We Are Approved

[Admin]

You'll have to change teh passport name back here.

Phil Embassy charged Ping £40, and then the UK Immigration charged her £250 to restamp the Visa.....legal theft!! B)

[ginapeterb]

[B]Summary of the Whole Process[/B


Thank you guys for all the messages of support, I had already resisted the temptation to call at the DFA and change Gina's passport into our married name, as I didnt want any further hold ups, in truth, I am pretty exhausted and tired, from being in the Philippines, and if it was not for Gina wanting me to stay on until the agreed departure date, i would have left to come back to UK earlier.

I have had so many rows out here with Filipino's and vented my anger at them, that Gina is saying I am starting to mutter under my breath, things like..F...Wan###ers and the like.

The CFO is I agree with all of you, highly reprehensible, from what I can gather and of course non of us, have actually sat in on a couselling session, we can only take the advices of our spouses/fiancee's who have witnessed it, stories of bad press, beer swilling, wife beating, white slavery, etc etc, is really the subjective views of them as such.

What i would like, is the opportunity of seeing for myself first hand the counselling sessions carried out at the CFO..plus an opportunity of seeing the Videos that are shown about UK Life.

What I have heard lately, is only peices of a jigsaw, if I was able to see it for myself I could then make an objective assessment of how damaging to our culture and national pride these counselling sessions make.

With regard to the British Embassy, it is my intention once Gina has legally arrived in the UK to make representation to the British Ambassador, Peter Beckingham and copy the letter to the Foreign and Commonwealth office, at my concern regarding the visa interview process, in the following manner.

1. The Unprofessional Time Keeping situation in Manila at the Embassy.
2. My Concerns over the In Built prejudices that prevail among Entry Clearance Officers at the Embassy.
3. The Subjective overview of relationships between Filipino Citizens and British Citizens.
4. The Subjective approach to Gender male/female balance.
5. The Lack of facilities for visiting British Citizens.
6. The Absence of the Symbol of the Union (No Union Jack displayed)


Following this letter, I would also like to suggest that I write also to

Dr Alberto Romulo
Minister for Foreign Affairs at the DFA


I would also like to summarise my CFO Experience to the Minister directly, and suggest how the service might be improved for foreign spouses in the future, for example.

1. Lack of Information for Foreign Spouses
2. No Information leaflets given at the Foreign Embassy,s which would have been a major advantage.
3. Location of Seminar's i.e. Infrastructure location, difficulty travelling, traffic problems, treatment of Foreign Husbands.
4. Attitude of Staff, refusal to show a complaints procedure.
5. Offensive nature of counselling to foreign Husbands.
6. Subjective and stereo-typing Foreign spouses.
7. General dissatisfaction with need for Philippine Government to interfere in the trans-migration of its own citizens (i.e. Nanny State)


If anyone wants to support me in this, you never know, it may register that we are indeed fed up with their attitude, they might just look at it seriously, secondly, i am also intending to mention in my letter to Peter Beckingham, to ask him to raise concerns with the Minister regarding the negative approach to the UK taken by the Philippine Governments DFA.

I intend to write these letters later on when I return, but for now, will bite my tongue until Gina is safely in UK, I dont want a situation of her being held at the airport on suspicous grounds.

Its a thought anyway.

[ginapeterb]

This was fascinating. The transcript (which surely must have been a mistake of theirs in releasing it) makes blood-curdling reading.

Hello Peter, yes it does make disturbing reading indeed, what I didnt tell you all is that Gina was so angry with the interview, although I tried to calm her at the hotel, telling her the following obvious points.

1. You have the visa regardless.
2. They are just doing their job.
3. There was no reason to refuse you a visa.
4. They would have had to show compelling reasons why they could not issue a visa.
5. The ECO already told you, he would grant a visa regardless of how you felt about the interview.
6. Its over, dont worry, and you will never have to go in front of those wa....kers ever again.

The point that comes out of the Interview transcript, which I will display eventually as a scanned item on my website at www.british-filipino.com, (where I intend to write more pages regarding the interview and photos for future applicants). back to the main points.

The question "So really then you were just looking for a foreign husband, is that to give you a better life" or words to that effect, came up at least 3 times, rather like the ECO or ECHO as Gina calls them, this indicates they are trying to ensure that this isnt th case, to those who are in genuine love matches, this notion is highly offensive sadly as we all know, the bad filipina stories make it so much harder for the genuine situations.

Even if that were true and I would sympathise with that situation it would have been nice to have been given the benefit of the doubt.

instead of the ECO saying in his summary

"The applicant appears to be genuine, and their is a strong likelihood that she will live with the sponsor indefinately"

hmmmmm thanks mate !!!!


and "Sponsor has had a short phyiscal relationship" hmmmm how do you know pal ???


Peter as far as the ECO's name is concerned I dont have the transcript with me at the Internet cafe today, but hopefully I will be able to refer to his interview in my letter to Peter Beckingham who is the Current Ambassador.

What also makes me mad, and this will be pointed out to the Ambassador, is that in all likelihood my wife will work in the UK Economy immedeatly on arrival subject to a settling in period, she holds a current licence to practice as a Med Tech, and has a Batchelor of Science in Medical Technology, and a CV as long as your arm, so she will no doubt contribute to the economy by paying taxes, something of which escapes the ECO's summary.

