u/Manlikevee

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice regarding a UK Standard Visitor visa application for my mum and brother to attend my graduation in late July.

Note I'm on a post study visa.

And I've been employed since March of last year steady employment all though.

I also have a p60 from the previous tax year to show for it.( Would it be necessary attaching to the payslips for previous 6 months) ?

A little background:

My mum is retired.

My brother works as an airport staff member in my home country.

My sister and I currently live in the UK.

My sister has been on a Skilled Worker visa for a few years now, and my mum successfully visited the UK for my sister’s graduation about 3 years ago without issues.

I moved to the UK about 2 years ago and graduated earlier this year in January, but my graduation ceremony is scheduled for late July.

For the application:

I’ll be the main sponsor financially, with my sister supporting as well.

By the end of June, I should be able to show around £7,000 in savings, while my sister should have at least another £5,000 available if needed.

Combined, we should have access to around £10,000+.

They’ll only be visiting for about a week.

Accommodation will most likely be an Airbnb, which we plan to book before applying.

Documents we already have or can provide:

Graduation invitation and ceremony details

Graduation booking/payment confirmation

CAS letter

6 months payslips from my job

Bank statements

Sponsorship letters

Proof of accommodation

Return flight plans

My biggest concern is avoiding common reasons for refusal. I’ve read a lot of stories online about visit visa rejections, especially around:

“Insufficient ties to home country”

Questions around source of funds

Sponsor credibility

Retired parents applying

Whether finances shown are “enough”

For those who have gone through this process successfully (or even unsuccessfully), what are the main things we should pay attention to to future-proof the application?

Also, does the financial amount we’re planning to show sound reasonable for a one-week graduation visit for two people?

Any advice would really help. Thanks a lot.

I know I was due a tax refund since October last year when I stopped my second job, so I decided to wait until April to sort it out properly.

I first called HMRC on the 1st of April regarding the refund, but they told me they hadn’t received payment details from all my employers, which honestly confused me. I called multiple times throughout April and eventually decided to wait until the end of the month.

When I called again, another agent explained that the new job I started in early March — which pays on the 15th of every month — was supposedly still under the previous tax year and that a P60 hadn’t been issued yet. Because of that, I had to contact my employer myself to request a P60, even though it later turned out that this shouldn’t have delayed my refund in the first place.

This May, I called again with the P60 from my new employer. Thankfully, I finally spoke to someone who actually understood the situation properly. He checked my records and confirmed that my pay from that job only started in April, meaning it belongs to the new tax year and should not have held up my refund for the past 5–6 weeks.

He then calculated the refund and told me I should receive a letter in the post within 1–10 days. While the refund amount itself isn’t huge, I genuinely need it for something urgent in June.

It’s now been almost 10 days and I still haven’t received any letter. At this point, I’m honestly exhausted from constantly calling. The HMRC app also doesn’t work for me because the identity verification keeps failing every time I try.

Would it be possible to call and get the reference number over the phone instead? I’m genuinely frustrated with the whole process at this point.

It’s incredibly easy for HMRC to collect tax, but getting money refunded back seems unnecessarily stressful and time-consuming.