Waterloo

7by7 - If you read Jay's second link Cameron says

"We’ve already introduced a “deport first; appeal later” rule for foreign criminals claiming a so-called right to family life. It means if you’ve committed a crime and you’re not meant to be here, you have to go home before you can appeal. Next we will extend that to all immigration appeals, except asylum cases."

I think that is pretty clear that it includes foreign spouses. So if they introduce B1 for FLR we might well see instant deportations for relatively minor immigration problems. I hope it doesn't come to that.

That was the impression I got on the way it was being reported yesterday, a shocking development if it comes to that!

The devil will be in the detail.

Deport first appeal later for all cases except asylum is of particular concern with regard to foreign spouses and partners.

Seizing the wages of illegal workers is a headline grabber but I think means very little in practice. I think the vast majority of illegal workers send their money back home when they get it through numerous "corner shop" money transfer offices.

I would go one further and say that seizing of wages is a complete nonsense and they know it, Theresa May virtually admitted as much yesterday.

As you say in the majority of cases there will be no money to seize and just look at how successful they have been in seizing money from the mister big's.

just getting ready to make the Wife's first application as well, I agree with your understanding of the situation and suspect that 7by7 is correct that the person in question hasn't done one of these applications before

Officially, all first time adult British passport applicants* are supposed to attend an interview. My wife did when she applied for her first British passport over 10 years ago.

But this is not the first time I have heard of people not having to attend one; so maybe in practice it's random?

Or perhaps they had a period of not interviewing when they had that huge backlog of applications to clear?

Anyway, the interview is quite painless and is intended to prevent fraud and identity theft.

4. Your passport interview

You’ll be asked to confirm facts about yourself that someone trying to steal your identity may not know.

* Unless born on or before 2 September 1929.

It would be interesting to know if those who were not called all had bio metric residence cards already!

As the process is probably identical it could be argued that this is a duplication of the process.

* Unless born on or before 2 September 1929.

LOL.

yes I read that also

Cheers for the response, not worried at all just curious about the sister in laws comments and whether it was going to amount to the usual misinformation!

Hi we will shortly be applying for the wife's first UK passport and we are aware that for some years now it has been necessary to attend an interview on the application for a first adult passport.

However the Wife's sister was round last night and she claimed that 2 of her friends (Thai) who had applied last year for there first UK passports had not been called for interviews!

I was initially very dismissive and did not believe her, but it got me thinking that the interview is probably the same process as for a bio-metric residence card so do they accept this in lieu of an interview?

I've had a good look on the government website and can find nothing to support this theory, anyone got any recent experience or knowledge on this subject?

Good to hear.

I assume the visa was free (as it should be)?

What about documentation (marital papers + ID of both you + indication from you that she joins you to Switserland should be enough)?

Is there an option to have the passport sent by courier?

Edit: Where are my manners?! Enjoy your holiday!

Yes no charge from the Embassy although I did think the website try's to push you towards using the services of VFS global.

I would not be surprised if some individuals go to VFS instead of directly to the Embassy, not an issue if you live a long way from London and one of VFS other offices is closer for the individual.

Downloaded the form directly from the website and supplied the following documentation.

Wife's passport

My passport

our British marriage certificate

our BA flight reservations

A letter of invitation from the Friends we will be staying with, although they did not require this last document from us the Wife did get the impression that other people were asked for it.

Strictly speaking the form said you didn't need the invite but the website did suggest it would be preferred (I think it's a good idea to have it)

We didn't asked about courier options, you would hope this is an option but as I work in London it was easy for me to pop in and collect it for free.

Last time we need to do this the Wife becomes a British Citizen on the 2nd of June.

collected the Wife's Schengen (Spouse) visa from the Swiss Embassy in London yesterday was pretty impressed with the service.

The Embassy has a 9.30 to 11.30 window for applications without an appointment so we decided the Wife would take a chance and travel off peak (£18.50).

Arrived Paddington 10 am Friday took a taxi (1 mile £5.40) done and dusted 11.05 am passport ready for collection Tuesday.

Phone call from the Wife a couple of hours ago our letter has arrived from the home office and her application has been approved, yippee cartwheels round the office.

Citizenship ceremony already booked for the 2nd June.

Application submitted to NCS on the 24th March so sent to home office on the 25th March, today being the 7th May I make that just over 6 weeks to get a decision.

Would definitely recommend using the NCS, apart from not being without our documents for that time we had mistakenly submitted the pass notification for the language test rather than the actual certificate.

