Trevor1809

I am absolutely staggered by the mind numbing incompetence of the <deleted> wits at UKVI.

My solicitor using my credit card details has tried to make an appointment for fast track FLR and again the bastards have taken the £500 NHS surcharge, that is £1500 now, and still there are no appointments.

UKVI are without doubt the most moronic useless bunch of cretins to walk the face of the Earth

Unf**king belivable.

My wife now can't find her original divorce certificate. Why the hell UKVI need this bearing in mind they granted a settlement visa 2.5 years ago is beyond me, not to mention the Thai authorities allowing us to marry.

Can I put a copy in and say to hell with it, its is lost. I very nearly couldn't find mine but knowing how anal the UK authorities are I never throw anything away so managed to find it.

The daft thing is my UK divorce certificate is so bland it could easily be a copy. Even the rubber stamp on the certificate is black and I phoned up the court and they confirmed that they do in fact use black rubber stamps, not coloured ones.

Since when has it been necessary to supply company bank statements? I am not aware that you are required to supply these. When will this BS end. You send a tax return, audited accounts, P60s, pay slips to prove that you exceed the minimum salary and still they find a reason to turn you down. Absolutely disgraceful.

Come on here and say that the UK Immigration service is not fit for purpose and a host of people on TV will dump on you for being totally unreasonable.

You are probably right but I just feel with so many vague, ambiguous questions that UKVI are looking for an excuse to reject an application.

You can imagine some eagle eyed person saying really, you have no friends what so ever in Thailand or other relatives.

I thought that it was a year's worth of bank statements and pay slips. P60 as well.

No it's not, as another member has said it's six months worth of pay slips with the corresponding bank statements, a P60 isn't an actual requirement as the decision maker can grant the application without it, but it can be submitted if the applicant desires.

Excuse me for sounding dumb but if a P60 is not obligatory and only 6 months pay slips and statements are used then how do you verify that you are exceeding £18600 pa.

I take it they are trusting on the letter from the employer. Which begs the question why does a self employed person have to supply a years worth, if say they are exceeding £50k pa. Does it matter whether this is over a year or 6 months? It seems that an employed person is trusted more than a self employed person.

If the employer says that he was bribed/paid to sign the letter then in all likelihood the application would be refused and the applicant faces the prospect of a ten year ban from making future applications.

When I said bribed it was tongue in cheek given that the Op's boss was "too busy" to write a less than 5 minute letter that was a life changing issue for his employee. May be some other incentive like if you don't do this then I will walk off the job, having found an alternative job first.

Doesn't help with visa I know but then so is not getting a letter from the employer.

This question asks what ties the applicant has with:

Country of birth

Any other country that the applicant has nationality of

Any other country that the applicant has lined in for more than 5 years

List family, friends or other connections.

It then gives you 4 boxes in 2 columns to provide answers.

Column 1 is the country and column 2 says Social cultural or family ties.

Like so many questions on the FLR form it is difficult to see the relevance but what are they expecting here exactly.

A name and address? Family, friends and other connections. I would need 4 pages to list all the wife's friends and probably 1 page for the extended family?

Is there no HR dept. An admin person to do it. Write it yourself then get him to sign it, bribe him to sign then start looking for a new employer. He sounds like s**t

I may be wrong but isn't there a rule that bank statements need to be provided for the period up to 28 days before the date of the application. I think that is the case for FLR applications.

There will always be a time lag in the system - especially if the ECO takes 3 months to make a decision.

It stands to reason that there will be a period prior to a visa application that wont be covered by bank statements as it take a bank 7 to 10 days to issue a statement. But I am sure that UKVI haven't considered that.

I thought that it was a year's worth of bank statements and pay slips. P60 as well.

There is an interesting argument going on in the UK media over Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, wife who is Chinese. A Labour MP tweeted that if China is so wonderful doesn't she return there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34502104

The article goes on to say "

Labour's leader in the House of Lords Lady Smith said Goodman's tweet was "absolutely bizarre".

She told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour: "Presumably Mrs Hunt lives in the UK because she's married to Mr Hunt and she's in love with him and wants to be with him so end of story"

Very different if you are not in the Conservative Government and earn less that £18600 pa. The question of love and wanting to be with your husband (or wife) doesn't come into it.

But then being and MP and having different rules apply. Who remembers the Liberal MP who employed his Russian mistress as he researcher, while he was married. The allegation was the researcher was a Russian spy with full access to the House of Commons.

How the other half live.

"what is the £500 for??"

The NHS surcharge. It was only supposed to be paid prior to attending the appointment but UKVI told my MP that as many people were turning up for appointments having not paid it that they had introduced the payment prior to making the appointment.

Bearing in mind this only came in in April you would have thought UKVI would have given some lee way until the process had settled down. If someone hadn't paid it they could have just taken a credit card payment or not let the appointment go ahead.

I don't have my wife's marriage certificate to ex and I believe there is no requirement to supply this. Question 6.29 d on the FLR asks the date of the marriage to any former partner. I am not sure of the relevance given this would have been given at the settlement stage.

My wife says that she was married in 1997 but the divorce certificate says 2541 which I believe is 1998. Her son was born in 1997.

The divorce certificate is therefore wrong.

