UK Visa to attend funeral.

[rott]

The estranged husband of a near neighbour of mine in Nakhon Sawan died very recently in London, his family have offered to fund the visit of herself and their late teens daughter so they can attend the funeral.

Originally I was told the visas would be sorted out for them from the UK, which I found a bit odd.

Now they have come to me asking what documents will be required by the Embassy, I am checking the website but just wondering if anyone on here can offer any advice in the meantime. I have no experience of getting visas for anyone, and feel a bit lost!!!

[Basil B]

Better leaving this for the experts but the following info may help to get a speedy answer:

• When is the funeral?
• Were the daughters registered at the British Embassy?
• Do they have British passports? (even if expired).

Applications can be expedited in such circumstances, but the requirements are the same, reason for visit, finance and accommodation, reason to return.

Edit: may be the following will help:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/528058-emergency-visa-for-wife-to-travel-to-uk-for-my-grans-funeral/

Edited November 11, 2013 by Basil B

[MaprangHolmes]

Requests to prioritise visa applications in urgent and compassionate cases will only be considered in the situations outlined below.

• Serious illness or death of an immediate family member (the applicant's mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter).
• Emergency medical treatment which includes people who need to travel with you for support (for example a parent caring for an ill child).

Requests to fast-track visa applications for any other circumstances will not be considered

[bobrussell]

Estranged suggests still married but separated. Therefore priority application is relevant and it should get priority treatment. It is necessary to still demonstrate the applicant is able to meet the normal visit visa requirements but I would hope there would be a sensible degree of compassion shown.

[Basil B]

Estranged suggests still married but separated. Therefore priority application is relevant and it should get priority treatment. It is necessary to still demonstrate the applicant is able to meet the normal visit visa requirements but I would hope there would be a sensible degree of compassion shown.

Agree Bob, more important is that she would be accompanying his/her daughters.

[SantiSuk]

I'm sure when I got visas for my Thai wife and daughters to attend my fathers UK funeral with me earlier this year that priority application applied across the in-law divide as well. VFS certainly maintained they would do everything possible to expedite the applications in all such cases of death within "the immediate family" and I'm pretty sure they had interpreted my wife and daughters falling within that category.

In the event though I experienced little actual prioritisation - the application process was entirely the same as my previous two experiences when death was not a factor. It may be that in times when application slots are booked up well in advance that they can give you a queue jump. In our case I was offered exactly the same appointment that I could have booked online - albeit within a couple of working days of enquiry. There was no pressure on bookings in early February and even Regents House was markedly quiet when we went compared to prior year experiences.

The absolute stupidity of the claimed expedition for family bereavement was that neither VFS nor the embassy were able to commit to any date for actual delivery of a visa - just a promise to do our best. This is rubbish when you are trying to get air tickets booked at short notice. The fact that they did ultimately come up with visas a day or two earlier than their indicated norm is of no <deleted> use whatsoever when you cannot rely on that happening for flight-booking purposes. I remember being extremely annoyed and I think I intended to write a complaint to the embassy, but a death in the family makes you less focussed on such minutiae once the irritant has gone past and you have been out of the country a couple of weeks.

Hope your acquaintances have a much better experience. My condolences to those suffering a family loss.

Just giving a couple of paras of advice on a thread is not going to be a real help. If you need serious advice (free) then I'll jump in. PM me and we'll get together on the phone. The alternative is you all pile up to Bangkok very soon with all the documents you could possibly need (and someone at home with access to family records as back-up) and get a Visa agent involved. I could do the research at short notice to define "all the documents" but talking to VFS by phone would get you that too. If the funeral is less than a week away I don't think they will make it though. If the lady and/or her daughter do not possess a current valid Thai passport (I assume that neither has a British passport) that will extend the process - by how much I don't know but they urgently need to find out how quickly they could get same from their nearest regional passport office. I fear it might add as much as another week to the critical path, but there might be an emergency process for that too.

If the UK family are prepared to write a letter sponsoring the visit of the Thai lady and her daughter and they are well-resourced upstanding citizens then there is going to be little problem with satisfying the technical requirements to be accepted for a UK visa, but the process of documentation is still a stressful one.

Edited November 11, 2013 by SantiSuk

[Kevin1908]

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/127051/uk-visa-delay-angers-grieving-new-zealander

The UKBA doesn't do compassion.

[7by7]

This post shows that fast tracking in such circumstances is possible and does happen.

i put in a visa application on the tuesday. on thrusday we collected her visa and flew to england, arriving yesterday.

i had to get a letter to confirm the death, i used a scanned letter from the funeral directors. they did ring me to ask me a few things but everything went ok.

[Anon999]

Email the British Embassy asking marked URGENT. Follow up with phone call. within an hour. Direct from the horses mouth is better and no fees required for the advice. However, you will have to apply to the UKBA.

Best of luck.

Edited November 12, 2013 by Anon999

[bobrussell]

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/127051/uk-visa-delay-angers-grieving-new-zealander

The UKBA doesn't do compassion.

Yes it does (and can sometimes do very efficiently). What it cannot do is track paperwork efficiently once it is in the system. There is a big difference between a visa application in county and an application stuck in a pile in the UK. Competence is different to compassion!

[rott]

Thanks to everybody for their helpful contributions.

The situation is a lot more complicated than my original brief summary suggested, and the lady is being guided by friends and family from the UK. Currently I am taking a back seat (very far back). As few of the normal requirements are likely to be fulfilled I do not foresee a successful conclusion. The most positive projected outcome is that her daughter will get herself a British Passport and a job and a better future in London.

Thanks again for all your time and trouble.