Transcript of the above video:

This video is probably going to be chalked up, some of the folks that watch this channel sometimes say I get into a bit of a negative mode, a bit pessimistic, but I view it more as a reality check sometimes. I always get a lot of emails from folks that are trying to interpret their way through certain of the Immigration rules and sometimes there is ambiguity. In this video I am talking about it specifically in the context of Retirement Visas and I will get into details on that in a minute. 

The overall principle to take away from this video is if something can go either way, if there is a requirement out there and there is some latitude that can be granted or if it is left to the discretion of the Officer and I am not saying this to cast aspersions at any Officers and I will explain why in a moment, but presume it is not going to go your way; presume the negative. The reason for this is when it does fail to go the way that you anticipate, go the way that you presume, you end up in a far worse position. Again I am not casting aspersions; some things are left to Officer discretion. One thing people really need in my opinion to grasp is Immigration matters are similar to a Court adjudication and when people go into Court, they are very accustomed to a level of uncertainty with respect to that adjudication. Immigration is something similar. It is not exactly the same; you haven't committed a crime; there is not going to be a punishment involved but you are requesting a benefit. You are requesting it from the government and the government has authorized personnel, sworn personnel who have the discretion to issue that benefit, to grant that benefit or deny it. It is my opinion, much like when going to court and although I haven’t gone to court very much in about 14 years, but when dealing with an adjudication such as an Immigration application, like for example with Retirement Visas, we have seen folks that will say: "I am just going to let it slide on the way that my pension money was brought into my account. It is not going to be a big deal." Don't presume that. That is a requirement associated with the application and it can go in a way that may not be to your benefit so you shouldn't presume it is automatically not going to go that way. It is just quite frankly an imprudent way of dealing with things. 

Now I do understand, people don't like it when I do these videos on this sort of topic because there is kind of an element "well that is unfair", "it shouldn't work that way". Well I don't know the way it should work. I just simply know the way it does work and again oftentimes, best practice is when dealing with Immigration matters to presume the worst because then you can prepare for it. If you are prepared for the worst, well then you are probably going to get through it without the worst happening.