Uk Settlement Waiting 2011

[hotandhumid]

Thai - If she has a settlement visa she only needs a one way into the UK.

[kunash]

Does anyone know if have to buy a return ticket fro the missus ? My sons got a british and thai passport so he,s OK I dont need anything else for him as far as Im aware.

a one way ticket will be fine. the airline check in will see her visa and know she is moving to the UK.

Congratulations on your wife's visa

[RAZZELL]

If you look at EU law, you have every right to have your spouse with you in your homeland. If I was refused I would take it to the courts.

No you don't.

The right to be together is a qualified right, not an absolute one under EU Law.

Whilst 90% of all applications from Thailand for Entry Clearance are approved - 10% are not. I assume these are people who either don't fulfil the visa requirements or those who think as you put - "it's a piece of piss" - and don't submit a thorough application!

RAZZ

[lingyaiyai]

Mrs lingyaiyai got the 'passport ready for collection' message this morning.

We live in central Bangkok so were able to go to VFS at lunchtime - visa approved!

Best of luck for a speedy and positive result to those still waiting!

Please would someone else take over the list updating after this final one from me:

space1999, 5th April = 11weeks and 3days,

brynpugh, 7th April = 11weeks and 1day,

storeman, 12th April = 10weeks and 3days,

leafmould, 11th May = 5weeks and 6days,

farrangkeenok, 17th May = 5weeks and 3days,

jasonr3255, 20th May = 5weeks and 0days,

stabbo-lad, 25th May = 4weeks and 2days,

aland2012, 26th May = 4weeks and 1day,

all4one, 27th May = 4weeks and 0days,

chronos, 27th May = 4weeks and 0days,

brumdave, 9th June = 2weeks and 1day,

For those who have been told of a decision the average waiting time has been 61 days:

shadyacres29, 7th March - 1st April = 3 weeks and 5days, successful

tigerjohn 15th March - 26th May = 10weeks and 3days, successful

englishinsiam, 28th March - 12th May = 6weeks and 4days, successful (expedited on compassionate grounds)

contractor, 31st March - 1st June = 8weeks and 6days, successful

neilo, 5th April - 9th June = 9weeks and 2days, successful

samcled, 5th April - 14th June = 10weeks and 0days, successful

thaiscouse, 7th April - 22nd June = 10weeks and 6days, successful

lingyaiyai, 11th April - 24th June = 10weeks and 4days, successful

[hotandhumid]

Razzle - Come down off your high horse.

[RAZZELL]

Razzle - Come down off your high horse.

Not at all.

You're making statements which are plan wrong and to some extent unhelpful.

Getting a visa is not down to luck it's down to whether the applicant fulfils the requirements for entry clearance.

Applicants and sponsors can help the ECO come to an informed decision by supplying evidence. Those who take the application lightly are more often than not the ones who get refused!

As you've yet to successfully go through the visa process I humbly suggest you take mine and others advice who have

RAZZ

Edited June 24, 2011 by RAZZELL

[hotandhumid]

You sound like an extremely boring individual.

Take your advice? Thanks but no thanks.

[RAZZELL]

You sound like an extremely boring individual.

Take your advice? Thanks but no thanks.

Like usual jumping to conclusions and just plan wrong. Oh well, ignorance is bliss

Don't worry...you can bore everyone with your tails of woe after you get your refusal letter, or maybe when the tax man comes knocking?

Good luck

RAZZ

[VisasPlus]

You sound like an extremely boring individual.

Take your advice? Thanks but no thanks.

Hoitandhumid, I have no desire to argue with you, even though you seem to think that your advice is the only advice worth listening to. You have made your comments about me and others on this forum which show your attitude towards receiving any advice that contradicts your own., Your comments have been personal, aggressive, arrogant and wrong at times. You have accused me of being patronising when answering your queries. You can say what you want, but you don't have the right to make any comments about people who are trying to give advice, even if you believe they are wrong. You can put your own point of view simply and firmly without being offensive.

There is no right under EU law for your wife to live with you in your home country. RAZZ is correct. It is indeed a qulaified right. If you believe that you are correct, then perhaps you can explain why your wife has to go through the visa application process ? She would, according to you, have the "right" to entry, and not require a visa.

[tigerjohn]

i think razzell has made a good post handh, this forum is for advice and think if you dont want to take it why are you on here, this forum has helped many many people me included on 3 occasions? so i would take the advice if i were you

[RAZZELL]

Tigerjohn and Visaplus...

