I am planning to travel to UK for business and training purposes (company initiated). I've been staying here in the Philippines for six years (still a Filipino citizen). I went to US around Oct 2009 - Jan 2010 for immigration, but I chose to return to the Philippines.

US Immigrant visa has expired and was under my maiden name (I'm now married and my Philippine passport has been updated and renewed).

Would it affect the approval of my UK visa?

  • Affect the approval in what way? Did you do anything illegal? Are you afraid of being refused? Are you afraid of something else? – JoErNanO Apr 8 '16 at 8:59
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    There's a section on the form where you put your maiden name and prior travel. Based upon what you wrote those things are massively normal and have no effect whatever in the decision. – Gayot Fow Apr 8 '16 at 9:01
  • @ JoErNanO - No not really, I was thinking that they might deny it because of what I did. I left the US and didn't return and my US visa is expired – P-chan Apr 8 '16 at 9:01
  • @P-chan, we can leave the question for somebody who wants the rep points. If somebody does provide you with an answer similar to my comment, please do not forget to mark it 'accepted'. – Gayot Fow Apr 8 '16 at 9:14
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    @P-chan: " I left the US and didn't return and my US visa is expired" -- why do you think either of those would count against you? – Henning Makholm Apr 8 '16 at 10:28

I would suggest that you have already experienced the consequences: You had an opportunity to become a US permanent resident, and if you had done so you most likely could have been naturalized and had a US passport by now.

Choosing to return to the Philippines, you must have had very good reasons for doing so. These reasons indicate strong ties to your country, and that is one of the important things that you must demonstrate in order to get a UK visa.

So, I suppose you could say that it counts against you because you can't enter visa-free as a US citizen, but it doesn't count against you because it means you have strong ties to your country which can demonstrate that you are not likely to remain in the UK illegally.

Think about the reasons which keep you living where you are. Family, work, property ownership... these are much more important to your visa application than your old US immigrant visa.

  • If P-chan entered using the immigrant visa in 2009, P-chan became a US permanent resident (at which point the immigrant visa ceased to be valid). P-chan subsequently abandoned permanent resident status by leaving the US for an extended period. – phoog Apr 8 '16 at 21:10

For your UK visa you will have to show strong ties with your home country. Abandoning your US resident status is not a reason to issue you a visa for UK or refuse it. Reason for abandoning US resident status could have been your ill grand mother who may have died recently, you cannot satisfy the ties with home country condition by the fact that you abandoned US resident status.

Applying for a business or visitor visa for UK will need you to provide sufficient proof of your financial status and ties with your home country. Having come back from US is not going to help but it wont adversely affect your application either.

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