We’re about to apply for a spouse visa.
There are many questions in VAF4A as well as Appendix #2 that are unclear even after reading the guidelines.
Presently we have downloaded the files, printed them and are attempting to fill them up but we are not completely sure whether the real online document is the same as the VAF4A document.
We would appreciate your help in understanding how to address these.
Questions regarding VAF4A:
1.11 – What exactly is this home-office ref number?
2.7 – (asking about old passports) I honestly have no clue. I had many passports over the years. Most have either been sent back or destroyed by myself but I honestly have no idea how many I had nor have I kept their passport-numbers.
What should I do?
6.2 – This is a question I really don’t know how to answer. I travelled a LOT and have been in many countries and I’ve never kept any track of the dates.
I have some plane tickets but these only tell a small part of the story… for instance, I have a plane ticket to Amsterdam but from there we took a train (haven’t kept the ticket) to south of France. From there we did the Santiago trek which goes to Spain. From there we walked back across the GR-10 which goes back to France. We then took a ferry from Calais to England (again, haven’t kept the ticket) and from there after travelling in England I took a bus, through Belgium back to Amsterdam. This is just one example!
I’ve been in many places in India, 17 states in America, I took buses from Germany to Austria to Holland, etc.
I honestly have no clue what specific dates any of it was.
Like I said, I travelled a lot, it was always a goal of mine to see the world before I settled down and I never thought I’d need to keep tickets.
Sure, I have thousands and thousands of pictures and some have date stamps on them but I can’t be sure to the precise dates I’ve arrived or left certain places and in all honesty going through over ten thousand pictures is not easy. The truth is I probably don’t even remember 50% of the places I travelled through!
So what should I do?
Also, the space that they give you is not even remotely enough for me to specify all the places I’ve been at!
6/6.7 – I’m not sure about this one. About 5 years ago I applied for a student visa to the UK and didn’t get it for reasons that are not clear to me to this day. I understand that I didn’t demonstrate enough financial resources and that’s my fault. I was young, didn’t understand how the system works and thought that it’s sufficient for me to say that my parents would give me money (which was true).
On the other hand the person who checked my visa application couldn’t find proof that the place I wanted to study in existed which makes the whole thing smells like a very bad fish! How can you not find proof for a branch of Kingston university in Reading!? Very suspicious.
After a few months I went to England not realising (again I was very naïve about the world back then) that it looks suspicious. I was questioned and sent back to Israel with a black cross in my passport.
I’ve been in England many times since then. The first few times I’ve been stopped at the airport, asked questions by the officers and allowed in. After a while they realised I’m honest and two of the officers have placed a comment that I am not to be stopped anymore and since then I haven’t been stopped at all.
I must have been in England over ten times (again, not completely sure how many times because I’ve had a few passports since then) but in answer to the question (6.7) I just don’t know whether I was “subject to an exclusion order”.
If someone can help me understand what it even means it’ll be helpful.
Questions about Appendix 2:
1.3 & 1.4 & 1.5 – I find it mystifying that this is even a real question and that there is no place to write text, just a block for a specific date.
I’ve been with my wife for over six years, nearly seven. We’ve been married for about a year and a half. I honestly don’t have a clue when exactly we “decided” to be together.
I find it weird that I am being asked to assign an emotion to a specific date that took place nearly seven years ago.
I’m not entirely sure at what date we met but I can sort of guess. The problem is that they don’t give you a text box to explain.
And as to when our relationship started… we have no idea.
After we met in London we kept in touch through YouTube messages (something that doesn’t exist anymore) and so the first few months of our correspondence have been deleted when YouTube decided to remove the option of inbox. Then, lots of chats through Messenger and when Gmail was introduced we moved to Gmail and Skype.
At some point we realised that despite the distance there is a real connection between us and we met in Amsterdam from where we started travelling together.
At what exact date our relationship started and we became “boyfriend and girlfriend” we honestly have no idea!
Even if we wanted to track back our correspondence records, like I explained, YouTube deleted our records.
So again, I’m sorry for the lengthy explanation but we want to be as honest as possible but we find some of these questions a bit bizarre.
Had they offered a short text block we could explain or offer a time frame but they only give you date squares as though there is a specific date and time.
What should we do?
1.19 – we haven’t lived together in the sense that we rented a flat together and paid bills together but I have spent many months in England in her flat and she spent many months in Israel in my flat.
Of course, when I’m in England I don’t have the right to work and when she’s in Israel she doesn’t have the right to work so I’m not sure whether that means that we have lived together or not.
2.8 – what details? I don’t understand what they mean. I don’t have a visa yet, I’m not sure how long the visa process will take so obviously I haven’t started looking for work in the UK so what possible details they want?
Obviously, once I have the visa, I still need to get a NINO which will probably take a few days or weeks and only then I’ll start looking for work.
3.2 – we don’t have any kids. Do we still need to indicate any of these financial requirements? If so, which ones?
3.3 – We are mostly relying on my wife’s work. She’s earning well over the required amount (again, it’s just the two of us) but we are not sure what category we’re supposed to fill… category A or category B?
3.22 – we don’t understand this question and we’re not sure if we’re supposed to answer yes or no or leave it unchecked if inapplicable to us.
Could anyone explain this?
5.1 - What should we write in this box?
We would really appreciate all the help we can get.
It’s quite confusing
Thanks.