Some people are beyond help!

RAZZ

[bobrussell]

All you need to do is convince the ECO on the balance of probabilities that your partner meets the requirements for a visa. They are more than happy to refuse any application they feel they can.

As 90% are approved the system appears to work most of the time (even if painfully slowly at times). Poor preparation is very likely to result in refusal even if you are married so there is no absolute right for a partner to get a settlement visa. At the risk of putting myself in the firing line I can only advise you not to be complacent, the ECO is looking for holes in your application and is entitled to refuse if he or she can. Check some of the older posts and you will see evidence of this. The appeals process can be long and very stressful and soon will be expensive as well.

The advice on this thread has been good, from people that have been through the system, together with some well informed people who make a living helping visa applicants.

[englishinsiam]

Congrats guys on the new acceptances. Now that Lingyai has his Visa can someone still waiting take over the list as per the general helpfull spirit of this forum.

Mrs English likes England but it's a little cold for her. We are looking forward to returning to Thailand around the end of September with new Baby English

[space1999]

Another week gone for us waiting. Feels like an eternity now especially as some people have been accepted or know the outcome - even after we applied..congrats to all so far but this is frsutrating.

i would take over the list myself. However, I am doing the same on thai-uk.com forum already for members there so to do both would be diffiocult. Can anyone else please/

Rob

[Contractor]

....I can only advise you not to be complacent, the ECO is looking for holes in your application and is entitled to refuse if he or she can. Check some of the older posts and you will see evidence of this.

The advice on this thread has been good, from people that have been through the system, together with some well informed people who make a living helping visa applicants.

Good post. Sound advice.

[7by7]

^^^^^^

Indeed.

Except, I would say that the ECO is not looking for holes in the application. What the ECO is looking for is to see if, on the balance of probabilities, the requirements for the visa are met.

Yes, they can, and will, refuse if the evidence submitted does not show this; but they are generally not looking to refuse, but to accept. Remember, settlement refusals can be appealed so any refusal may very well have to be later justified to an appeals tribunal.

Having said that, the onus is on the applicant to provide all the necessary evidence. I have read countless times on forums such as this of refusals where the applicant did not submit enough evidence "because it was obvious." It may be obvious to you; but it wont be to the ECO! Indeed, reading the reports of successful appeals leads me to the conclusion that the majority of successful appeals are successful because the tribunal had extra evidence which the ECO did not have because it was not submitted with the original application.

Now, this topic is about application waiting times; can we please get back, and stick, to that!

[space1999]

I am a member of another forum and where one of the moderators is an ex ECO. He has stated that as regards appeals that new evidence is not allowed to be submitted.

Anyway.....yes i agree this thread is about waiting times.....still waiting. I am a little bit concerned. When we submitted our application they the VFS took everything out of my file and out of order and it seemed like it was just put in the courier bag. I spent a lot of time creating that folder and hope tht the ECO is able to troll through the info and not be penalised because of the VFS taking things out. Will just have to keep waiting.

[7by7]

I am a member of another forum and where one of the moderators is an ex ECO. He has stated that as regards appeals that new evidence is not allowed to be submitted.

I stand to be corrected by those more knowledgeable than I, but as I understand it new evidence is allowed, provided it pertains to the applicant or sponsor's circumstances at the time of the original application.

Evidence of a change in circumstances since the refusal would not be allowed as the tribunal is judging whether or not the refusal was correct based upon their circumstances at the time of the refusal.

[space1999]

yes that is correct

Any appeal will be decided on the basis of the facts of the case as they were at the time of the decision. New evidence will only be considered if it relevant to a matter appertaining at the date of decision.

[Contractor]

What the ECO is looking for is to see if... the requirements for the visa are met.

Yes, a better choice of words.

Anyway, back on topic: Good luck to all those still waiting on a decision.

Rgds

[geordiephil]

Hi all my wife put her application in on May 19 , we still waiting too, like everyone else the wait is killing us , but we have done all we needed to do so can only wait with fingers crossed,, one thought i had was if they know it going to take 12 weeks to process would it not be good idea to return passport so we could apply for visitors visa till settlement visa is processed?, i think that would relieve some of the stress of waiting

[geordiephil]

hiii ,, does everyone have interview before they get visa? or do they just interview at random? has anyone got a visa without interview?

[lingyaiyai]

Mrs lingyaiyai was not interviewed, settlement visa was granted (after 10 weeks and 4 days).

