Submitting Photo Evidence

[shadyacres29]

Just wondering if when we submit our visa application it is ok to have a seperate photo album with all of our pictures rather than putting them in with the apllication folder as we have so many.

Many thanks for any replies.

Dom

[kennkate]

I did not submit any Photo evidence with my Wife's settlement application.

You need to show the Embassy that you are in a position to support and accommodate your family without recourse to public funds.

If you are married then you will have a marraige cert That is proof in itself. No Photos required.

Accommodation proof IE council tax. Utility bills. if rented Rental agreement. Bank statements to prove support possible. Wage slips If employed.

In fact as much as you can get together to support this side of the application. Take care of these and you will be OK. Good Luck

[shadyacres29]

I did not submit any Photo evidence with my Wife's settlement application.

You need to show the Embassy that you are in a position to support and accommodate your family without recourse to public funds.

If you are married then you will have a marraige cert That is proof in itself. No Photos required.

Accommodation proof IE council tax. Utility bills. if rented Rental agreement. Bank statements to prove support possible. Wage slips If employed.

In fact as much as you can get together to support this side of the application. Take care of these and you will be OK. Good Luck

Thanks alot for your reply,taken on board your opinion.

cheers

[CharlieB]

I did not submit any Photo evidence with my Wife's settlement application.

You need to show the Embassy that you are in a position to support and accommodate your family without recourse to public funds.

If you are married then you will have a marraige cert That is proof in itself. No Photos required.

Accommodation proof IE council tax. Utility bills. if rented Rental agreement. Bank statements to prove support possible. Wage slips If employed.

In fact as much as you can get together to support this side of the application. Take care of these and you will be OK. Good Luck

No point trying to prove it's a genuine relationship and marriage and not a sham one then, in your opinion?

OP, personally, I'd put all the pictures you can in to show you've hada long term genuine relationship with your wife and not just married her to get her in the UK. The simple answer is, you can put the pictures in an album, but your Mrs must be prepared for the person in the visa centre to say they all have to be removed from the album to be submitted. I put documents in files, but they had to be taken out of the files. They are quite strict on this, so you may want to save the bother and just put them all together in an envelope in the first place.

[shadyacres29]

I did not submit any Photo evidence with my Wife's settlement application.

You need to show the Embassy that you are in a position to support and accommodate your family without recourse to public funds.

If you are married then you will have a marraige cert That is proof in itself. No Photos required.

Accommodation proof IE council tax. Utility bills. if rented Rental agreement. Bank statements to prove support possible. Wage slips If employed.

In fact as much as you can get together to support this side of the application. Take care of these and you will be OK. Good Luck

No point trying to prove it's a genuine relationship and marriage and not a sham one then, in your opinion?

OP, personally, I'd put all the pictures you can in to show you've hada long term genuine relationship with your wife and not just married her to get her in the UK. The simple answer is, you can put the pictures in an album, but your Mrs must be prepared for the person in the visa centre to say they all have to be removed from the album to be submitted. I put documents in files, but they had to be taken out of the files. They are quite strict on this, so you may want to save the bother and just put them all together in an envelope in the first place.

When you say you put documents in files,could you elaborate on this please as i dont want to have to go through what you did with taking things out of a carefully prepared applicaton.

Thanks for your opinion and sound advice i feel.

[CharlieB]

I did not submit any Photo evidence with my Wife's settlement application.

You need to show the Embassy that you are in a position to support and accommodate your family without recourse to public funds.

If you are married then you will have a marraige cert That is proof in itself. No Photos required.

Accommodation proof IE council tax. Utility bills. if rented Rental agreement. Bank statements to prove support possible. Wage slips If employed.

In fact as much as you can get together to support this side of the application. Take care of these and you will be OK. Good Luck

No point trying to prove it's a genuine relationship and marriage and not a sham one then, in your opinion?

OP, personally, I'd put all the pictures you can in to show you've hada long term genuine relationship with your wife and not just married her to get her in the UK. The simple answer is, you can put the pictures in an album, but your Mrs must be prepared for the person in the visa centre to say they all have to be removed from the album to be submitted. I put documents in files, but they had to be taken out of the files. They are quite strict on this, so you may want to save the bother and just put them all together in an envelope in the first place.

When you say you put documents in files,could you elaborate on this please as i dont want to have to go through what you did with taking things out of a carefully prepared applicaton.

Thanks for your opinion and sound advice i feel.

I had my wife's application split into various sections and had these within clear document files (You know the clear plastic pouches sealed bottom and left) in another document container. They took everything out and put it in an envelope. Basically, they don't like files, folders, etc.

