Visa

[Dubar]

Hi,

I have just joined he forum and am very happy to hear the average waiting time for settlement visa is about 7 weeks we applied on the 18th June!! so this friday will be 6 weeks, I was starting to think it was going to be the full 12 weeks!!!!!!!

Can somebody advised me on the chances of refusal after 6 weeks or would this have been in the first couple of we, also if my wife receives the visa and while she is in Bangkok get her passport and ID card surname change? we never had chance to go back to the embassy to register the marriage in the uk do people recommend we do this in Thailand or back in the uk?

All advise on all this will be fully appreciated

Many thanks

Dubar

[lovelomsak]

Hi can you explain what a settlement visa is please. I never have heard of one before is it like a immgration 0. Do you have to report every 90 days? I am interested to know more about this one.

[Dubar]

Hi can you explain what a settlement visa is please. I never have heard of one before is it like a immgration 0. Do you have to report every 90 days? I am interested to know more about this one.

Settlement visa is for my wife to come to England for 2 years

[Thongkorn]

Hi can you explain what a settlement visa is please. I never have heard of one before is it like a immgration 0. Do you have to report every 90 days? I am interested to know more about this one.

doooooooo.

[TiggerFish]

Can somebody advised me on the chances of refusal after 6 weeks or would this have been in the first couple of we, also if my wife receives the visa and while she is in Bangkok get her passport and ID card surname change? we never had chance to go back to the embassy to register the marriage in the uk do people recommend we do this in Thailand or back in the uk?

From what I can gather refusals take as long to process as successful applications.

I'm not sure how easy it is to change the surname your wife uses now as you've already applied for the visa.

You don't need to register the marriage in the UK but you can pay the British embassy in bangkok to do This It would seem you can do the same thing from within the UK as they are effectively only storing the certificate for you.

[7by7]

Unless for some reason the Entry Clearance Officer needs to make further enquiries, interview the applicant etc. the actual processing time for a visa application is measured in minutes! What causes the delay is the number of applications waiting in the queue ahead of yours to be dealt with before the ECO can even look at yours. So the length of time between submitting the application and receiving a decision is no indication of whether that decision is a yes or a no.

The visa will be issued in the same name as the passport that it is put into. The old system of changing the name in a Thai passport meant that a simple stamp was placed in the passport, in which case there was no problem in doing this after the visa had been issued. Now that Thai passports are all digitalised, I don't know if this still happens; she may be issued a new passport. In which case she would have to carry her old, canceled passport with the visa in it (the visa would still be valid even if the passport it was in was not), the new valid passport and her marriage certificate to show the link.

However, there is no compulsion under UK law for a wife to take her husband's surname upon marriage, so as far as the UK is concerned it does not matter if her passport and visa are in her maiden name. (I think the same is true of Thailand, but would like that to be confirmed.) Just make sure that the name on any air ticket matches the name in her passport.

Changing the name on her ID card will, of course, have no effect on her visa or entry to the UK. However, I believe this can only be done at the Ampur of the district where she is registered.

You cannot register the marriage at the embassy or back in the UK; it is already registered at the Ampur. See this topic for more.

[Mercury]

Unless for some reason the Entry Clearance Officer needs to make further enquiries, interview the applicant etc. the actual processing time for a visa application is measured in minutes! What causes the delay is the number of applications waiting in the queue ahead of yours to be dealt with before the ECO can even look at yours. So the length of time between submitting the application and receiving a decision is no indication of whether that decision is a yes or a no...

Is this just your supposition or is there evidence to support this theory ?

Personally, I do not buy into the idea of it simply being a case of masses of applications in front of yours because were that true, then everyone's visa would come after the same time, all the time and they do not, though I admit there is a current time of around 7 weeks here, for applicants over the last few months.

I can imagine some applications need extensive work and enquiries and others are a rubber stamp job. Someone must, like triage in an accident department, make an initial assessment or we would see applications from the more difficult cases taking way longer than 12 weeks, which is their stipulated guideline. I suspect it is more akin to some other UK government departments, such as Child Benefit, where they always take 12 weeks and you also cannot enquire before 12 weeks. Rather than do the job as quickly as possible, they merely do the limited amount necessary to shuffle the paperwork within the required time available.

Now if someone has some real inside information, I am all ears.

[sumrit]

Unless for some reason the Entry Clearance Officer needs to make further enquiries, interview the applicant etc. the actual processing time for a visa application is measured in minutes! What causes the delay is the number of applications waiting in the queue ahead of yours to be dealt with before the ECO can even look at yours. So the length of time between submitting the application and receiving a decision is no indication of whether that decision is a yes or a no...

Is this just your supposition or is there evidence to support this theory ?

Personally, I do not buy into the idea of it simply being a case of masses of applications in front of yours because were that true, then everyone's visa would come after the same time, all the time and they do not, though I admit there is a current time of around 7 weeks here, for applicants over the last few months.

Now if someone has some real inside information, I am all ears.

I can confirm what 7by7 says. Although some applications require more 'in depth investigation' most are dealt with very quickly.........once they arrive on the ECO's desk.

There are several ECO's and I'm (reliably) told they are each given several applications at a time to deal with so, although they are issued in 'date order', the actual decisions on them therefore might not be, and can vary by a week or two.