And finally Peter in fact all of you.."What constitutes a better life "?

I would love to take issue with the Ambassador about that one ! and bring his nose a bit closer to the ground, better life..hmmm thats normally when I come to the Philippines isnt it ??

The Transcript makes a worrying read I agree, but I think we will be able to do little to change their in built prejudices, and I suppose PETER I am thankful just to get our visa and bring this road show to a close at least for us.

But I am looking forward to being available to help anyone else who has to go through this in the future along with everyone here at FilipinoUK.

[peterdavid]

Hi Pete,

I've had plenty of experiences at the Embassy over the years over blatant rudeness, and quite frankly, an utter disrespect for the people from the Embassy, both towards filipinas in general, but on occasion also to myself. Embassy officials tell all sorts of lies and make all sorts of mistakes, and, on one ocasion when my wife called them up on it, they tried to discredit her by saying, firstly, an ECO would never make a mistake(&#33 (yeah right, a civil servant, hmmm....), then when that didn't work they said that obviously my wife's (fluent) english isn't good enough and she either misheard or didn't understand English, as if she was some tribal native straight out of the jungle. This was all about the correct time to drop off some mostly irrelevant piece of information to the Embassy or some such, I can't remember the exact reason we were there now.

It was at that point that I stepped in to point out that I was also a party to the conversation my wife was referring to and the facts as she had relayed them were entirely accurate. The visa section manager (she no longer works there now as far as I know, but her name was Karen Finch) then told me "I find that very hard to believe"!!

I point blank refused to leave the Embassy until they had taken the document they had specifically asked us to bring in (they were saying we could only bring it in at a certain day/time and did not like it when we informed them that when we were asked to bring it in, no-one told us it had to be at this date or time. In the end, she conceded defeat, albeit most ungracefully, and, unbelievably, said that she'll take it, but she can't guarantee its safety on its journey from where she was standing talking to us now, to the point THREE FEET AWAY where she would need to place it in the intray or whatever. I was astounded at the rudeness and appalled at the indirect threat that she would deliberately 'lose' it because it wasn't handed in at the exact correct minute (which we were never informed about anyway). She clearly didn't like having to 'give in' and was no doubt annoyed that she found herself speaking to someone who knew what he was talking about.

We pay a fortune for this visa PROCESS (and it is the process we are paying for, not the outcome), and in return they should be providing a level of service commensurate with the significant size of the fee they force you to pay.

I had the same thoughts of letters of complaint (at the time Paul Dimmond was the ambassador, has he left now??), but then you have to get though UK immigration, then you have to do your 2 year renewal - there's always something that makes you think "hmm, maybe we'll leave it for a while".

But that is just one example of rudeness we have experienced (there are many others). It's disgusting. Makes you ashamed to be British when our representatives there, WHO WE PAY FOR, treat their host nation with such contempt and disrespect.

Like you, I also bristle at their assumption that the whole world is just clawing to get in to the UK. How arrogant, prejudiced, and WRONG.

Their style of questionning of Gina was appaling as well. I don't even know but it still makes me furious. I know they have to establish the facts, but a trained monkey with half a brain cell would have the intelligence to learn how to ask open ended questions, in a respectful way, which would allow the applicant to trip herself up (if she wasn't genuine), rather than badgering and pestering everyone, assuming they are all money grabbing bargirls waiting to get in and disappear, and trying to wear her down like that. Where do they think they are, Guantanamo?

As for writing to the CFO or DFA, I'd say save your pen ink. You've seen how poorly the Philippines treats 'foreigners' - their ridiculous, suicidal and misplaced 'national pride' is strangling their country into bankruptcy anyway. They'd probably take a measure of 'national pride' at the DFA to receive a letter from an irate foreigner who they've managed to inconvenience and annoy. Don't give them the satisfaction.

I spent most of my final year in the Philippines muttering quite loudly about corruption, backwards, stupid, etc (it really was time for me to leave, 3 years s more than enough, lol), when faced with the sort of nonsense the Philippines is full of. By that point, my wife was pretty much westernised, her eyes had been opened about how backward the country really is, and she would be the first one telling dumb, corrupt officials what her rights are and telling them what they can and can't do. It didn't half surprise them, one of their own with the independence and intelligence to call them to account for their incompetence and corruption, rather than just being a subservient little filipina who cowered in the face of officialdom.

Can fully understand the Embassy letter, but on the cautious side, be careful not to give them any ammunition to change their minds. As you've seen, a subjective whim and a deluded sense of power is all it takes with them.

[walesrob]

I think Pete raises valid points here, and its clear that there needs to be a change of attitude from Embassy staff.

Looking back now, I realised also that the Embassy is very user un-friendly, not only from the way Elsa was interviewed but the little things like not being allowed to talk to Embassy staff in person myself (instead of using a phone at the downstairs lobby - what a way to treat people in their own Embassy), even spelling my name and Elsas name wrong on the Legal Capacity to Marraige AND getting Elsas name wrong when they notified her that the visa was ready (they used the name Mr E Luff ). Clearly these Embassy staff are a law unto themselves, but we gotta lie down and say yes sir, no sir, how high sir...

For people like me and Pete and others who married in the Philippines and went through the nightmare of a process in getting the NSO secpa, NSO seminar, etc, and this to be questioned by the ECO at the interview to me is highly unfair.