Family Visit Visa - Show Money Requried?

[joann_alan]

Can someone give me up to date advice on family visit visa's? My wife has lived here for almost 2 years now after initially coming here on a spouse visa. We now want to invite her mother over here for a visit. I will of course act as the sponsor and have a good job and decent income and all the relevant proof. The only problem is that Joann's mum doesn't have a job or savings or property - the stuff that is commonly mentioned here when people get refused. She does have family in her town in the Philippines (1 husband and 3 daughters) and that should be good reason for returning, but I'm not sure how the application will go.

The main question is that is there any point in going to the trouble of setting up an account with some savings in it? Will it make much difference? The reason I ask is that it will be difficult for me to easily come by a large-ish lump sum of cash at the moment.

Any advice will be much appreciated. And I'll try to keep people posted on the progress if we decide to move ahead anyway.

Thanks
Alan

[Mrs Daddy]

mmmmm I was just thinking doing same thing but we have to wait till I get my citizenship before inviting my mum to come over as what I have heard it helps if your mum-in law`s own a property,business and money in bank but I have read it here somewhere that somebody`s applied for a visitors visa for her dad but he was refused coz of same problem no savings in bank but the daughter appelled coz she said she could support her father and to make the story short they`ve got the visitor`s visa for her dad but anyway let me know the result if you apply for one at least I may know the things needed then if we applied for one am a cheeky one I knowGoodluck

[Mrs.JMajor]

http://filipinaroses.com/showthread....777#post145777

Read that link Joan/Alan my conversation with misspiggy, that help u bit, probably you can get your mom in law, just produce good evidence, besides even my friend's friend she did manage to get her mom as well,the mother come here many times with no prob at all

[miss.piggy]

Hi Alan,

Just want to share with you what sort of documents we provided when both my parents and my bro-in-law came the UK last year for a visit (all at the same time!).

1. Invitation addressed to my parents & my brother in law (asking them to come over to see their grandchildren, see our new house in the UK and all other reasons to invite them)
2. Letter addressed to the Consulate - telling them we are really inviting these people and how are they related to us and that we will make it sure they are out of the UK on or before their visas expire. We also mentioned on that letter that we will support them while in the UK.
3. Our bank statement for the last 6 months, proving that we can really support them.
4. We've added copies of my husband's pay slips for the last 6 months and mine as well.

We feel that our invitation letter and the letter addressed to the consulate weighs a lot.

My relatives provided for their own documents as well though.

1. Title for house and car (no savings account because my dad keeps his money inside a locked drawer so no evidence of any savings whatsoever)
2. Title for a house and car as well for my brother in law, and his pay slips which only proves that he is getting 2000 pesos per month because of his car loan deductions! Not much ey! No much money in the bank as well.

My sister neatly filed all these papers and tucked them in to individual folders. She even added some photos of us (which is a bit mushy, but really cute). And ofcourse, their itinerary from a travel agency which shows that they will be here from and up to a certain date (in my case just two weeks!!!).

I think you should just try and come up with documents from your side showing your willingness and capability of supporting your in-law. I think by now, most embassies in the Philippines do not immediately believe the bank statements they see from the Philippines anyway. We all know it is ever so easy to just put some money in the bank just for visa purposes.

Go for it!

[Mrs.JMajor]

(no savings account because my dad keeps his money inside a locked drawer so no evidence of any savings whatsoever)

[joebloggs]

make sure you apply for a visit visa for a family member, if you are refused, you will probably get a right to a full appeal and if you've supplied good evidence then you'll probably win

a small family tree showing your misses family in the phils can help by showing most if not all her family are in the phils, so one reason for her to return

[joann_alan]

Thanks for the advice people. From my point of view I have sent as much evidence as possible - pay slips, P60, mortgage statements, bank statements - all the same sort of stuff I sent for my wifes fiancee visa (which we got granted without interview thankfully). I included a covering letter addressed to my mother-in-law explaining that I will cover all expenses. The only week points are the lack of any meaningful documentation from the Philippines side. I'm expecting to be refused initially but then will go on to appeal. My mother in law still has a husband and one dependant child in the Philippines so maybe that will sway the embassy into thinking that she doesn't intend to stay here (which she doesnt). The main reason for the trip is that it is cheaper to buy one plane ticket for her to come here - rather than two for us to go there. And also I can only take 2 weeks at a time from my job. This way, we provide a nice holiday for a member of the family and get to spend more time together. I put all this in the covering letter with the application form anyway. I think that the application is going to go in next week - so fingers crossed and I will comment back here with news when I have it. I hope it can be helpful for anyone else facing the same sort of issue.