[Thongkorn]

Put to much information in, and photos in your file, better than not enough. I put all my docs in a file with clear plastic pages ,no problem , i just labeled each page, IE bank details , all the rest of the docs , i put all my photos in one page with label saying proof of contact, i got my settlement visa first time so i must have done something right,

Edited February 22, 2010 by Thongkorn

[WeeGB]

I'd be careful what photos you include. I included photos of some of my wife's nephews and neices holidaying with us in Pattaya, thinking this would prove ongoing relationship, that I got along with her family etc. The interviewer, who was a Thai lady, insisted that one of the neices was in fact my wifes daughter, because they look very alike. My wife has no children, but this woman kept asking her over and over if this was her daughter. My wife was interviewed for nearly half an hour, and she said the majority of it was down to this problem. She did eventually get the stamp, but it was a very harrowing experience.

Good luck in your application. When we did it, (10 years ago), I was not allowed to go into the interview with my wife, don't know if it's still the same. Probably just as well, I'd have lost it with this interviewer.

[CharlieB]

I'd be careful what photos you include. I included photos of some of my wife's nephews and neices holidaying with us in Pattaya, thinking this would prove ongoing relationship, that I got along with her family etc. The interviewer, who was a Thai lady, insisted that one of the neices was in fact my wifes daughter, because they look very alike. My wife has no children, but this woman kept asking her over and over if this was her daughter. My wife was interviewed for nearly half an hour, and she said the majority of it was down to this problem. She did eventually get the stamp, but it was a very harrowing experience.

Good luck in your application. When we did it, (10 years ago), I was not allowed to go into the interview with my wife, don't know if it's still the same. Probably just as well, I'd have lost it with this interviewer.

Visa interviews are as rare as hens teeth these days.

[shadyacres29]

Some mixed views about whether or not its acceptable to put all documents in a folder or not??

My thinking is that it would be far easier for the officer at the embassy to finf what info they are looking for in a file,rather than the whole lot just piled in one large envelope?

Any other opinions please?

Many thanks

[7by7]

I have always put everything into seperate plastic pockets; e.g application form in one, financial evidence in another, contact evidence in another etc., with a seperate index.

I'm not sure, but I think they may have a problem with bulky ring binders and similar as they have to fit it all into an envelope of some kind in order to forward it to the embassy.

These days the ECOs try to resolve as many applications as possible without an interview.

[enquirer]

I prepared my daughter-in-law's spouse visa application last August. As others have said, I put everything into plastic folders inside a large file. I learned here that they would be taken out of the file and put into another container, so everything in the folders that had to stay in order was stapled together, or kept together with treasury tags, and exhaustively labelled. My d-i-l submitted FIVE photograph albums, which they accepted. I have to say it was a difficult application so we used overkill. The difficulty was that my son's miniscule income is based on housing benefit and tax credits for a very part-time job, disability level, so it was hard to prove he could support her without further access to public funds.

I personally believe that a set of photographs is a swift way of alerting the ECOs to a longstanding relationship with family and friends in relaxed situations - they need only flip briefly through them to pick up the atmosphere. My d-i-l could not bear to reduce her albums to anything smaller, but it did not seem to matter, and she got her visa a few weeks later. We have just had a splendid party to introduce her to our extended families and friends, including her family from Bangkok, who all successfully applied for visitor visas.

[sumrit]

I have always put everything into seperate plastic pockets; e.g application form in one, financial evidence in another, contact evidence in another etc., with a seperate index.

I'm not sure, but I think they may have a problem with bulky ring binders and similar as they have to fit it all into an envelope of some kind in order to forward it to the embassy.

These days the ECOs try to resolve as many applications as possible without an interview.

I always did the same but when the VFS centre became involved about four years ago I found their staff would take everything out of the plastic wallets and just put it all in their own folder, in any old order. So, since then, instead of putting each 'section' in its own wallet I clearly label and staple each section individually so documents from one section can't get mixed up with another and the ECO can easily find what he's looking for.

Everything has always been returned still stapled together.

[Merangue]

I submitted a hel_l of a lot of photo's spanning 4 years but instead of provideing reams and reams of paper i printed the photos in small size 9 to a sheet of A4 paper.

As for the folders etc i submitted 2 files/folders. 1 was a box type file with indexed documents which were removed and stuffed into the envelope. The other was a slim folder with clear plastic pockets A4 size, which was accepted without anything being removed.

At the time Visa's were taking approx 13-16 weeks to go through. Mine went through in 10 weeks without the need for interviews or anything.

Must have been something right with the application.

My advice is to submit everything you can as it is better to have too much than have them delay or refuse for something easily enough provided in the first place.

Edited February 28, 2010 by Merangue