Settlement Visa Uk - Conflicting Advice

[dunromin]

Hello,

My Thai wife and I are about to apply for a Settlement visa so that she can come and live with me in the UK. We have received some conflicting advice about the evidence that we are going to need, so would be grateful for the answer to a couple of questions:

1. We have very many photographs of our relationship. Do these need to be printed or is it OK to submit them on CD in digital form?

2. I have been advised to provide originals of things like land registry of my house, car documents, driving licence etc. Is this really necessary or would copies suffice? I ask this because I am in Thailand at the moment and we were hoping to get the application in now. But if the orignals are necessary we won't be able to do anything until I go back to the UK in September.

3. I have taken photographs of the rooms in my house. These were printed out onto regular A4 paper, 2 per page and labelled. An agent said this was no good and that the pictures would have to be printed on photographic paper. Can this really be true?

Our plan was to use an agent and we have spoken to two - hence the conflicitng advice. We previously applied successfully for a visitors visa. I had thought that much of the previous material, about my house etc could be re=used. But the agent said that, for example, a photocopy of a land registry document was sufficient for a visitors visa application, but not for a settlement visa. I must say that I have become mistrustful of their advice (hence these questions) and am strongly inclined to apply without an agent. The information on this forum has been extremely helpful in leading me to this decision and making me feel confident of what to do.

Thanks in advance for any advice on these issues.

[theoldgit]

1. They will not accept photographs on a CD, why do you need photos? You need prove that you are married, a marriage certificate will prove that.

2. You need to be able to prove you have suitable accomodation, you can do this by way of a report from the local authority, mortgage lender etc, you don't need Land Registry Docs. You don't need driving licences or proof of car ownership, owning a car is not a prerequisite of settling in the UK.

3. I can only advice that I have printed photos on regular paper, and they were accepted without question and visas, albeit tourist, were granted.

Have you read the supporting documents required by the UKBA? http://www.vfs-uk-th.com/images/SpouseAndCivilPartner.pdf

The conflicting advice you have been given proves the care that needs to be taken when applying for any sort of visa, the process is really quite straight forward, are you sure you really need the services of an agent?

This is an old thread but pretty useful and worth reading http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/81148-robs-guide-to-uk-settlement-application-preparation/

There is also plenty of reports of other peoples more recent experiences on this forum, worth spending a bit of time reading through some of them.

[tigerjohn]

theoldgit i think has answered your questions but i would like to add my wife has just been successful on settlement visa and on the pictures question i can assure you my photos were all on normal a4 print paper 4per page and they were accepted ok

[Mercury]

theoldgit i think has answered your questions but i would like to add my wife has just been successful on settlement visa and on the pictures question i can assure you my photos were all on normal a4 print paper 4per page and they were accepted ok

Our photos were also submitted with narrative on regular A4 paper. Outcome as yet unknown !

[Thongkorn]

As it is stated , originals preferable, They are only photographs, but much better for the agency staff to have a quick look than C Ds.