Apply for UK finance Visa but need passport to travel

[Tongpo]

Can we keep her passport so she can travel when we apply for a finance visa?

My fiancé is applying for UK finance Visa, we are hoping to submit the application in January.

My fiancé is a Thai national but she is studying in Australia just now and after we submit the application for the UK visa she needs to travel back to Australia.

From what i have read and understand there is a service for this when applying for the UK tourist visa etc whereby you pay a little extra and they can give your passport back to you to travel BUT we are applying for a Fiance Visa and i am not sure how it will work, for example can we apply for the visa and pay a fee to retain the passport so she can travel back to australia and then possibly send the passport back to Thailand for visa application purposes?.

This is causing us a few headaches and i have asked my visa agent but they don't seem to have a clear answer.

Please Help

[Tongpo]

This is the details of the telephone numbers i have been calling below. Thai office should be closed at 1pm UK time but the UK office just gives me a message saying: "thank you for calling uk visa immigration our office is currently closed" why is the office closed at 1pm on a monday afternoon and its not a bank holiday?

"

Contact UK Visas and Immigration from outside the UK

Thailand Telephone

Opening times: 9:00am - 5:00pm (Thailand time)

You can call us on:

0018 001 5620 78469

If you would prefer to dial a UK number direct please call:

00 44 1243 218 110

[Tongpo]

OK i have called UK immigration on

03001232241 and i managed to get someone to talk to,

basically they will keep the passport so now i have 2 questions:

1. can my fiance get an emergency passport from the thai embassy to travel back to Autralia to continue her studies?

2. will she still gain entry to Australia bearing in mind i think the visa for travel to Australia is stamped in her passport that will be with visa application?

[expatbrit]

Have you inquired about lodging the visa application in Australia ?

http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/australia/applicationcentre.html#d

[rasg]

Check out the pass back service on the VFS website.

http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/Thailand/user_pay_services.html#10

[rasg]

Just read more closely. It only seems to apply to Visit Visas.

[Tongpo]

I havent checked about lodging the visa in Australia thats maybe an idea, thanks for help Expatbrit, and yes Rasg you never really know, you could base your application on something you read on the website then go and submit the application and then get told you can't travel, its pretty crazy you can't use that passport passbook service for all types of visa, to restrict your travel isn't fair on your citizens in any shape or form, its terrible.

[Tongpo]

Well i can't lodge the application in Australia my fiancé has informed me that the visa application must be lodged in Thailand, very crap news, now need to investigate emergency passport from thai embassy after they have taken the passport for the application so she can travel to australia?? anybody any ideas?

[theoldgit]

If you fiancé is legally resident in Australia then she should be able to apply in Australia, who has told her otherwise?

Australian visas are not normally stamped in passports, I don't know if student visas are though, they are recorded electronically against the passport number, so I doubt very much if an emergency passport would work, that's not a definitive answer though.

[7by7]

A fiance visa is a type of settlement visa; it is valid for 6 months and should only be applied for if the intention is to travel to the UK, marry and then apply for Further Leave to Remain within that time.

I.e. to settle in the UK now, not at some time in the future.

So why is she applying for it now when her present intention is not to live in the UK but to return to Australia and continue her studies?

Better to wait until those studies are completed and then apply for UK settlement, surely?

Of course, there is no reason why you cannot marry in the mean time, and if you'd rather do so in the UK than Thailand or Australia then it seems to me that a marriage visitor visa would suit you better.