Uk Settlement Visa Application Waiting Times, Bangkok

[elvisp1977]

My wife passed her A1 Bulats exam at Vantage Siam in April 14....she is coming over on a family visit visa now so i will look at helping her through the KET test in the UK...there is no expiry date on this certificate unlike the Bulats and the Trinity Exam...

This is the first i have heard of the Bulats exam being accepted for settlement purposes..i understood it could not be used after 22.8.14.....TVE...do you have a link stating that this exam can be used for a settlement visa?

Thanks..

[ThaiVisaExpress]

My wife passed her A1 Bulats exam at Vantage Siam in April 14....she is coming over on a family visit visa now so i will look at helping her through the KET test in the UK...there is no expiry date on this certificate unlike the Bulats and the Trinity Exam...

This is the first i have heard of the Bulats exam being accepted for settlement purposes..i understood it could not be used after 22.8.14.....TVE...do you have a link stating that this exam can be used for a settlement visa?

Thanks..

There is no link, as the UKVI have no interest. However, we have submitted several applications, with BULATS certificates, in the months since it was announced that the BULATS test was being discontinued.

Logically, there is no reason why the BULATS pass certificates are no longer acceptable. The test was discontinued by Cambridge English, and replaced with the KET. There was no question of any abuse of the test ( as in the case of ETS and TOEIC). The test was simply replaced by an updated, or different, test. It follows, therefore, that tests taken before the BULATS was discontinued remain valid.

Cambridge English confirm the above on their website. Here is a screenshot :

VFS also believed that the BULATS certificate was unacceptable in current applications, but we informed them that they were wrong. In addition, we asked the UKVI in Bangkok to confirm to VFS that BULATS certificates ( that are still valid) are acceptable in settlement visa applications. UKVI Bangkok did inform VFS of this, and we have the our correspondence with UKVI on file. It would be inappropriate to show the email correspondence here, but this is the final response from UKVI Bangkok, dated 28th October 2014, to our request to them to inform VFS to accept valid BULATS certificates :

" Dear Mr Aslett

I have informed VFS of the same.

Regards"

You can also ask UKVI Bangkok the same question if you want. You need to send them an email enquiry by using this website. They promise a response within 24 hours !!!!! :

https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-outside-uk

Tony M

[PeeJay1959]

Thanks Tony M, that is very interesting, if a little frustrating. Tia failed her KET, (said it was much harder, only scored 25) and is now on the 2 week cram session, living in Khon Kaen, it's costing us a fortune, well enough for the visa and air ticket!!!! I've emailed them on the link you provided and will let the board know of the result.

Pete and Tia

[PeeJay1959]

Tony M. I have emailed UKVI for the latest situation. I could not find the screen you showed from Cambridge, only one stating it was not accepted after 22 August. This is highly frustrating for us.

Pete and Tia

[ThaiVisaExpress]

Tony M. I have emailed UKVI for the latest situation. I could not find the screen you showed from Cambridge, only one stating it was not accepted after 22 August. This is highly frustrating for us.

Pete and Tia

It looks like the page I provided has been removed. That said, the situation remains the same.

Please post the response from UKVI when you receive it. If it differs from our advice, we will contact UKVI direct.

Tony M

[PeeJay1959]

Hi Tony, this is the response I got and BULATS is not on the list, I have contacted them again.

Dear ********,

Thank you for contacting UK Visas and Immigration international enquiry

service.

With regards to your query, please visit

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/30

4853/approved_english_language_tests.pdf to see the English language

requirements for UK Visas.

For any further details, or should you need to contact us again please

refer to our website at https://ukvi-international.faq-help.com/, select

appropriate country, click next and then select E-Mail form and

complete as instructed. We will aim to come back to you within 1 day.

Kind regards,

**********

UK Visas and Immigration International Enquiry Service

[ThaiVisaExpress]

Hi Tony, this is the response I got and BULATS is not on the list, I have contacted them again.

Dear ********,

Thank you for contacting UK Visas and Immigration international enquiry

service.

With regards to your query, please visit

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/30

4853/approved_english_language_tests.pdf to see the English language

requirements for UK Visas.

For any further details, or should you need to contact us again please

refer to our website at https://ukvi-international.faq-help.com/, select

appropriate country, click next and then select E-Mail form and

complete as instructed. We will aim to come back to you within 1 day.

