Biometric Residence Permit UK Collection Problem

[TCA]

Yesterday I took my wife and her 11 year old daughter to collect her daughter's first BRP from our nominated post office. Armed with passports, collection letter and my wife's BRP (issued in January within UK), we were refused collection because my wife hadn't been registered online as a responsible adult to accompany the child.

The BRP letter says "If you are under 18 years old when collecting your BRP, you must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian who is collecting their BRP at the same time as you. If you will not be accompanied by a parent/legal guardian when collecting your BRP from a Post Office branch and you are under 18, you must contact UK Visas and Immigration and register a "Responsible Adult" who can either accompany you to collect your BRP, or who can collect the BRP on your behalf."

Reading it literally, my wife wasn't collecting her own BRP as well, so I'm at fault for taking the chance. I did check this out beforehand on the UKVI website and the wording says:

You can only nominate someone else to collect your BRP if:

- you have a serious illness or disability that prevents you from collecting it

- you're under 18 and can’t collect your BRP with your parent or guardian

That seemed to suggest to me that an accompanying parent would be sufficient, but I guess not. So we nominated my wife as responsible adult online yesterday, but it can take 5 working days to get authorised. Here lies the rub. BRP collection was only available from yesterday 5th April. BRP must be collected within 10 days of arriving in the UK, which is tomorrow, 7th April. Short window. My wife emailed the address that the "nomination" confirmation came from ([email protected]) and of course no reply yet.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. So given I don't want to risk a "financial penalty or a reduction or cancellation of leave" I'm wondering if any of the good people of the forum can suggest a UKVI phone number for this?

Thanks in advance

TCA

[TCA]

I thought I'd update my thread, should anyone find themselves in the same situation as we did.

Firstly, there are no ways to talk to an appropriate real human being if you have a problem with BRP collection. Although there used to be a phone number, you now have to fill in the form on the website and await a reply. I tried all options on the UKVI automated phone line, none of which are suitable and of course each option presents another four options, which are even less suitable. I did eventually get through to one individual in an obscure department, who gave me an email address, which was incorrect and even when corrected, proved to be out of use for some time.

We got a reply from the form completion 7 days after submitting it, which was 5 days after the "you must collect your BRP within 10 days of arriving in the UK" or face "a financial penalty or a reduction or cancellation of your leave" warning. Remember we went on the very first day the BRP was available, so the window was 3 days only given my stepdaughter's prompt arrival in the UK. Don't know why they don't give 10 days from the available collection date, with the collection date deadline referenced in respect of the visa issue or expiry date. That would at least make some sense given they can't know for sure when someone will arrive in the UK. That would also allow time for any replies re collection problems, without applicants worrying about penalties or losing their visa.

So we got the authorisation email for my wife to collect her daughter's BRP and will do so next week. I still can't think what the nefarious situation would be whereby mother and child turn up to collect the child's visa, both have their passports, mother has her own BRP with the same expiry date as the child's BRP to be collected, and not forgetting that the mother is named on the 30 day visa vignette in the child's passport. We'd need someone with the same name as my wife who for some reason wanted the BRP of an 11 year old child and had managed to kidnap said child into the bargain. The mind boggles and I don't blame the Post Office who have probably been told the wrong interpretation of the rule or are properly enforcing a stupid rule. In the end, my wife can collect her daughter's BRP on her own (without her daughter being present) and all she needs to show is her daughter's passport, my wife's own BRP and an authorisation email that she could have typed out herself. Which to me is probably less proof than we offered them the first time round.

So there you have it. The moral of the story is, if you're already in the UK on FLR and are joined by your (less than 18 years old) son or daughter at a later date, make sure you go online first and nominate yourself to collect the BRP. And do it as soon as possible because they ain't quick in replying no matter how urgent you think it is.

P.S. A survey arrived from UKVI today, so I duly completed it and had a right good moan, making the following comments:

- Provide better application form guidance or ensure each form is tailored properly for all applicants within each class of application so there is no doubt as to the answers required.

- Replace charging in US dollars with GBP pounds sterling as this causes additional expense for the vast majority of applicants and there is no justifiable reason for dollar charging.

- Ensure VFS staff are better trained and refrain from giving incorrect application advice.

- Improve BRP collection process for under 18s so parents can collect without having to be nominated and change collection deadline to be within a period from when BRP is available for collection, not from arrival date in the UK.

That was just off the top of my head and will no doubt be ignored anyway!

Regards to all,

TCA

[rasg]

I think UKVI have been bombarded with surveys today. I did something similar a couple of hours ago and I was scathing about the premium rate phone line where the person on the other end was unable to answer, even the most basic of questions. It took ten quid to find that out though.