Post
by slapmyself » Fri Apr 28, 2017 10:58 am
Hi, I just wanted to share my experience of having lost my BRP overseas. My BRP was actually stolen on the 17th while I was on the plane to Prague. I made police reports and went to all the British embassies I could, along with calling the (expensive af visa hotline). The British embassy just told me that they had nothing to do with the visa office and told me to visit the office. At this point, I was due to travel to Vienna on the 21st and Budapest 24th and back to uk 27th. The offices in all three cities were only open 1 day a week. It was not possible for me to get an appointment, and even with fast track (which cost a bomb) I would have had to extend my stay - can't because exams are next week.
When I got to the immigration at Bristol airport, I told them that my BRP was stolen and I just said that I couldnt get an appointment at the visa office. I passed them a copy of my BRP along with some student status letters (emailed to me by my school) and they let me in. I may have been pretty lucky, because the immigration officers on duty were all really nice and helpful. What I am saying is, there is ALWAYS A RISK with trying to enter the UK without a BRP definitely, but if you tell them the truth and provide them with enough documents to help you, they should understand and let you enter.
OTHER OPTIONS:
1. The visa hotline was useless and they basically told me to stay on all the way in Budapest and wait and everything (I would have had to defer my exams to august and sit them in my home country) - cost £1.39/min
2. The UKVI emailed a reply telling me to go to somewhere else in Europe eg. Paris, where the office is open 5 days a week (That would still not guarantee that I can make it back on time for my exams and also cost?? travel plans?? accommodation cost?? flights??)
3. my school told me to try to get a short term study stamp as I was leaving on the 31st may to go back home anyway. I have a Singapore passport and I can do that without needing to get a visa prior to that. The only issue with that was that when I leave, I have to get a one time replacement still in Singapore before I enter UK again, and because it has been a long time since I lost my BRP, they may not accept my request and I would then have to redo my whole tier 4 visa again.