Kind regards,

**********

UK Visas and Immigration International Enquiry Service

Well, that's what happens when the UKVi farm out their enquiry service to an "outsourcing" company. The outsourcing company have no understanding of the industry they are outsourced to. They do , however, still receive payment for every enquiry they respond to, or for every phone call made to them.

If you let me have details of your original enquiry to the UKVI, the date you sent it, etc, I will follow it up.

Tony M

[PeeJay1959]

Thank Tony, PM sent

[ThaiVisaExpress]

Thank Tony, PM sent

See my post in this thread :

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/779349-acceptance-of-struck-off-english-tests-for-flr/

It looks like the law was changed on 16th October 2014, and became effective from 6th November 2014. The UKVI, even though the law was passed in Parliament on 16th October, never mentioned this to us in their correspondence of 28th October ( in which they said that they had informed VFS to accept valid BULATS certificates). It looks like, if you had submitted an application, with the BULATS certificate, on or before 5th November, it would have been acceptable. If I have wrongly raised your expectations, then I sincerely apologise.

We have asked UKVI for an explanation as to why they did not inform us of the upcoming change to the law in their correspondence of 28th October, and I will let you know what they say. It also seems clear that VFS were unaware of the changes from 6th November (UKVI had informed them just a week earlier that BULATS certificates are acceptable) as it looks like they ( VFS ) have accepted settlement applications submitted with BULATS certificates after 6th November.

Tony M

[jimyoung]

Visa applications for my wife and step-child submitted on 29th sept, received email today to say decision has been made, just over 9 weeks. Fingers crossed for good news

[elvisp1977]

Maybe the same ECO who is passing the settlement visa's with the Bulats A1 certificates was the same one who read my strongly worded supporting letter about why i was applying for a family visit visa rather than a settlement visa in October....namely because my wife had failed the Ket Test in September despite passing her Bulats A1 exam at Vantage Siam in April earlier this year...you would have thought he would given me a bell!!

Likewise when my wife informed UKVI why she was requesting a refund of settlement visa application on 22.8.14 due to the Bulats exam no longer being acceptable for settlement visa applications after that date...

You could not make this up....

[ilovepayingukvisafees]

Application submitted 14th October. Received an email today (4th December) to say a decision has been made. Having messed up the first time, I would strongly advise anyone applying to submit their application as they would a favourite school project, university thesis or presentation to the board of directors - this seems to speed the decision. Will have to wait for various birthdays, weekends and the traffic from wireless to suk 13 to find out the result.

[ThaiVisaExpress]

Thank Tony, PM sent

See my post in this thread :

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/779349-acceptance-of-struck-off-english-tests-for-flr/

It looks like the law was changed on 16th October 2014, and became effective from 6th November 2014. The UKVI, even though the law was passed in Parliament on 16th October, never mentioned this to us in their correspondence of 28th October ( in which they said that they had informed VFS to accept valid BULATS certificates). It looks like, if you had submitted an application, with the BULATS certificate, on or before 5th November, it would have been acceptable. If I have wrongly raised your expectations, then I sincerely apologise.

We have asked UKVI for an explanation as to why they did not inform us of the upcoming change to the law in their correspondence of 28th October, and I will let you know what they say. It also seems clear that VFS were unaware of the changes from 6th November (UKVI had informed them just a week earlier that BULATS certificates are acceptable) as it looks like they ( VFS ) have accepted settlement applications submitted with BULATS certificates after 6th November.

Tony M

I said that I would give details of any response from the UKVI on this, and they have now responded (more than one and a half months later). The changes concerning BULATS acceptability were actually included in a Home Office Command Paper – HC 532 – in July last year. There was also a “transitional arrangement” document published as an Annex to Appendix O to the Immigration Rules ( approved English language tests ). I have attached both here.

What is clear is that UKVI Bangkok were unaware of the changes, and were still accepting BULATS certificates in November 2014. It is clear from the email exchange, shown in our earlier post, that UKVI had said in October 2014 that BULATS certificates were acceptable, and had informed VFS to accept them. BULATS certificates should not have been accepted after 22^nd August 2014, but they were.

UKVI have informed us that the guidance given to us in October 2013 was “not current”,

Tony M

hc-532.pdf

20140801_Transitional_arrangements_for_Appendix_O.pdf