Replacement Visa before initial travel to UK--please help

[Atlanta2Devon]

Hi all!

My family has what I hope is an unusual situation. My wife and I (and our two children) are moving from Atlanta to work at a university in the UK. Last week, our visas were issued. On Monday of this week, we received our package back from the UKBA with all of the supporting materials (e.g. marriage certificate, birth certificates), but not the passports. To add to the intrigue, the envelope was open. I think we just were subject to the bad luck of some bad glue and the passports fell out in route rather than anything sinister. We are supposed to start in the UK September 1.

Long story short--we need to get new passports and we need to get replacement visas. We are still in the US, so it appears the change of circumstance form for lost passports is not appropriate in our case. We understand that we have to pay the full fee again and do another biometric data appointment.

My question is, I hope, relatively simple. How do we make it clear in our application that we are applying for replacement visas? The online system does not seem to offer this as an option (if it does, I missed it. Please tell me how to find it if it is there). Do we just include a letter explaining the situation, along with the police reports that we filed (we have reports from both the USPS and the Atlanta PD)? Do we include a special form? Do we apply by some means other than the online Visa4UK portal?

The visas were issued--we just need them transferred to the new passports that we will get in the next few days. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help people can offer.

[vinny]

There should be a chain of responsibility.

Did the Embassy actually enclose the passports in the package?
Is the Embassy at fault for not sealing the package properly?
Is the USPS at fault?

Contact the Embassy and ask the first question.
Ask them your subsequent questions if the passports are indeed lost.

[Atlanta2Devon]

There should be a chain of responsibility.

Did the Embassy actually enclose the passports in the package?
Is the Embassy at fault for not sealing the package properly?
Is the USPS at fault?

Contact the Embassy and ask the first question.
Ask them your subsequent questions if the passports are indeed lost.

Thanks very much for your reply.

Here's a little more background that I left our of the first post. We've filed a case with UKBA, but the the case has been "escalated for further research" and we've waited about as long we can given our Sept 1 start date. According to the people we have spoken to at USPS and the State Department, the passports are functionally lost. If USPS came across them, they would immediately return them to the State Department (without logging them or keeping any record). According the people we spoke to at the State Department, they don't normally try and return lost passports to people, they just destroy them. If somebody stole the passports, we have no way to know. It is possible that UKBA still has the passports in their possession (when they should have been returned), but I would think that would have let us know by now if they have them.

At this point, I don't really care whose fault it is. I want to know how to fix the problem. I'd be happy to speak with people at the embassy, but we don't know how. We've tried calling the embassy, but we keep getting routed to an automated phone tree or to Worldbridge. If anybody has any advice on how to talk to a real person at the embassy, I would be just as thrilled with that device.

[vinny]

Try to contact:

Sir Peter Westmacott KCMG, LVO
British Ambassador to the USA

Or his secretary.

[manci]

The guidance to ECOs is in ECB17.2
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... ecb/ecb17/

by reference to:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... r-form.pdf
this is what has to be done:
“if you are unable to provide the original visa/entry clearance e.g. you have lost or had stolen your passport containing your original visa/entry clearance, then you must submit a fresh application (including the appropriate fee) on the relevant form…..”

If the application must be made online I suggest you just treat it as a fresh application and when sending the documents explain the circumstances in a covering letter. It is safer to send the documents all over again rather than assume that they will be satisfied with the copies they already have. You will of course also send the new passports and the police report.

[Atlanta2Devon]

The guidance to ECOs is in ECB17.2
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... ecb/ecb17/

by reference to:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... r-form.pdf
this is what has to be done:
“if you are unable to provide the original visa/entry clearance e.g. you have lost or had stolen your passport containing your original visa/entry clearance, then you must submit a fresh application (including the appropriate fee) on the relevant form…..”

If the application must be made online I suggest you just treat it as a fresh application and when sending the documents explain the circumstances in a covering letter. It is safer to send the documents all over again rather than assume that they will be satisfied with the copies they already have. You will of course also send the new passports and the police report.

Manci--thank you so much! This is super helpful, and significant progress for us. I apologize if I am sounding dense, but I want this as clear-cut as possible.

The guidance you linked to uses different terminology for ECB17.1 (transfer) and ECB17.2 (replacement). Because the passports were lost, we are technically a replacement or 17.2. Therefore, we should NOT use the form you linked to because it is specific to "transfer" and not "replacement."

Instead, we are planning to resend all relevant documents that we included in our original application (birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc...). We will use our original CoS numbers. UKBA told the university that hired us that a new CoS is not required because visas had been issued to us and that transfer/replacement situations do not require new CoS numbers.

In addition, to including everything from the original application (minus those passports, of course) we are planning to include the following:

1) A cover letter explaining the situation,
2) Police report(s),
3) Copies of the emails indicating that our visas had been issued.
4) Our new passports

To reiterate, we will not include the form that manci linked to because the form explicitly states that our situation does not apply. As far anyone can tell, there is no special form to use when applying for a replacement visa.

If anyone out there dissents from this opinion, please let us know.

And thanks again to you and vinny. This has been an incredibly stressful week for us. It is wonderful to know that there are people out there who willingly spend their help helping anonymous others with their time. It really is a wonderful silver lining to this whole ordeal--they are nice, caring, and helpful people out there. If anybody else has advice or experience with a similar situation, please feel free to share.

[manci]

The form I provided the link to was only the reference for the quote which explains what to do, it is NOT the form you should use.

The paper forms for Tier 2 visa applications are VAF9 and Appendix 5:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... s/vaf9.pdf

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... 9-app5.pdf

Check if paper applications are allowed in the US or online application is mandatory.