Urgent ESOL Question

Hello everyone,

I'm a British citizen living in UK with my wife and 4.5 year old son (both from Pakistan) who are here with me on a spouse and dependent visa since 11 months. My wife has passed the KOL test and has the certificate.

My wife's visa is expiring on 18th March,2012 (around one week). She has an in person appointment in Croydon on Tuesday, 13th March.

While putting together her documents, we found out yesterday that she has to give an ESOL test as well!

I don't want to get into how and why we are in this situation but in a nutshell, its poor poor advising and mismanagement from our immigration lawyers in London to whom we are paying very high fees!

Now......

1. Can my wife submit her KOL certifcate and University of Cambridge Ordinary level certificate for English in lieu of the ESOL requirement?

2. If answer to above is no, then can you kindly let me know (based on your knowledge and experiences) if are there any centres which give an urgent certificate (we are based in London) for ESOL? She can book a test for Monday.

3. My son's visa expired on 13/01/12 and lawyers told us not to worry since it is the parents' status which is taken in the event of minors and to apply for FLR together which we are doing based on their advice. Is this ok?

Our immigration lawyer is telling us that we can still apply for a postal application as a backup and not to worry! Won't get into my conversation with them else my post will be banned for language!

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Looking forward to your replies.

Thanks in advance!

Usually a spouse visa issued from outside the UK is valid for 27 months and the child's visa should be granted in line with the spouse's. However you have said that you wife has only been here for 11 months and that your son's visa expired before your wife's will?

What visas do your wife and child have? What application are you making (FLR(M), or SET(M)?

Dear Greenie,

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, the visa was valid for 27 months but we entered UK late due to unavoidable circumstances which I won't get into right now. Hence, she is applying for FLR.

Even though my son and wife's applicaton was made at the same time, the visa issuance dates varied and so my son's has expired already.

My wife has a spouse settlement visa and my son had a dependent visa.

Ok, the update is that we are thinking of trying another route...

We will apply for the fast track service offered by NARIC and apply via postal application to UKBA before the deadline.

Does anybody know if Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (Pakistan) is approved by NARIC? This is a university offering 4 year and advanced degrees in arts and architecture.

Thanks in advance.

24 hours, 74 views and only 1 reply

C'mon guys, need some answers!

I did the ESOL test in London and asked for a speedy certificate since I returning home and wanted to apply for a fiance visa early. Despite me asking they said it was out of their control since the certificate came from another location. It took exactly 4 weeks to get the cert. They said it could take up to 6 weeks.

Diesel,

Don't know which company you selected for the test. However, IELTS apparently takes 4 weeks, TOEFL 2 weeks and Pearson takes around 5 days as per my research to provide results.

Just posting for benefit of others.....

My ESOL test was done by Trinity College.