Top marks to NCS, they held our application in the safe overnight and submitted the following day when the Wife returned with the certificate.

Good luck to all those still travelling on this road.

7by7's comment about explaining what will happen to the business whilst you are away is very important, we previously had an application rejected for not addressing this issue.

The application was about 6 years ago and was for an uncle to attend our wedding to act as Father of the Bride and was for 3 month's.

We had to reapply explaining that the wedding was in the low season on the farm and what chores that would need doing could be managed by the extended family.

If the children only have Thai passports you may have problems leaving the country with them without there mother, it is my understanding that Thailand has signed up to various conventions targeting child trafficking as Thailand is a know hub, I suggest you ask Mario 2008 for more information on this matter as he is very knowledgeable on this subject as well as family and custody issues.

Also how will they enter the country with Thai passports? strictly speaking as British citizens they cannot apply for British visa's and would need to either apply for a right of abode in their Thai passports or apply for their UK passports for which they will need their British passports which they currently do not posses, there have been various posts on this subject in the visa's to other country's forum.

Tony M is very knowledgeable on the last issue.

I think you need to resolve these issues before heading to the airport, I wish you good luck.

congratulations

please find attached the list I downloaded of the governments website about 3 weeks ago when I checked this for my wife's application

chapter_6_annexa__1_.pdf

Glad to here you were successful but to add to 7by7 comments this is dangerous advice.

We have just had a friend of the wife's visit who is Filipino and the husband is British & they initially applied for a visa for there son because they had not at the time applied for his UK passport.

The visa was refused as by their own submission he was entitled to a UK passport.

They then had to reapply & now have a stamp in his Filipino passport that says something to the affect of right of abode.

I am sure Tony can correct me on the terminology.

So not a good idea to advice people to do this deliberately, pleased for that it turned out okay though.

Well after one small hiccup yesterday documentation wise our application is away today, will report back how long it takes to process.

All credit to the NCS they kept our paperwork in the safe overnight whilst we retrieved the correct document and are dispatching today at no extra charge.

Yes 4 weeks . The slight problem is that we live in Manchester and I asked for the ceremony to be in Manchester. And they give us Swindon which is no where near where we live

Something not right here. I would phone the hotline and request a local ceremony as I'm guessing that they've made an administrative error.

Got to agree Swindon is only about an hour from were we live it must be 4 to 5 hours from Manchester, that said for gods sake don't risk going past the deadline.

Hi

We have received the good news today that are application has been approved. It took 4 weeks from applying through the NCS to receiving the letter

Congratulations, the Wife's appointment with the NCS is booked for this coming Monday I hope we are as fortunate!

an extra £99 for citizenship, really is time to get the wife's application in

For my dilly dallying, it cost me £100 last April [2014] when I should have already applied for citizenship on behalf of my wife. We had an unwritten agreement that I researched and completed all the visa applications and my wife sat LitUK, B1 and signed the various forms which, for us, was a fair way to do things. The existence of a cosy year on ILR lured me into a false sense of security.

That £100 rise sure spurred me into action, notwithstanding wondering whether there would be future random changes or additions to qualifying tests and their associated costs.

It was God's way of telling me to get a move on.

Yes pretty much the same here should have had it in before last years deadline, still have an appointment for the Citizenship checking service on the 23rd of March now.

For anyone else thinking of trying to beat the deadline be warned be warned appointments are disappearing fast!

My wife does it all the time, show check in staff Thai and UK passport and Thai Immigration Thai passport if they query no U.K.Visa tell them he has U.K. passport too.

We have never had a problem since dual nationality was permitted.

ditto

cheers, sorted the last piece of the puzzle late last year when she passed the English test so no problems with meeting the requirements.

Will definitely be using the checking service, as we need the passport back for a visit to friends in Switzerland in June.

As a note to others who are thinking of applying before April, I was checking for appointments yesterday with the nationality checking service and our local service is fully booked this month, will have to go to a neighboring town in order to meet the deadline.

Hi hoping to put together the wife's application for citizenship over the weekend and just wanted to check whether we use the current version of form AN on the Governments website.

The only reason I ask this question is as I believe we qualify under the old rules because of when we started this process.

Checking the wife's residency card I believe she received ILR in oct 2012 and had 2 periods of FLR leading up to that.

Checking on the UK website it only say's April for when these fee changes take affect, due I assume they mean from the 1st of April?

an extra £99 for citizenship, really is time to get the wife's application in

Cheers 7 by 7 helpful as always I will pass this on