During last years 'horror waiting times' my wife and daughter had already been waiting thirteen and a half weeks when another applicant who'd applied at the same time was told their folder may have been 'lost'. Worried that we may have just wasted over three months I contacted the visa section at the Embassy and asked them to just confirm they had our folder in their system. This they did, then ten minutes later my wife had a phone call from the ECO to say the application had been processed and the passports could be collected from the VFS office the following day. So, unless an ECO was actually looking at our folder as I phoned, it took them less than ten minutes to assess a double application. I must add though that my wife had already had three visit visas so there was 'successful history' in their system.

Edited July 29, 2010 by sumrit

[ThaiVisaExpress]

We have recently noticed the eco are ringing employees checking the relevant facts especially on tourist visa applications.

[Tee2008]

We have recently noticed the eco are ringing employees checking the relevant facts especially on tourist visa applications.

Which employees are the ECOs calling ?

[7by7]

Is this just your supposition or is there evidence to support this theory ?

It is based on information posted on this forum, admittedly some time ago, by an ex ECO.

Personally, I do not buy into the idea of it simply being a case of masses of applications in front of yours because were that true, then everyone's visa would come after the same time, all the time and they do not

If you look through the archives of this forum you will find that waiting times do vary considerably depending on when they were submitted. You will find reports of visas being issued within days, including one from me of my sister-in-law's visit visa being ready for collection the day after she submitted the application. You will also find reports, like at present, of applications taking several weeks, or even longer. What you wont find is posters receiving a decision in days at the same time as others taking weeks; except for a few individual cases where further enquiries had to be made.

Someone must, like triage in an accident department, make an initial assessment

Why duplicate the work? Medical triage is necessary for obvious reasons, but not here.That person making the initial assessment can, and I believe does, decide whether to issue the visa, decline or make further enquiries.

we would see applications from the more difficult cases taking way longer than 12 weeks

Some do! Again, look through this forum's archives.

[Dubar]

Unless for some reason the Entry Clearance Officer needs to make further enquiries, interview the applicant etc. the actual processing time for a visa application is measured in minutes! What causes the delay is the number of applications waiting in the queue ahead of yours to be dealt with before the ECO can even look at yours. So the length of time between submitting the application and receiving a decision is no indication of whether that decision is a yes or a no.

The visa will be issued in the same name as the passport that it is put into. The old system of changing the name in a Thai passport meant that a simple stamp was placed in the passport, in which case there was no problem in doing this after the visa had been issued. Now that Thai passports are all digitalised, I don't know if this still happens; she may be issued a new passport. In which case she would have to carry her old, canceled passport with the visa in it (the visa would still be valid even if the passport it was in was not), the new valid passport and her marriage certificate to show the link.

However, there is no compulsion under UK law for a wife to take her husband's surname upon marriage, so as far as the UK is concerned it does not matter if her passport and visa are in her maiden name. (I think the same is true of Thailand, but would like that to be confirmed.) Just make sure that the name on any air ticket matches the name in her passport.

Changing the name on her ID card will, of course, have no effect on her visa or entry to the UK. However, I believe this can only be done at the Ampur of the district where she is registered.

You cannot register the marriage at the embassy or back in the UK; it is already registered at the Ampur. See this topic for more.

Many thanks 7by7, I'm crossing my fingers.

[Mercury]

When I have many projects or things to do I cannot just put them all in order of them being received as some are more easily dealt with than others. However, if I do not make a quick assessment, then I do not know that. Similarly, if some require that I request additional information from someone else, then I cannot leave that piece of work until near its deadline before I make that request as I will not receive the information I require within the stipulated time. That is not rocket science and for 30k+ baht I would expect procedures written by someone with at least a modicum of intelligence.

I don't know all the rules but I think that a 5 minutes review would allow me to form a reasonably accurate opinion on the application. Now if I can do that, why cannot supposed professionals do so ?

It is not just one bloke doing this is it ?

[7by7]

I don't know all the rules but I think that a 5 minutes review would allow me to form a reasonably accurate opinion on the application. Now if I can do that, why cannot supposed professionals do so ?

They do, and at the end of that review the ECO has made a decision on whether to issue the visa, refuse it or make further enquiries. The vast majority of applications are straightforward and it is one of the first two. But they can't make that review until they have cleared the applications in front of it.

It is not just one bloke doing this is it ?

No, but it's not a vast army either; I would not be surprised if they numbered in single figures.

As you can see from Guide to visa processing times they handle several thousand applications a month, and are under intense pressure to turnover applications as quickly as they can. This can, and does, lead to mistakes; visas are issued that shouldn't be and applications are refused that should be granted. Until and unless the method of assessing applications changes or staffing levels are increased (don't hold your breath) the present system is the best we can hope for.

Some advocate a points based system. I'm against this. It's fine for a work permit or student visa where it is obvious what the criteria are and whether the applicant meets them. However I feel that settlement is far more subjective; there are too many variables. At present the ECO's have an element of discretion; take that discretion away and they would no longer be assessing the application on the balance of probabilities, and so giving the applicant the benefit of any small doubt. Instead we'd get cases where if the required points are 100 and the applicant has 99.9; refused!

Remember that the money paid in visa fees does not go to fund the operations of the individual entry clearance sections that collect it, it goes into the coffers of the UKBA to fund everything that the UKBA do, and any surplus disappears into the general exchequer.

I'm wandering a bit off topic, so I'll stop now.