Refusal of UK visitor visa - what went wrong and how to avoid reoccurrence?

Generally speaking, you need to provide:

1. Payslips (documents from a company showing your income as deposited in your account). If you are self-employed, you need to show proof of business and proof of income (receipts, business ownership documents, bank history, etc).

2. A letter from your employer stating the length, position, salary of your job. If you are a freelancer or self-employed, you need to show proof of contracts, etc.

3. If you own property in your country, this helps to provide "significant ties" so that you are subject to return.

On to your specific comments:

"you state you work part time with XYZ and as evidence you have provided a letter from them which states that you have done freelance work for them from 2012; however you have provided no documentary payment slips as evidence of payments you receive from them."

It is obvious that as a freelancer, you need to provide more documents that you will not drop everything and not come back. One of these documents is a contract, or proof of payment for work.

"you state you have a business called ABC, you provided receipts of goods purchased online to be shipped to America; however this is not evidence of your net income"

Income is money you have earned, your husband showed money he has spent. Just like a credit card is not proof of income, a receipt showing purchase of goods is not proof of income.

Evidence of net income would have been business accounts that were published or submitted; or a letter from the company bank.

Unsubstantiated payments into his accounts:- most of the payments were for jobs done (company acct) and the part time job (personal acct). I do not understand what no traceable deposits means as commented. Narrations on the payment into his accounts read for example “from Min of Health XYZ……” or a private company name, or whoever he executed contract for. Payment from the part time job always states the name of the government organisation (e.g. Min of Works) so I don’t understand what it means to say no traceable deposits. Were we to highlight these payments esp for the part time job to for easy read by the ECO? My layman’s thinking was why do that if you have nothing to hide? Let the officer review the statement without your input/direction (my layman thinking). Yes, there are some clients that pay cash when he delivers the job and he banks the cash immediately. However, credits into his accounts are by local wire transfer from his clients and they are narrated in his statement of accounts. For the salary slip from the government body, I guess they (all part times) will have to work on having their salary slips not just the regular wire credit payments into their accounts. Also mentioned that he needs to get proper bank accounts and start making regular deposits. I don’t understand what this means because what I see looks like a proper bank account with regular transactions i.e. deposits (cash and wire) and withdrawals (cash and wire) for his businesses. Although the part time government body had said they issue pay slips to permanent employees only. For people in their category, the form they filled upon engagement with the organisation and the letter is all they have.

You have to understand what the officer is looking for - all they want to see is sufficient evidence that you have ties to your home domicile so you [a] are not trying to immigrate under false pretenses and [b] are able to support your stay in the UK without being a burden on the services.

Having irregular payments to your account(s) are not sufficient; especially as some payments are going to a company account, others are going to his personal account - there is no regular statement.

A statement from a bank (this is usually used for company accounts) is written on the bank's letterhead, with stamps from a bank officer. It (usually) states the following:

1. Name of account holder (legal name of person or entity).
2. Name(s) of others authorized on the account (in case of company account, this is the authorized person's name and details).
3. Length of banking relationship.
4. Nature of business/entity.
5. Financial position.

All the above is not required if your bank statement narrative shows steady income (in some countries - there is a specific narrative for salary deposits) OR you can provide a letter of employment/salary certificate.

It looks like in this case your husband provided various pieces of information that when combined did not convince the officer of your husband's financial position or ties to the country.

I think your husband could have easily resolved all this by having a statement of account from a CFA - it does not need to be audited, but that would help showing the business's income statement for a year; along with a letter from his company's lawyer (or any lawyer) showing the legal status of the company (you can also get this from the chamber of commerce) and his position/status in the company; assuming that is what he is using to provide evidence of financial status and ties.