Has there been a major change in the last few days

[oss]

Hi just found this forum.

I have a problem, up until Friday evening the ukvisas.gov.uk "DO I NEED A UK VISA" utility would respond "No" when I entered the criteria.

Specifically

Purpose of Visit : Visitor
Country of Nationality : Korea Republic of (South Korea)
Current location : Philippines

Since Friday night it now says "Yes"

My girlfriend is visiting the UK for a 2 month holiday on the 30th of October, I am a UK citiizen and I am sponsoring her and according to the rules (at least up till friday) all I needed to do was provide a letter of sponsorship and proof that she would have appropriate accomodation with me in the UK, we have return tickets and appropriate travel insurance and I was going out this week to bring her over on the 30th.

The British emabssy site in Seoul clearly still says that South Korean Nationals are NOT visa nationals and do not need a visa for a visit of up to 6 months. Also the UkVisa site does not have South Korea on the list of visa national countries.

I have phoned the Visa service in Manila and they confirmed that she did NOT need a visa until I pointed them at the UKVisa's site..! Now they have asked me to phone back on monday..!

This is a nightmare.. what's going on what's changed in the last few days..? Anyone got any ideas..?

PS

The girl I am bringing over has been my girlfriend for the last two and half years I have been over to see her 10 times during that period.

It's a complicated story but she only recently found out that she was in fact Korean as she has thought that she was stateless for the last 10 years. As a result of a court case that we started to try to sort things out, we had to go the Korean embassy in Manila who then confirmed that she was in fact Korean and who were happy to issue her a Korean passport, which she finally got 2 months ago when I was last over to see her.

So this is the first chance we have had for her to get out of the country and we were desperate to get a decent holiday in the UK and for her to meet my family.

I am so depressed about all this, at every turn something happens to ruin things

[John]

Two points ..... firstly a look at the BIA website shows no recent change to the Immigration Rules, which in Appendix 1 list the countries whose nationals are so-called Visa Nationals, always requiring a visa to enter the UK. South Korea remains off that list.

Secondly, I think we can safely say that the UKVisas website has database problems at the moment! Try out :-

Purpose of Visit : Visitor
Country of Nationality : Korea DPR (North Korea)
Current location : Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

-: where you will be delighted (not!) to be told about :-

You asked if a national of Nigeria needs a visa to come to the UK for a marriage visit

-: which does not strike me as at all relevant to the enquiry!

In short, stop worrying!

[oss]

Thanks John

I'm a software engineer myself and it did look like the site was fecked I tried a number of combinations and that was one of them earlier today although then it was just saying "Yes" Koreans in Korea need a visa.

I also got Nationals of France are not eligible for entry to the United Kingdom under the vistor scheme and Americans need a visa to visit as a tourist (which seemed unlikely)

I am just a worrier at heart and if it all goes wrong it's going to cost me a couple of thousand pounds in airfares, which I am willing to lose, but my friend Ana will be devastated if she gets turned back at our border.

All the conflicting information was just stressing me out

Thanks again..!

[John]

I also got Nationals of France are not eligible for entry to the United Kingdom under the vistor scheme and Americans need a visa to visit as a tourist (which seemed unlikely)

Very clearly .... at the moment .... that UKVisas website facility is talking a load of rubbish!

Again, stop worrying!

[JAJ]

Very clearly .... at the moment .... that UKVisas website facility is talking a load of rubbish!

Just like the Immigration Minister.

[oss]

Well I phoned the Visa application service in Manila this morning and they are now saying she does need a visa, but I was nearly certain that all the lassie at the other end did was ask someone else who then checked the UKvisa website

So after an argument with my girlfriend and a dismal depressing drive down to England today, I've just received an email from PublicVisaEnqs@fco.gov.uk apologising and stating that the website is basically "fecked" and they are looking into it.

And lo and behold I arrive at work and the site is working again giving the right answers. I did some screen grabs of the funny ones yesterday that I am going to keep for posterity

Thanks again guys : you helped a lot in calming me down yesterday, many thanks..!