, you suggest, were made to you by the officer. There is no record of any such statements being made and I am further satisfied, on the basis of my enquiries, that the officer would not and did not make these statements.

UKVisas procedure worldwide is that the Entry Clearance Officer asseses each application on its own merits, in accordance with the relevant Immigration Rules, and with regard to the supporting documents supplied by the applicant. The onus lay with you, as the applicant, to provide all of the required documentation. I note that the required documentation has not been produced by you at any point in the application process.

It is clearly noted in the letter you provided from The University of Nottingham, dated 24th January 2006 that, “If you are an international student, once we have received your original supporting documents we will issue an unconditional offer letter to assist you to obtain a student visa...”. At no point has this further letter been produced. Nor has any other evidence of your funding for the course of study.

Notwithstanding the above, you were invited exceptionally to return to the Embassy after the lunch break, which begins at 13.00, to allow the Entry Clearance Officer to make enquirires, of the University. These were to your potential benefit and in this regard I am satisfied that the officer went over and above what was required of her to assist you in the application process.

I should advise you that any further correspondence on this matter should be in the context of your formal appeal against the refusal of entry clearance. You should wait to hear from the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in the UK, in that regard.

Yours,

Eloise Edgar

Director of Visa Services, Turkey

FOR YOUR COMMENTS, PLEASE E-MAIL

TO THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR IN ANKARA

Dear Ambassador;                                                                              

I am a computer engineer graduated from the Deparment of Computer Engineering at Middle East Technical University. Recently, I have also received my MS degree from the same department. In order to pursue an academic career in the same field, I applied to the University of Nottingham in the UK, and was offered a full-time PhD studentship with overseas scholarship.

In order to start my studies, I applied for a student visa,  however, instead of issuing it, the entry clearance officer with whom I was interviewed with at the visa section of the British Embassy humiliated me obviously and deliberately, which naturally urged me to think about your visa issuing policy in overseas countries, especially in Turkey.

I informed the visa section about the situation by a complaint letter also including my interview dialog in detail. However, instead of an apology letter, I received a politic reply full of demagogy stating that, according to their investigation and  “available records”, the entry clearance officer did and would make none of the statements that I claimed in my complaint letter.

They can parry the situation with such a flippant attitude, however, I need to advise you that I approach towards this situation with the utmost seriousness and I am determined to resolve this issue.

I DO NOT NEED A VISA!

What I need is to receive an official apology letter from the visa section of the British Embassy. I also need to receive the full word-by-word decrypted text of my visa interview, in order to submit it as a proof in the further steps of the complaint procedure.

I wanted to share this situation with you since I have no doubt about the sensitivity and seriousness in your potential approach towards the investigation of this unpleasant situation.

You will also find the details of my complaint in the attachment.

03.04.2006

Best regards,

Yılmaz Arslanoğlu

FOR YOUR COMMENTS, PLEASE E-MAIL

CLICK TO READ MY UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

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