What you have to do to get your girlfriend here

[rockman]

Hello this is Troy here, Hiya Pete !!
Well this is what i believe you have to do to get your girlfriend over here and i am surprised that knowone else has put one like this up. (unless they did and i couldn't find it !!)

1) You must go out there to see her at least once.
2) You must write to her frequently and her to you too. (Keep the envelopes)
3) You must have an interest in her !! I say this because there are some people out there believe it or not that bring girls over for money, this is not recommended and they will only bring disrepute on all of us and turn the heads against us all.
4) You must complete form VAF2 with your lady/man friend
5) She/he must file it in the phillipines (VAF2)
6) You should write a letter inviting her to the country stating how many rooms your house has.
7) You must send 6 months bank statements to the phillipines for your partner to show to the Embassy.
8) You should go with them to the Embassy when there appointment arrives.
9) You should tell them to go to the CFO'sm office for a stamp on there passport before they leave.
10) You should read the comments in here about queing up at the offices in the Phillipines.
11) It is best if you have Photographic evidence that you have been together.
12) When you go out to the Phillipines keep all receipts.
Of course this is only when you want to marry in this country (England) if you require to marry in the Phillipines you have to do a lot more !!
13) You must send also evidence of accomadation in the UK for you and your lady friend to stay in.
14) Anything else would be greatly appreciated !!
15) Thanks for taking time to read this !!
16) (Addition) Your Girl/Boy friend must go for a CFO interview (see additions at the end and thank peterdavid for this piece of info !

[peterdavid]

The CFO requirement is actually an important one not to be missed. Although laughably inept and pretty much a complete waste of time (unless your girlfriend enjoys a patronising talk about how all foreigners are sex mad wife beaters and wants information about the UK which is more outdated than your grandmother's wallpaper - as well as paying a few hundred pesos for the privilege), it is something the Philippine immigration officials take seriously. In their futile efforts to try and pretend the Philippines is actually a player on the world stage and that its citizens aren't all desperate to leave, they will insist on having the stamp in the passport, despite the presence of a gleaming new hi-tech holograph security embossed UK visa complete with photo which has granted one of their citizens the right to a better life than their own government has managed to create for them.

Seems to me like yet another typical Philippines head-in-the-sand crab-mentality nonsense regulation that benefits no one but the person receiving the money, but ignore it at your peril.

[Admin]

Not sure about the better life here, plenty end up moving back to the Philippines with their husband, I can't understand why they would want to leave such a wonderful "Great Britain" :

I'm certainly out of here when the kid leaves school in 18 months.

[peterdavid]

Not sure about the better life here, plenty end up moving back to the Philippines with their husband, I can't understand why they would want to leave such a wonderful "Great Britain" :

I'm certainly out of here when the kid leaves school in 18 months.

To be honest, it's the kids' schooling which is keeping me in Britain as well. Well, that and the necessary wait for my wife to obtain british citizenship, after which we can finally put all this visa nonsense behind us. I am at the moment deliberating on whether or not to move back to Asia (thailand), having been offered a very lucrative position in Bangkok, but the main factors in staying here aren't so much the "modern lifestyle" or whatever, it's mainly the schools and the absolute hassle it would be to have to deal with yet another British embassy in asia anytime we wanted to move back here. I've heard the Brit Embassy in thailand is even more unpleasant than the one in manila.

If your wife has british citizenship already then you would have the best of both worlds - the ability to live in the Philippines but with the freedom to escape with your wife at a moment's notice whenever you wanted a break from traffic cop shakedowns, woefully inept after sales customer service and roads with potholes which could lose an elephant. ;D

[Admin]

Putting in the Citizen application this year, before they change the rules again, and that'll save the missus the bloody extra charges to get out of the Philippines

[peterdavid]

Having not been back to the Philippines yet since we all came to England, have you experienced any hassle from Philippine immigration about getting out a second time, if you go back for a visit? Do they demand to see "residential papers" to prove you are living in the UK or anything, or are you just waved though as long as you have the passport, complete with previous exit stamp, and the visa is still valid, etc.

Sometimes, you just never know with Philippine officialdom.

