Wedding to arrival in England--> lead time

[eddiek]

Hi gang,

hope yer all well.

Myself and my lady are looking to get married next February.

Just wondering how long it usually takes for the visa to be granted, and how long it usually takes after the wedding for my girl to arrive on UK soil?

Assumptions:

She applies immediately after the wedding on a Spouse Visa.
She books flight immediately after receiving visa.

Just looking for an idea, so that I can get a feel for it when the time comes.

Thanks very much,
Ed

[Slip]

Just so you know, you cannot submit your Spouse Visa application until you have all the required documents. This includes the *Marriage Certificate... you will not get *this until at least one month after the marriage has taken place, sometimes longer I hear.... I think you can fast track it (others will tell you how).

[aprilmaejon]

Hi gang,

Hope yer all well.

Myself and my lady are looking to get married next February.

Just wondering how long it usually takes for the visa to be granted, and how long it usually takes after the wedding for my girl to arrive on UK soil?

Assumptions:

She applies immediately after the wedding on a Spouse Visa.
She books flight immediately after receiving visa.

Just looking for an idea, so that I can get a feel for it when the time comes.

Thanks very much,
Ed

Hello Eddie,

The UKBA service standards for settlement applications are outlined in the official guide to visa processing times. According to the guide, UKBA visa-issuing offices overseas aim to process 95% of partner, spousal and fiancee visa applications within 12 weeks of submission, and 100% within 24 weeks from the date the application is accepted for processing. However, the actual processing time may vary depending on a range of factors, including individual circumstances and the overall complexity of a specific case, as well as the country of application; thus sometimes causing regional backlogs. Some British Consulates, Embassies and High Commissions are more efficient than others with most settlement applications being processed within six to eight weeks.

Slip is right, your soon-to-be-wife cannot submit her spouse visa application until she have all the required documents. This includes the marriage certificate... She will not get this until at least one month after the marriage has taken place, sometimes longer.

After receiving the visa, she can't leave the country without the CFO (Commission on Filipino Overseas) certificate. She needs to attend a seminar first before she will be able to get the certificate. For more info, see this link http://thewander-woman.com/cfo-seminar-for-filipinos-fiancees-or-spouses-of-foreign-nationals/ ; http://www.cfo.gov.ph

[chrisincebu]

Hi Ed,
We got married 14th January and we are still here in Cebu. It took about 1 month for the marriage certificate to come through. We also spent some time to get my wife's passport renewed with my surname on it (it was due to expire end of 2014 anyway). She also took an IELTS test (which can be take before marriage) which also delayed things a bit.
I work offshore, but the missus has done pretty much her own things when i was away with minimal help from me.
It has been 30 'working days' since we submitted the visa application so i envisage (all things going smoothly) that we could be in UK by mid to late August. I suspect if we had not bothered with the passport renewal and had done the IELTS test earlier we could have chopped off one month.

So i guess 6 months after minimum, unless someone can beat that record....?

[chrisincebu]

Just so you know, you cannot submit your Spouse Visa application until you have all the required documents. This includes the *Marriage Certificate... you will not get *this until at least one month after the marriage has taken place, sometimes longer I hear.... I think you can fast track it (others will tell you how)

We asked in Sibonga Municipal building about Fast track and they said it doesn't exist - all applications take the same time, however when we received the official certification we were asked why we didn't pay for fast track. So i would be wary about what you pay for.

End of the day, don't expect miracles. Things are slow here. My parents were with us when we visited the Municipal office after the wedding, my mother felt like she had gone back in time 50 years. All typewriters and filing cabinets...........

[Mrmlea]

Hi Ed,

We were married in Camsur province on 11th January. We tried to do things as fast as we could and my wife finally got her passport back with the spouse visa in it on 5th June. She had a few things to sort out there so I will go to Manila to collect her this weekend, but she could have flown on 7th June if she was ready and wanted to.

This visa application itself took 52 *working* days from VFS appointment (18th March) to the email saying her visa was on its way (4th June). That is pretty close to the 12 weeks target time. I get the impression from recent postings that some people are getting them a bit quicker now, so maybe they are clearing a backlog. But that is just my guess, I have no real information.

The 2 month delay from the wedding to to the visa application was mostly due to having to get the NSO marriage certificate. It took about 2 weeks for the certificate to get from the church to the local registry office (more or less across the road). The local registry office then have to send it to the NSO local office, who then have to send it to the NSO in Manila who then have to manually search their records before issuing the official copy. We had been told that this could take up to 4 months.

However, there is an NSO procedure called "advance endorsment" which is documented on the NSO's "ecensus" website FAQs. This the local registry office to courier it dircetly to the NSO in manila (you have to pay for the courier). You then order the NSO copy on the "ecensus" website and email them with your courier details. They will then start their search as soon as they get it. It took us about a week to get the local registry office to do this (the only person who understood it was on holiday), and then it took about 3 weeks from when the NSO received the courier package to them sending the certificates.

Of course, if you are in metro Manila it may all be a bit simpler.

Hope that is some help. It is just our experience. Every case is different of course.

Good luck,

Martin & Aileen.

[sars_notd_virus]

Hi gang,

Hope yer all well.

Myself and my lady are looking to get married next February.

Just wondering how long it usually takes for the visa to be granted, and how long it usually takes after the weddings for my girl to arrive on UK soil?

Assumptions:

She applies immediately after the wedding on a spouse visa.
She books flight immediately after receiving visa.


Just looking for an idea, so that I can get a feel for it when the time comes.

Thanks very much,
Ed

Around six months or so

[irishman12]

Just so you know, you cannot submit your spouse visa until you have all the required documents. This includes the marriage certificate... you will not get this until at least one month after the marriage has taken place, sometimes longer I hear.... I think you can fast track it (others will tell you how)

Yes, everything can be fast tracked if you know the right people - we got ours in less than a week

[Slip]

Harlene told me yesterday her Mum and Pastor were off out to take the marriage certificate to be endorsed.... Not too sure what she meant by that... I was going to ask but she fell asleep on me in skype lol

[Arthur Little]

Harlene told me yesterday her Mum and Pastor were off out to take the marriage certificate to be endorsed.... Not too sure what she meant by that... I was going to ask but she fell asleep on me in skype lol

:cwm24: ... having a "kip" :NEW5: on S(kyp)e, was she? :biggrin:

She possibly "nodded-off" because - in the Phils - it happened to be late at night. :wink:

Probably ... :anerikke: ... Harlene simply meant her mum and the officiating pastor were delivering the original copy of your marriage certificate back to the Municipal Civil Registrar's Office to be "rubber-stamped" prior to its onward transmission to the NSO in Manila.