Validity Period Of Uk Visit Family Visa

[mallmagician]

Hi There,

Just some advice needed really. My wife and I have been married (In Thailand) since Sept last year. We live together in Chiang Mai.

We are wanting to visit the UK in October, and I have been told she should apply for a family visit visa, on the understanding that my family is now her family too.

We are having a wedding ceremony (We were official last year), for family and friends here in October, and my parents have invited us to visit the UK, and basically have a little reception there too for all those family and friends who were unable to attend our thai ceremony. The idea being to travel to the UK about mid October.

Due to a need to organise family in the UK for the reception, we really could do with getting it all sorted now-ish (For a number of reasons - the earlier we book flights, the cheaper it will be for my folks, my brother and sister in law need to book time off work to visit us in the UK, etc etc.).

If we applied now (Noting that they say we cannot apply until 3 months prior to intended travel), and stated that we intend to travel, in, say July - how much flexibility does the visa allow us to change the date of intended travel? Is it very restrictive? I.E. does it restrict us to the dates we say? Or is it basically valid for a period of time e.g 6 months, so that we can simply get our Visa early, affording us the time to make the arrangements in the UK and here, then actually travel in October?

I know its not exactly doing it by the book, but I dont see much harm in it. Unless of course I'm missing something? Or should we say our intended date of travel is anytime between July - October, for a period of 1 or 2 weeks in the UK.

Thanks in advance.

Phil

[DrJPB]

I can't answer your whole question, but all i can tell you is, if you are planning to apply for 6 months visa, then the visa date will start from the day your visa is being issued.

Le me explain in this way, you applied for visa today, 19th april. Let's say that the application is being accepted after 5 working days, so in that case, the issuing date will be 28th april. So the validity of your visa will be 180 days from date of issue. Which means, you can travel any time within 6 months, and you should return back to your country before end of 180 days.

Unless you are planning to apply for 1 year, you can do the math.

Hope this helps in any way.

[7by7]

A UK visit visa can be valid for 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years or 10 years. Whatever the validity of their visa, a visitor cannot spend more than 6 months in the UK and, usually, no more than 6 months out of any 12 in the UK.

A visitor can enter the UK at anytime between the start date and the expiry date of the visa; but they cannot enter before the start date and whenever they enter they must leave after a maximum of 6 months or by the expiry date, whichever comes first.

[ThaiVisaExpress]

You can pre date a visa 90 days in advance of travel.

[sumrit]

If we applied now (Noting that they say we cannot apply until 3 months prior to intended travel), and stated that we intend to travel, in, say July - how much flexibility does the visa allow us to change the date of intended travel? Is it very restrictive? I.E. does it restrict us to the dates we say? Or is it basically valid for a period of time e.g 6 months, so that we can simply get our Visa early, affording us the time to make the arrangements in the UK and here, then actually travel in October?

If you apply say 1st May you could ask for the visa to start from 1st August (three months ahead) and it would then be valid until 1st February next year (for six months). You can then travel any time within that six month window but must return to Thailand before the visa expires. So if you didn't travel until 1st October you could only stay in the UK for a maximum of four months.

If you do this check the start date of the visa is correct as soon as you get the passport back as I've known times where the ECO has missed the start date request and dated it from the day they issued the visa.

[mallmagician]

Thanks for all this info. Thats great. We can apply early, which is useful.

We may go back earlier anyway, so its not false info really.

My parents are sponsoring the visit, so one final question. Does the sponsor letter need to be snailmail original? Or will a copy do? Given that they can be contacted by email/phone for verification.

Thanks

Phil

[sumrit]

My parents are sponsoring the visit, so one final question. Does the sponsor letter need to be snailmail original? Or will a copy do? Given that they can be contacted by email/phone for verification.

Thanks

Phil

You will be the sponsor for your wife's visa, not your parents.

If you will be staying with your parents you will need a letter from them inviting you both to stay along with details of the accommodation available (you should have at least one (bed)room available for yourselves). They should also supply ownership/rent details, council tax bills, etc to show who lives there.

The letter of invitation and other documents they're supplying can be emailed to you and printed off for the application, they don't need to be posted.