[Admin]

Apart from the extra 200 peso charge, and a higher one for the missus, oh, and the near strip security search, on the way out, we've never had any problems. You just flash money at them if you do ;D

Or just tell them you work as a for the UK goverment and does he like his job harrassing people? :o

[ginapeterb]

Any posts regarding obtaining Fiancee visa's or Spouse Visa's are contained within the Forum, the inrormation posted by myself, is accurate, as it comes from the Website of the British Embassy Manila Philippines, would guests please note that members personal opinions on procedures for obtaining a visa for their fiancee to come to the UK, should be treated as such, "Personal opinion only" the correct procedures are detailed in the

"Courting and Relationships Topic"
"British Citizenship and Visa's"

The Information on completion of the Settlement form VAFW2003 is in English and Filipino.

Disclaimer

The Fourm Moderators, cannot be held responsible for any innacuracies in Members personal Opinions, Forum Moderators have no control over what is enclosed within a post, and therefore, there may be some disagreement as to the accuracy of such posts, if a guest or member wishes to apply for a visa, the information seen on this Forum is intended as a guide only, you are requested to contact the British Overaseas mission, the Home Office, or the Immigration Appellate Authority as is required in your case.

Thank you for listening.

[peterdavid]

Apart from the extra 200 peso charge, and a higher one for the missus, oh, and the near strip security search, on the way out, we've never had any problems. You just flash money at them if you do ;D

Or just tell them you work as a for the UK goverment and does he like his job harrassing people? :o

You have to pay even MORE to get out again?? They don't miss a trick, do they.

The endless strip searches are annoying as well, aren't they? Especially considering that a full scale bomb going off in that dilapidated old NAIA building would be hard pressed to do about £5 worth of damage. ;D

[ginapeterb]

I couldnt agree with you more, I have been through NAIA 3 times this year already, and to be honest. I take off my belt with the metal tip, before I go through to the airport as quite frankly, it takes so long to get out of the loopholes, that I have to stand their like a lemon taking it off.

I guess one gets used to the security set up at NAIA, I wouldnt really call it a setup, but its there thing, security guards in the Phils seem to be everywhere, whether they are effective is another matter entirely.

It is of course frustrating when you take your girl out of the Phils, it cost you over 1500 pesos in tax on top of your ticket price, the last time her ladyship and me went to Bangkok, it cost us another 1500, then their is the departure tax of USD 10 or 500, but then we pay our taxes inthe ticket price and if you look its far more.

I dont know the situation of balik-bayans and foreign husbands, (Keith consult Ping for translation) as I am not married yet, so I am not the best person to ask, maybe someone who has travelled back with his Balik-bayan wife should know this.

[peterdavid]

I couldnt agree with you more, I have been through NAIA 3 times this year already, and to be honest. I take off my belt with the metal tip, before I go through to the airport as quite frankly, it takes so long to get out of the loopholes, that I have to stand their like a lemon taking it off.

I guess one gets used to the security set up at NAIA, I wouldnt really call it a setup, but its there thing, security guards in the Phils seem to be everywhere, whether they are effective is another matter entirely.

It is of course frustrating when you take your girl out of the Phils, it cost you over 1500 pesos in tax on top of your ticket price, the last time her ladyship and me went to Bangkok, it cost us another 1500, then their is the departure tax of USD 10 or 500, but then we pay our taxes inthe ticket price and if you look its far more.

I dont know the situation of balik-bayans and foreign husbands, (Keith consult Ping for translation) as I am not married yet, so I am not the best person to ask, maybe someone who has travelled back with his Balik-bayan wife should know this.

