I'm writing with details of my in-progress visa application process for the EEA Family Visa. I wished I'd been able to find some of these details as it seems like the systems are rather new. I am from the USA and my husband is a British Citizen, we live in Berlin and are using the Surinder Singh pathway.
We applied via the Visa4UK online portal. It is now required to fill out the application online, even though you can still find the download of the application. Upon completion of the application we were forwarded to an appointment calendar for a biometrics appointment with TLSContact, a private company that handles UK visa applications in Berlin. We applied on Tuesday night and got an appointment for the following Monday at 9am. The instructions were to arrive with all supporting documents.
We realized on Thursday that all of our documents in German needed to be presented with certified translations. After some panic, I found xxx and was able to translate all 10 pages of supporting evidence for 33euros a page. I submitted the documents in orders of three, rather than all 10 at once, and received everything back, certified and with good translation within 48hrs. There was one correction that I needed for clarity and they completed it within five hours. They email your translations back. Very fast.
xxxxx on xxxxx was really helpful and cheap for printing all these PDFs.
Today we went to the TLSContact with all of our supporting evidence carefully sorted and presented in an accordion envelope with a numbered evidence checklist. We had read that the extra care in organizing can be in your favor. At TLS they only allowed me, the applicant, to enter. My husband waited outside for the 30 or so minutes I was inside. They just switched online systems and all the appointment information had been erased, they needed my email confirmation which I luckily had on my phone since there had been no indication to print it.
They offer "special services" that aren't very well advertised, including that you can keep your passport during the application process for 80euros and they'll call you back to TLS to insert the visa when it arrives. I didn't know they would be scanning all my documentation and sending it digitally and opted to surrender my passport. I wish I'd paid the 80euros and think it would probably be faster.
When they took my documentation they dismantled my envelope and my organization and sorted everything into piles that suited their organization. I remember there were piles labeled Residence Permit, Family, Other... I wish I could remember them all. My evidence checklist and our opening letter ended up in the middle of "other". I would have organized the supporting evidence more clearly if I'd known they were going to do this. I would have numbered every page in relation to the evidence checklist. Maybe someone else on here can relay the other categories. The categories were sheets of thicker paper with the title, "Other" "Family" etc. and a bar code, surely to make the documents easier to sort when they arrive digitally.
Now we wait. I didn't include the details of what we submitted because I just wanted to relay the experience of applying with these seemingly new systems.
These are really stressful, terrible processes to go through in order to live near and with our loved ones. I hope this information finds someone who needs more of a picture of what's coming.
Good luck everyone!
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