British Spouse Visa

little advice please!

i'm married and a British citizen. I applied for my wife's visa to settle here in the UK with me, and put the date of travel down as the 12th December 2007 as that's when we got tickets to travel back on that day.

The visa got issued with a date of 12th November 2007, which means that 28 days later is 9th December 2007.

I'm trying to avoid having her travel to the Embassy as it would be a 4 hour journey from another city to Delhi.

is this a big deal? if we travel without getting the date of issue changed, can they refuse entry? is there anything we can say on the phone?

cancelling the tickets and rebooking is not an option unfortunately.

any advice appreciated!

thanks

EDIT: just realised that maybe this should be in the family section, sorry!

No problem at all. As long as she travels after the date of issue of the visa she'll be fine.

Victoria

It is not a problem now, but you need to be aware of the situation when the ILR is applied for 2 years time.

There is an inherent problem if someone does not first enter the UK with their 2-year spouse visa, within the first 28 days of validity. But your wife is going to enter the UK say 31 days after the start date on the visa. So what you will need to do, in November 2009, is to apply for the ILR by post ... not in person .... and to deliberately pay by cheque ... rather than using a card. And post the application on say Wednesday 11.11.09 or Thursday 12.11.09 ... no earlier.

The point is this. According to the current form you will post the application to Durham. All they do there is to ensure that payment is received and then pass the papers on to a "real office". By paying by cheque you will slow matters down, and thus ensure that when the caseworker looks at the papers in the "real office" your wife is within the 28 day period prior to the 2nd anniversary of her first entering the UK on the current visa.

And do be aware that your wife will need to pass the Life in the UK Citizenship test, in order to permit her to apply for the ILR.

great thanks

is there something official i can print out and bring with me when we travel back from india in case someone kicks up a stink?

There is no need.


Victoria

The visa in the passport is the permission to enter! No other document needed!

thanks for all your help

i'm curious as to why, when on the application form we put down our travel plans and booked our tickets in good faith, they messed up like this

anyone had this experience...

Because they are idiots.

It happens all the time. You are lucky that it won't really affect you - for those who don't want to travel for a couple of months it causes real problems.

Victoria

John wrote:The visa in the passport is the permission to enter! No other document needed!

true but the visa holder must have an address in the Uk. the officer sometimes checks it by checking the validity of the Post code. it would help to have it written down cos many people from abroad would not always know uk adresses and expecially if English is poor.
also if the application was refused and stamped in the passport. the IO will delay the entrant until the system is checked . It happen to us when I used the British citizan side at heathrow and one who was with us had a Set(M) visa with her baby. she was delayed for 5 minutes and the IO decided to do the paper work and let us all in cos her baby (british ) was crying. he said he needed to investigate the stamp which was done abroad when the first application was refused .

whilst i hate to resurrect old threads, my question and request for help applies to the above!

my wife and i will need to travel in January for her brother's wedding, and it seems as though the only route i have is to apply by post for her ILR (2 years almost up)

this can take anything up to 14 weeks, if not more, so if i apply in November 2009, it will only be about 9 weeks before we have to travel, and it being xmas, it's most definitely not going to be done in time

my question is, if we go through the FLR(M) route (an extension) premium service, do i then have to wait another 2 years to apply for ILR? what will i lose out on going the premium service (at least it's a guaranteed decision within a week or something) as opposed to taking quite a big risk in the postal route for ILR? is it something i can even do?

any help/advice appreciated!

can you not get an appointment to apply in person as the decisions for ILR in person are generally done the same day

When did she enter the UK and when does her visa expire?

she entered the uk on 12th December 2007
visa expires 12th November 2009

so it seems as though we're 3 days out...!

Well given November has 30 days, I calculate you are 2 days out.

But by appending your message to an old topic you have read out-of-date information. Since 2007 UKBA has changed their policy and it is no longer necessary to "buy a few days" by paying by cheque. That is, as long as the person entered within the 1st 3 months of their 2 year spouse visa then the ILR can be made by post in the last 28 days of validity .... and will be held by UKBA until the 28 day rule is complied with.

Recently some people have been getting their ILRs a lot quicker than 14 weeks, but obviously there is no guarantee of reasonably fast treatment. All you can do is send a covering letter stating about the flights in January.

my question is, if we go through the FLR(M) route (an extension) premium service, do i then have to wait another 2 years to apply for ILR? what will i lose out on going the premium service (at least it's a guaranteed decision within a week or something) as opposed to taking quite a big risk in the postal route for ILR? is it something i can even do?

Yes, that would work, and the FLR(M) application could be made from 28 days before the current 2-year expiry date = 15.10.09. It would not be necessary to wait until near the end of the new 2-year visa, before applying for the ILR.

But ouch! The expense of the extra visa application!

taliska wrote:can you not get an appointment to apply in person as the decisions for ILR in person are generally done the same day

you can but we can only apply 28 days from the date of first entry to the uk on that visa. if we apply on the earliest day, that means that my wife will be here illegally for 2 days, and that's not what we want to do!

applying by post (as detailed above) seems to be the only option unless there's some other way we can go about doing this

EDIT: just read John's post. will review the info

John wrote: But by appending your message to an old topic you have read out-of-date information. Since 2007 UKBA has changed their policy and it is no longer necessary to "buy a few days" by paying by cheque. That is, as long as the person entered within the 1st 3 months of their 2 year spouse visa then the ILR can be made by post in the last 28 days of validity .... and will be held by UKBA until the 28 day rule is complied with.

Hi John

Thanks for the response. So if I apply anytime between 15th October and 12th November, by post, using credit/debit card (or any payment type), then we'll be ok in terms of that

but there's no guarantee of getting it in time before we have to travel in Jan right? i.e. we cannot use the premium service at all...

i guess we have to just take the risk then...

So if I apply anytime between 15th October and 12th November, by post, using credit/debit card (or any payment type), then we'll be ok in terms of that

That is right, but in terms of the UKBA concession, they will hold back the ILR application until 28 days before the 2nd anniversary of the date of entry, that is until 14.11.09. But to reiterate, it is essential that the application is actually posted in the time frame quoted above. Do not post the application after 12th November.

we cannot use the premium service at all...

In the terms of the concession, no you can't.

but there's no guarantee of getting it in time before we have to travel in Jan right?

As you say there is no guarantee, sorry!

By the way, has your wife has already passed the Life in the UK Citizenship test, or got a completion certificate from a combined ESOL/Citizenship course?

she is taking the life in the uk test on saturday

but that's not a worry, she's just completed a masters in law over here and is a fully qualified lawyer from india, so i hope the test isn't too much of a challenge!

very annoying that we can't go through the premium service just for the sake of 2 days...

bigviv, she is clearly very intelligent, but the test material and the test itself have lots of statistics, and without study anyone is going to struggle to pass, even someone who has lived in the UK all their life.

Hopefully she has studied for the test sufficiently.

she has been going through the book since her dissertation (as have I, there's some interesting stuff in there!)

so touchwood, should be ok

i've heard of some applications (granted, not set(m)'s) taking well over 3 months, that's my one concern, but something we can't do anything about unfortunately

there really should be at least a 2 day grace period to allow premium applications!

ok, life in the UK complete and passed

now the collation of documents begins.

I have plenty, she has NHS docs, bank statements etc. however we don't have anything in joint names (except for a bank account opened this month).

is this something to worry about? any help appreciated...!