Spouse visa

[joebloggs]

hmm sorry Rob iam sure its from the date your wife arrived in the Uk, not when the visa was issued, immigartion guy told me, my wife has to be in the UK for 2 yrs b4 she can apply for ILR ( well you can apply 4wks b4 her visa runs out,but in our case she would only have been in UK 22 months). yes rip off britain, when the romanians, polish and other europeans can come here with just an Id card, my skilled,oh and as a doc and not european, has to pay and take the IELTS english test and get an average of 7.0, cost around £100, then for non europeans docs,the PLAB tests, at least £600, and 2 trips to london !!..so my perfect english speaking, WFE has to pay for a spouse visa in manila, now FLR visa and ILR visa, LIFE in the UK test, and god knows a british citizenship cert , there must one ! another £300+ ?? !!!

[joebloggs]

hmm surely if your visa was issued in feb, but your wife arrived in march, its only valid for 2 yrs in feb, so you need a FLR til march, so your wife has been here in the UK 2 years, if you dont get a FLR til march she will be in breech of immigration rules. i hope iam wrong, and so is the guy i spoke to, iam going to phone them again to night..

[walesrob]

hmm surely if your visa was issued in feb, but your wife arrived in march, its only valid for 2 yrs in feb..

Hence the reason Elsa will apply for ILR in February. I also spoke with an Immigration officer at Cardiff airport - he said the visa is valid only on issued dates, not date of entry into UK. After the 2 year visa is up she must apply for 1 year ILR, then a year later, naturalization.

Quoted from ukvisas:

it is valid for the date on which you want to travel. If you have been granted entry clearance as a husband, wife, civil partner, unmarried or same-sex partner with a two year limit you will need to enter the UK within 28 days of the start date shown on your visa. You should advise the Entry Clearance Officer of your exact date of travel before your visa is issued. (You can ask for it to be post-dated for up to three months if you do not plan to travel immediately.)

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Fr...=1018721067257


Just a footnote to this....the immigration guy I spoke to also stated that when Elsa entered the UK on 15 March, immigration @ Heathrow should NOT have stamped the entry date directly ON top of the visa, but on an adjoining page. Also, look at the visa, it says very clearly VALID FROM / VALID UNTIL...
Hope this helps.

[joebloggs]

rob should you be applying now, i was told today it has to be 4wks b4 visa expires, me gonna phone again, some just pass u arond and tell u things that are not correct, like the guy at the "the life in uk " help line told me my wife carnt apply to do the test, i told him she has to do the test b4 she can get ILR visa if its after 04/2007

[walesrob]

rob should you be applying now, i was told today it has to be 4wks b4 visa expires, me gonna phone again, some just pass u arond and tell u things that are not correct, like the guy at the "the life in uk " help line told me my wife carnt apply to do the test, i told him she has to do the test b4 she can get ILR visa if its after 04/2007

Nope, we'll be doing the one-day express application, so I'll be phoning for an appointment in next 2 weeks, should be plenty of time?

[joebloggs]

also rob, you know how people have taken banks to court for charging people £35 for sending a letter they are over drawn etc, and they win in court because the bank is making money from it and cannot justify the charge, i want a break down of the cost of visa's from the gov, how can processing cost £350 ? when you can get a passport or driving license for less than £70 !!! and if you go same day and get a visa in a couple of hours and they charge you a mere £500 !!!! for processing !! they must be making a hell of amount of money from this con, and forcing people to pay these ridiculous charges..

[walesrob]

also rob, you know how people have taken banks to court for charging people £35 for sending a letter they are over drawn etc, and they win in court because the bank is making money from it and cannot justify the charge, i want a break down of the cost of visa's from the gov, how can processing cost £350 ? when you can get a passport or driving license for less than £70 !!! and if you go same day and get a visa in a couple of hours and they charge you a mere £500 !!!! for processing !! they must be making a hell of amount of money from this con, and forcing people to pay these ridiculous charges..

I hear you, its "rip off UK". Given the chance, I'd be moving out of this "Great" Britain, but for now, I'll just have to put up, shut up and pay up