Being of a slightly less tolerant nature (nonchalent whistle), I'm the one who ignores the ear-splitting order to remove my belt on my 75th security search from the airport flunky to the queue of cattle waiting to get to their plane and then, if individually requested again during that rare moment when an airport worker actually does his job, am the one heard muttering about what nonsense this is and how on earth could I get a bomb into my belt buckle in the first place. It's even more infuriating considering my belt never ever sets off the alarm anyway. There's no intelligence (by which I mean individual management organisational intelligence) behind the endless searches, it's just a mentally deficient tick box approach but no one there has the brains to implement a more intelligent security check. Provided they search someone 5 times over on the way through what is almost the smallest "international" airport in the world, they think they have done their job, the process is more important than the results. Provided someone has been searched, then they think they've done their job, but no one would ever think to follow up on anything dodgy they might find, or anything unusual - as long as the search has been done, regardless of whether it identifies anything suspicious or not, then they think that's all that is needed - tick the box, search done, therefore security must be intact. It is so lacking in actual intelligence it's unbelievable. A friend of mine, and this is no joke, once got through all the security searches with a miniature wooden crossbow complete with wooden arrows in his bag (he bought it because of the quality of the wooden carving rather than a desire to use it as a weapon, but it was still a working, potentially lethal crossbow) - it was searched, discovered and allowed through - because all that is important is the search, as if the search for search's sake is what matters, rather than using it as a means to discover anything genuinely suspicious. So when some flunky tries to authoratively order everyone to take their belts off, as if he's doing a high security job, it is incredibly annoying because 9 times out of 10 he won't even understand why he's asking for the belts to come off, and won't know what he's looking for in his x-ray machine - all thats important is that the belts go through, regardless of how many hand grenade pins they contain!!

As for security guards in general, yes they are everywhere, and it is annoying to get frisked on the way into a shopping mall - again, it's a tick box approach - put a security guard on the door, therefore, security is complete, danger averted - but there's no intelligent thinking behind it - a man with a bomb strapped to him, wanting to blow up the mall, can do it just as effectively in the guards face in the doorway as he can on the other side of the door.

I did find, the longer I was in manila, that walking into the mall, looking the guard straight in the eye with a gruff "good morning" or whatever and marching past like I was someone important and not to be stopped meant that guards stopped frisking me! Most times it also meant they didn't search my wife's bag either! It's all about confidence, I suppose - fed up with having my back patted in the heat, rather than humbly hanging around waiting to be frisked and given permission to enter, I just carried on walking straight in, showing I had no intention of stopping unless actually instructed to, and i stopped getting frisked. Amazing.

We were at Greenbelt one evening, dining outside, when we noticed a couple of American guys asking the waiter to cover one of the floodlight strength floor spotlights they have, next to their table, because they are so bright they end up giving you a headache when you are sitting outside. A jobsworth security guard sees the waiter covering the light, not realising the american customer had asked him to do it, and comes rushing over to remonstrate with the waiter. The waiter replied that the american had asked him to do it and the american confirmed this by explaining the light was so bright it was painful to their eyes because it was right next to their table. Not wanting to lose face, the guard, although clearly a little less sure of himself now, continued to say the light has to stay uncovered (by now being quite unreasonable - it was clearly unpleasant for the paying customer who was trying to eat there, but the guard didn't want to back down). The american guy then simply stopped trying to explain, asked the guard for his name, took it off his badge, put it into his mobile phone and told the guard he did not wish to discuss it further with him. I have never seen someone with brown skin go so pale so quickly. The guard, now understandably worried about who the american was and who he might speak to about him, tried to half apologise and half explain why he had said the light had to stay uncovered; the american dismissed him and said he was no longer going to talk about it with the guard. Harsh, but effective - the guard disappeared off to the other end of the parade and did not show his face again.

He may have spent the next few days fretting about his job and the possible repurcusions of what had happened (most likely nothing) - but he had brought it all on himself. Had he actually tried to apply a little customer service (after all, customers pay for their presence in the first place and they are supposed to be there to protect the customer, not harrass them), rather than try and come across as the big "I am", he wouldn't have been so humiliatingly and embarrassingly dismissed and he wouldn't have spent the rest of his shift wondering about what may happen to him.

[Admin]

I think when you leave the country the girl has to pay around 1500 pesos, that was last year anyway, but because mine had the leave to stay in the UK stamp in her passport and our marriage certificate she only paid 200 pesos, that was on top of the extra we both had to pay at the airport of 300 pesos each, even though our ticket cleary stated "All airport charges included"

[ginapeterb]

Disclaimer and Notes on this thread.

I must stress again that this particular thread, has received over 96 hits at the time of writing this message, that is more than some of the threads, regarding the correct information on UK Visas, I will again for the last time stress the following, looking at this thread simply because its title is

"What you have to do to get your Girlfriend here"

Can be misleading, it is a asynchronous chat thread, and refers only to an opinion, I will once again stress the need for any interested readers to contact the British Embassy, direct, or call the CAVA Service.