British Settlement Visa for Guernsey

[7by7]

Nice to see 7by7 agreeing with my suggestion and his concession regarding my experience on the island is much appreciated .

If someone makes a contribution by giving good advice, I will agree with them; even you.

But......

Maybe you think the extremely rare times you have given good advice, or rather as here merely repeated advice already given by others and then claimed the credit, outweighs the multitude of occasions you have given extremely poor advice which if followed would have caused a refusal and subsequent loss of a significant amount of money!

What concession about what experience? How many Guernsey visa applications have you been involved in since July 2012?

[Jay Sata]

Nice to see 7by7 agreeing with my suggestion and his concession regarding my experience on the island is much appreciated .

If someone makes a contribution by giving good advice, I will agree with them; even you.

But......

Maybe you think the extremely rare times you have given good advice, or rather as here merely repeated advice already given by others and then claimed the credit, outweighs the multitude of occasions you have given extremely poor advice which if followed would have caused a refusal and subsequent loss of a significant amount of money!

What concession about what experience? How many Guernsey visa applications have you been involved in since July 2012?

Well you,pushed this up as there were no replies and then castigated me for giving first hand info of the Island .

The same with my Eire knowledge.

To answer your question I have not been involved in any immigration applications to Guernsey since 2012.

However I am aware of hundreds of people trying to buy property and mitigate tax via residency by buying an open market house.

Unlike Jersey,where you have to be a multi millionaire and more and only allowed residency in rare and expensive cases ,Guernsey is more liberal and allows outsiders to buy a property and be entitled to residency.

The Channel Islands,the Isle of Man plus Gibraltar offer residency outside of normal UK rules.

If you are interested then its worth reading up on strange legal issues regarding these places.

The OP is very lucky he has historic rights to live in Guernsey and I am not aware of anyone in his situation being rejected.

Mad Dog....

Best you phone your contact in St Peter Port. He or she will not be snowed under by applications such as yours which appears to me to be something easy and not worth worrying about.

Frankly if I was in your shoes I'd be more concerned about Mrs MD driving around the narrow roads!

Edited April 1, 2015 by Jay Sata

[theoldgit]

OK guys, enough is enough, let's leave it there.

You both know who I'm referring to.

[Mad Dog]

The Wife submitted her application on Tuesday and, as expected, the mere mention of Guernsey caused confusion and blank looks amongst the vfs staff. As 7by7 suggested (The Wife has been reading through this thread too) she insisted that her application was for Guernsey and not the U.K. (although she would have to briefly pass through Gatwick first) and it was necessary for a more senior officer to be brought into the interview so that the situation was fully understood. The officer made his own notes on the application form specifying Guernsey as The Wife's destination. The interview seems to have been a painless experience and The Wife certainly had no complaints, she submitted the required documents and several extra documents specific to our rather unique situation together with around 100 photos! The Wife's only concern was that she was advised that it would take 3-4 months for a decision to be reached. About two hours later we received a message stating that "your case no.xxxxxxxxxxx has been forwarded to U.K.V.I."

Jay: Alderney?? 2,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock in the English Channel?? Nice for a short break but that's about it! Now Gibraltar, that's much more intriguing....

[theoldgit]

@Mad Dog, just to be clear the VFS staff don't actually interview the applicants, be they senior members of the team or not, their role is to accept the application and pass the application onto the UKVI for processing.

I suspect that they receive few applications for the CI so it would be a new experience for them so they needed to check they were following the correct procedure, and whilst it might have seemed like an interview it plays no part of the decision making process.

Good luck.

[7by7]

The Wife's only concern was that she was advised that it would take 3-4 months for a decision to be reached.

Although at busy periods it can take this long, at other times it can often take much less time than this.

Whether sending her application to Guernsey will add to the time (more hands for it to pass through) or shorten it (fewer applications) we'll have to wait and see, I'm afraid.

Please keep us informed.

[Mad Dog]

Just received the e-mail telling us that The Wife's passport and can be collected in 2 working days. As we are a wee bit too busy at the moment to make a trip up to Bangkok and really want to know the outcome, we asked the agency that did all of our translations for us to go and collect it on our behalf. The person at the agency agreed (for a fee of 400baht) but then said that this is not THE e-mail; another one will follow in a few days and only then can the passport be collected. Confused? Yep.