[VisasPlus]

hiii ,, does everyone have interview before they get visa? or do they just interview at random? has anyone got a visa without interview?

In the majority of applications there is no interview of any kind. The Embassy has the option of calling the applicant in to the Embassy for interview or doing an interview by phone. They very rarely do either. I, for one, would be happier to see more interviews carried out, rather than seeing an application refused for want of a few easy enquiries on the part of the ECO. The Embassy argues that it does not have the resources to do interviews. That's difficult to understand when you examine their fee structure. A settlement visa now costs the local equivalent of 810 GBP. The actual cost of processing that visa, according to UKBA's own figures, is 391 GBP ( less than half of what the applicant has to pay). There may be an argument for saying that some of that "profit" could be used to make a few enquiries or phone interviews. There are, of course, two sides to that argument.

[geordiephil]

Mrs lingyaiyai was not interviewed, settlement visa was granted (after 10 weeks and 4 days).

thank you Lingyaiyai,, so we no need worry if we not called for interview, yim

[geordiephil]

hiii ,, does everyone have interview before they get visa? or do they just interview at random? has anyone got a visa without interview?

In the majority of applications there is no interview of any kind. The Embassy has the option of calling the applicant in to the Embassy for interview or doing an interview by phone. They very rarely do either. I, for one, would be happier to see more interviews carried out, rather than seeing an application refused for want of a few easy enquiries on the part of the ECO. The Embassy argues that it does not have the resources to do interviews. That's difficult to understand when you examine their fee structure. A settlement visa now costs the local equivalent of 810 GBP. The actual cost of processing that visa, according to UKBA's own figures, is 391 GBP ( less than half of what the applicant has to pay). There may be an argument for saying that some of that "profit" could be used to make a few enquiries or phone interviews. There are, of course, two sides to that argument.

yes that would be a better option for the ECO if they unsure about something surely it would be best to have interview instead of a refusal, a lot easier for both parties as no need for lengthy appeal, maybe this is where the rest of the fee goes?

[7by7]

The visa fees were increased and in country leave to remain fees were introduced by Blair's government; the reason being that the whole UKBA (or IND as it was then) should be self financing.

This means that the fees visa and leave to remain applicants pay cover the cost of:

• Immigration Officers at ports of entry.
• Enforcement officers chasing illegals etc.
• Processing asylum claims.
• Processing EEA/EU applications.
• Etc.

Despite vociferous objections from both the Tories and Lib Dems at the time, they have continued with Labour's policy of above inflation increases to these fees. Indeed, they are also going to introduce extra fees for appeals!

[Storeman]

Hi all, just back from Regent house Monday 27/06/2011, and my wife's spouse visa is accepted.

She was txt at 10:55am Monday; the visa was stamped last week on the 23/06/11.

No phone call or interview, from a quick look they haven't looked at much at all, almost everything was as neat and tidy, the way I submitted it, I will sort it all out tomorrow then off to the airport, I wish everyone else as much success as I have had.

I flew to Bangkok from Glasgow 11 weeks ago but I could only get us a flight back to Manchester this week, can anyone advise me on what to expect from immigration there with my Thai wife please.

We will just have to make our own way up to Glasgow airport to collect my car, I will just fly up as we are so chuffed at getting her visa.

I cannot thank everyone enough on this site, I have not played much part, but I have read everything every day, and keeping tabs on other peoples visa acceptance dates has kept me going.

Without knowing what was happening. we were on our own, in the dark.

I am sure the embassy could have kept me more informed as it took them 11 weeks to tell me anything at all.

Thank you all again. : )

Edited June 27, 2011 by Storeman

[thaiscouse]

Well done Storeman, were you also checking the visa tracker daily? ie there wasnt any info on that either. I dont know what to expect when I get back to the UK either as regards immigration at the airport. Ive watched a few of those reality shows like "UK Border force" and they always seem to get questioned at the airport even though theyve got the visa. I plan on going through the foreign passports lane with my wife incase there are any problems.

[Storeman]

Well done Storeman, were you also checking the visa tracker daily? ie there wasnt any info on that either. I dont know what to expect when I get back to the UK either as regards immigration at the airport. Ive watched a few of those reality shows like "UK Border force" and they always seem to get questioned at the airport even though theyve got the visa. I plan on going through the foreign passports lane with my wife incase there are any problems.

Yes, I will be holding her with one hand and her documents in my other, that's on my way now, thank you all very much for all the help. and all the best.