Should we put 1997 as that is when my wife says she was married and hope that they don't pick up on the translated divorce certificate that it says 1998?

Family visas (relatively small numbers that most would consider acceptable).

Well I guess being hard on family visas is a double whammy.

Don't grant the visa that is one less immigrant. Then with a bit of luck the UK spouse will emigrate boosting the net migration figure. Who knows the UK spouse take a couple of UK kids with them, three left and one denied a visa.

May and Cameron are desperate to boost net migration at any cost given that they have no chance of curbing the immigration total.

On a slight different subject but to demonstrate how desperate they are some cranking right wing pressure group is advocating slashing pension benefits on the basis that by 2020 a lot of the pensioners who were impacted will be dead anyway so wont influence the next election.

What thoroughly nice people the Conservatives are.

chill out lads, yes i asked how far in advance i need to book for an appointment with premium service. is the answer 28 days? also how late can i do it? if the passport arrives just before the visa expires.

anyone had positive experience with premium service?

but mainly i wanted to know if i could apply now with the old passport and then get the new one after i have used the premium service?

i already have the appointment booked to make a new passport

Ok I was right, for once at least. So I refer you my first answer but I am afraid my experience is not positive. It seems negative responses are frowned upon here.

Well if it is right that you can't make a premium appointment until 28 days before the visa expires then I will find out in about a week and a half.

I can only reiterate the problems that I had before. To access the appointment system the UNVI web site forced me to pay the £500 NHS surcharge before even booking the appointment. The system gives you three attempts before a security protocol throws you out and then you have to start the whole saga over again.

I suggest that you put in the widest range of dates and locations as possible and hope for the best. I did, it cost me £1000 and no appointment. What can I say.

"how far ahead do i need to book an appointment to get on the same day visa?"

ok you are saying to book an appointment for the passport renewal not the visa. We need the op to clarify.

The op asked about the same day visa. I gave my experience. I was not able to make a same day appointment and it cost me £1000. How would you like me to answer the question.

Yes its dead easy. just go on line, I did mine 3 months in advance and it was dead easy?

If somebody has a better experience then I would love to hear about it also.

I am afraid I tried and it was a very expensive disaster.

Can't help with the passport but I take it you are applying for the Premium Visa service. Be very careful. UKVI took £1000 off me and didn't even give me an appointment.

I am currently going through the Parliamentary Ombudsman to get my money back.

I don't think even UKVI know the answer to how far a head you can book. I was applying on 12 July for a September appointment and they said that there were non available.

Now it has been suggested to me that they don't issue appointments until 28 days before the visa expires. If that is the case why didn't they say when I was trying to make an appointment. but still sting me for 2 NHS surcharge payments.

UKVI are complete crooks. God knows if anybody who gets a visa turned down ever sees their money again if my experience is anything to go by.

Yes Trevor - it is a 74 page form much of which is either irrelevant or a duplication of info already submitted. Whilst I think my wife and I fulfil all the criteria for FLR there is always that nagging doubt that I may have ticked the wrong box or some other minor error. The English language part is very confusing. I have double checked and triple checked. What if the person assessing the application isn't up to speed with everything? Just another load of bureaucratic expensive nonsense i.m.o.

I am in the same boat. My wife did Bulats so I just got her to take the Trinity so I knew exactly where we stood. I can't deal with the confusing ambiguous forms and the never ending bloody expense.

The £18 600 has to relate to taxable income.

Isn't all income taxable?

Why should it matter how the income is derived as log as it is £18600. Not that I agree that there should be a limit in the first place.

As to fighting the system, why not. We do live in a democracy after all. Just because the Government does something doesn't make it right.

You could also ask why it is gross income which counts rather than disposable income; which was the case prior to July 2012.

Well yes precisely. Previously you just had to prove that you had sufficient income, none of this £18600 pa so you wouldn't be a burden on society rubbish when the applicants passport is stamped no recourse to public funds anyway.

Now a pensioner in his or her own fully paid off house but a pension of £18000 can't sponsor but an up to the eyeballs in debt £19000 pa 20 something can.

Directors of limited companies come under Para 9; as you will see if you actually read the appendix.

I know they do. What I am asking is why are the "self employed" Directors treated under one set or rules and the "self employed" sole traders treated under a different set of rules.

I don't actually see what a self assessment form adds to the process given that you have already submitted audited accounts, unless you assume the accountant is a crook. It doesn't show proof of earnings or tax paid. The SA302 makes more sense.

The specified evidence appendix, which applies to FLR and ILR applications as well as those for the initial visa, is very clear.

Well not very clear. I assume that this only applies to those deemed self employed in the eyes of HMRC ie sole traders and not those deemed self employed in the eyes of UKVI, Directors of a limited company. So Directors need not supply self assessment forms. Is that cottect? This is the trouble when the term "self employed" is banded about. It means different things under different conditions.

Since when has it been necessary to supply a copy of a self assessment? If self employed I thought that they only ask for certified accounts and bank statements. Now they are asking for self assessments.

I am doing my wife's flr in a few weeks and I have not been told to supply this and the most recent is for 2013-14. The 2014-15 self assessment hasn't been produced yet and is not due yet. The SA302 will not be available either, only for 2013-14.