By the way, that's a turnaround of 20 days, so we are very happy with that. Or rather, we will be if the outcome is positive.

[Tony M]

Whoever collects the passport, they must produce the ORIGINAL receipt from the application at VFS, and a letter of authority from you to collect the passport. VFS have instructions from the Embassy not to hand over passports without an original receipt.

[Mad Dog]

The wife posted the original receipt yesterday after receiving this email :

YOUR UK VISA APPLICATION DECISION IS READY FOR COLLECTION :

please read below

UK Visas and Immigration has made a decision on your visa application and this email explains how your documents will be returned to you.

• THAILAND APPLICANTS: your passport/documents will be ready for collection from the Bangkok visa application centre on the 2nd working day after you receive this email. Collection times are Monday-Friday 10.00 - 16.00 and Saturday 08.30 - 12.00.

SUPER PRIORITY VISA SERVICE (SPVs) APPLICANTS: If you have paid for the SPVs your documents will be ready for collection 24 hours after submission (excluding weekend days and public holidays)

Can we collect the passport tomorrow? Or do we have to wait for another email from VFS to confirm this?

[7by7]

With my sister in law's visit we received an email from [email protected] on 27/2 saying the same as the one you have quoted:

YOUR UK VISA APPLICATION DECISION IS READY FOR COLLECTION : please read below

UK Visas and Immigration has made a decision on your visa application and this email explains how your documents will be returned to you.

• THAILAND APPLICANTS: your passport/documents will be ready for collection from the Bangkok visa application centre on the 2nd working day after you receive this email. Collection times are Monday-Friday 10.00 - 16.00 and Saturday 08.30 - 12.00.

Despite what it says in capitals, the decision was not at VFS ready for collection; it had been sent to VFS. Why it takes two working days to get there, God alone knows!

On 3/3/ we received another email from [email protected] saying

The processed visa application for GWF reference number - xxxxxxxxx was received at the UK Visa Application Centre on 3/3/2015 .

If a courier service was purchased from VFS Global, your processed application will be delivered to the chosen address.

If not, your documents can be collected during the designated passport collection times.

I know your wife has applied for a Guernsey settlement visa, not a UK visit one; but as the application was made via VFS and the British embassy in Bangkok, I cannot see why the procedure for the return of passports and the decision would not be the same.

So you will need to wait for the second email, if you've not already received it.

Edited April 21, 2015 by 7by7

[Mad Dog]

Okay, that's good to know. It begs the question though, what is the point of the first e-mail? It may cause applicants who, like us, live far from Bkk to waste time and money on a fruitless trip.

[7by7]

Indeed, though to be fair the first email does say "THAILAND APPLICANTS: your passport/documents will be ready for collection from the Bangkok visa application centre on the 2nd working day after you receive this email."

Which for us, it was.

[Mad Dog]

^Indeed, the second e-mail arrived exactly two days later.

Good news, the visa was issued, valid from 01/05/15 until 01/08/17. Guernsey Immigration approved it on the 10th of this month (without contacting my future employer or my future landlord) so it was held up in Bkk for a week during Songkran.

Just to help anyone else from the Channel Islands who might need the same information, here is a list of the documents that we provided.

Application Form VAF4A

Appendix (2) Section 3.3 answer 'No' to all questions as they do not apply.

Thai I.D. card (photocopy)

Current Thai passport (photocopies of photo page and any pages with stamps)

Old passports (photocopies of photo pages and any pages with stamps)

IOM TB Certificate (photocopy and original)

Key English Test Certificate (photocopy and original)

Thai Housing (photocopy and translation)

6 months bank statement

Business registration certificate (photocopy and translation)

Land deeds (photocopies and translations)

Marriage Certificate

Photos to prove relationship

Sponsor

Current passport (photocopy of photo page and any pages with stamps)

Proof of address

6 months bank statement

Job offering Letter

Rent lease.

Children

Thai and British passports (photocopy of photo page and any pages with stamps)

[Jay Sata]

Congratulations and good luck. I hope your wife enoys St Peter Port and the island.

I never doubted you would succeed.

Take her out to Sark or Herm when you have some time.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Jay Sata