Date of travel/visa issue date

[kindred_1st]

Hello all,

Please forgive me if there is already a thread for this.

I have a question regarding the travel date for my spouse's visa. She is currently out of the UK and would be an out of country applicant.

On the application form, there is a question which asks 'on which date do you wish to travel to the UK?'

So my question is this:
1. Lets say we provide a date of Feb 1st, 2013, and the UKBA grants the visa before this date and her passport is returned, does she HAVE to travel on this date? or

2. The UKBA grants the visa before this date, documents and passport are returned and the visa is then valid from Feb 1st, 2013 allowing her to travel to the UK anytime after this date?

I hope my query is clear and you can provide some guidance.

[ID29]

I think they might use the supplied travel date to try and prioritise applications... but not sure on this.

Also, what country is she coming from? I notice the time to approve visas can vary enormously around the world, some take months, some weeks and others merely days. My partner's took 2 days to decide.

Why not simply answer the question 'on which date do you wish to travel to the UK?' with the date that she actually would like to travel? You'll be given some leeway in any case. They tell you not to book flights before approval so must expect that not everyone will actually be able to travel on their preferred date due to flight availability.

[kindred_1st]

That's the same thought we had. What is the passport was returned 1 week before the travel date and you HAD to travel on that date? What about her job, property etc. How will all that be closed off in a week?

She is currently in the Caribbean

[Franko]

You do not have to travel on the date stated, however if you put a date too far in the future then you will not be able to travel untill that date if your application is processed before. The date you state has no effect on how your application is prioratised.

[madhumesh]

It is not necessary to travel on the date which you mentioned on your form. The visa is normally valid from the date of grant.

[Fishgirl]

Hi There

The UKBA website states "You can apply for your visa within three months of your intended date of travel. We are only able to post-date visas by a maximum of three months from the date of the decision on your visa application." Which I think is crazy given that in some places it can take longer than 3 months to process. It is also recommended to travel within 3 months of the visa date. I think this is due to the length of time you must been in the country before applying for further settlement visas, although I am not 100% sure about this.

We applied in October and put a date for end of December. When they stamped it they put the date of when they approved it, mid November, disregarding the date we had given, which I thought was strange.

Our application was also in the Caribbean and only took a few weeks!! I hope you have just as much luck