[joann_alan]

Good news people! The approved visa arrived at my mother-in-law's house today. The next job is trying to sort out a plane ticket that I can buy here and that can be picked up/delivered to the Philippines. I sense a lot of Googling today!

Thanks for all the advice given - hope it is useful to others facing the same sort of issue.

[sammy]

hi Ive found the best way of getting a plane ticket from manila-london rtn is via Etihad Airways you go on to there web site and putin the details and pay via card online and they will e-mail you the e-ticket which you can forward to the person in Phils, dont forget you should just in case send them a photo copy or scan copy via e-mail to them of your card that the payment was made with, as the check-in desk in Phils may ask proof of this card.
sammy.

[sammy]

Oh
you can use other Airline to do this, ive just used this as an example as i found them to be the most convenient in the way of travel time and price.
Sammy.

[lost_bulak]

Good news people! The approved visa arrived at my mother-in-law's house today. The next job is trying to sort out a plane ticket that I can buy here and that can be picked up/delivered to the Philippines. I sense a lot of Googling today!

Thanks for all the advice given - hope it is useful to others facing the same sort of issue.

Congrats!My husband and I are thinking of inviting my mum to come over for a visit but we don't know where to start. We aren't sure where to apply, is it here or in the Philippines? I thought we would have to show plane ticket when we submit the application but it seems like we don't have to if we're going to go for it.

By the way, did your MIL have an interview?

[miss.piggy]

Good news people! The approved visa arrived at my mother-in-law's house today. The next job is trying to sort out a plane ticket that I can buy here and that can be picked up/delivered to the Philippines. I sense a lot of Googling today!

Thanks for all the advice given - hope it is useful to others facing the same sort of issue.

Congrats!!!!

[kimmi]

Good news people! The approved visa arrived at my mother-in-law's house today. The next job is trying to sort out a plane ticket that I can buy here and that can be picked up/delivered to the Philippines. I sense a lot of Googling today!

Thanks for all the advice given - hope it is useful to others facing the same sort of issue.

Congratulations, Joann_alan..

[Jay&Zobel]

Thanks for the advice people. From my point of view I have sent as much evidence as possible - pay slips, P60, mortgage statements, bank statements - all the same sort of stuff I sent for my wifes fiancee visa (which we got granted without interview thankfully). I included a covering letter addressed to my mother-in-law explaining that I will cover all expenses. The only week points are the lack of any meaningful documentation from the Philippines side. I'm expecting to be refused initially but then will go on to appeal. My mother in law still has a husband and one dependant child in the Philippines so maybe that will sway the embassy into thinking that she doesn't intend to stay here (which she doesnt). The main reason for the trip is that it is cheaper to buy one plane ticket for her to come here - rather than two for us to go there. And also I can only take 2 weeks at a time from my job. This way, we provide a nice holiday for a member of the family and get to spend more time together. I put all this in the covering letter with the application form anyway. I think that the application is going to go in next week - so fingers crossed and I will comment back here with news when I have it. I hope it can be helpful for anyone else facing the same sort of issue.

Good news people! The approved visa arrived at my mother-in-law's house today. The next job is trying to sort out a plane ticket that I can buy here and that can be picked up/delivered to the Philippines. I sense a lot of Googling today!

Thanks for all the advice given - hope it is useful to others facing the same sort of issue.

Wow Congratulations and well done!
When did they send the application? 3 weeks ago? If yes, that was quick!

[Sophie]

Good news people! The approved visa arrived at my mother-in-law's house today. The next job is trying to sort out a plane ticket that I can buy here and that can be picked up/delivered to the Philippines. I sense a lot of Googling today!

Thanks for all the advice given - hope it is useful to others facing the same sort of issue.

Congratulations and well done

[Mrs Daddy]

A big congratulations

[LEAHnew]

Great news! Congrats and have a safe trip to your mum in law

[acs]

Congrats to your mum in law. Goodluck on her flight

[joann_alan]

Thanks for the good wishes. Before reading the replies I had already used Ethiad to get the ticket. A bit expensive but really easy and their call centre staff are extremely helpful. They have good availability and a decent web site too. So the ticket is for this Sunday! Ethiad confirmed that there would be no problem with the e-Ticket in the Philippines so I just had to email the ticket over.

On the subject of needing a plane ticket before applying - you don't need one because we didn't have one. It always seems daft to me to have to buy a ticket before even knowing whether you can travel. In my invitation letter, I stated that I would be buying the return ticket upon granting of the visa.

It did only take 3 weeks and there was no interview either. I have to say that I submitted a stack of evidence though - house deeds, payslips, P60, bank statements.

Next job - medical insurance - I'm about to search this site for advice but if anyone has any existing suggestions then I'd appreciate hearing them and will check back here in a day or two.