visa's wars over for me, for now anyway

[joebloggs]

wife just phoned, my wife, our daughter and stepson have all got ILR. he also got a letter telling him not to leave the country for more than 2 years... just wondering now, whats best for him, he wants to goto uni, but here or pinoyland, here he would struggle a bit, if he goes to pinoyland, then he would have to keep coming back here, i'm thinking its better if he works here for a year (which he wants to do) , and try naturalization for them all. then goto uni in pinoyland,but then thats another ball game ...

it took them exactly 4 wks from me posting to getting the papers back.

anyway the main battle is over, , bit of a relief, no one should have to go thru all this ...


and good luck to everyone elses who follows

[aromulus]

Congratulations.
All the pain and uncertainty are gone.

Now get back to work.

[joebloggs]

thanks

i am at work, only 1 1/2 hrs to go, i shouldnt even be here, i've got bad flu, caught from one of the pinoys at home, iam never ill, not had a cold never mind flu for many years, workmates are laughing at me, cause i've come in ill ,, but good job i did, as work my wages up, and just paid the difference in cash with a little EXTRA for some unknown reason



iam still that people have to go thru this thou. , its not far off that i've been married 5 years, and its taken til now for my wife and kids to known they can stay

but its a good day, and no scouser can ruin it

[gingxrick]

Congrats to you and all your family Joe.

[LadyJ]

Welldone Joebloggs!! And yes all the hard work are now gone!

Now the misus and kids can apply for benefits to pay back the visa fees you paid for them.

[joebloggs]

thanks to everyone,,

my stepson i was a bit worried about, becuase he had turned 18, and wording his letter of support took me days to do, also looking back, i was given a lot of wrong advice about his app, good job i found the right people before i sent the app..

he misses his g/f alot and is home sick,,, .. , hard for a 18yr who's use to being with his friends near 24/7 not to see them for 6 months now..


maybe he can work here, i'll have to find out. or send him back to pinoyland and to uni there

[fred]

Hey Joe.. Well done!! You got there in the end eh!
In regards the 18 year old going to UNI..We are sending our son (or hope too). to De la salle Uni in Dasmarinas Cavite which is a highly repected school..
A civil Engineering course costs about PHP30 K per semester so thats around £650.00 a year for a top notch university education.

[joebloggs]

yes in the end we got there,,

he's done 1 yr at uni studying dentistry but didnt like it, i didnt want him to drop out, but me wife let him . so he dropped out, hes wanted to be a actor, chef, and many other thnigs, now wants to do IT. but prob any degree might not recognised here, i was thinking of microsoft exams, MCSE.. or similar.. which are recognised world wide

[LadyJ]

Before I arrived here 6 years ago I was with my friends in Phils enjoying my teenage life 24/7 too and I was really homesick but all I did was school-work-school and my homesick fades away. I never work in my life in Phils before so when I satrt working here and earning ££££'s, I love it because I can buy anything I want.

I think your stepson should now face his new life here in UK than thinking going back there just for gf, friends or whatsoever. Specially nowadays in Phils there's a lots of youngsters ended up having a child, I'm sorry to tell this and I'm not scaring you.

Your stepson can work here and why not get him a course while working full/part time to keep him busy? He could meet a lot of friends in school too.

But in the end it's all up to you, misus and stepson's decision.

[KeithD]

Great news Joe....now you have plenty of time to teach them Scouse so they can have a better life

[joebloggs]

Before I arrived here 6 years ago I was with my friends in Phils enjoying my teenage life 24/7 too and I was really homesick but all I did was school-work-school and my homesick fades away. I never work in my life in Phils before so when I satrt working here and earning ££££'s, I love it because I can buy anything I want.

I think your stepson should now face his new life here in UK than thinking going back there just for gf, friends or whatsoever. Specially nowadays in Phils there's a lots of youngsters ended up having a child, I'm sorry to tell this and I'm not scaring you.

Your stepson can work here and why not get him a course while working full/part time to keep him busy? He could meet a lot of friends in school too.

But in the end it's all up to you, misus and stepson's decision.

he got so upset he , but his mom explanied to him, the life he had before has gone, as it will have done anyway, as it happens to all teenagers, they goto uni, meet new friends, get jobs, married or move on.., etc... the carefree life he had before has gone, even if he went back to pinoyland, life will not be the same as it was when he left.

yes your right about the baby part, his mom was only 17 when she got pregnant and had him, but you know how teenage pinoy gals are.. infact hes been looking after our baby son since he was 1 month old !!. i think its put him off kids for life , but they have a great bond btw them.

i'll have to find out now what his options are, and let him and his mom sort it out.
thanks ladyj

thanks socuser keith, yes ind saw sense in the end

[andypaul]

Well done to you mr bloggs, now you just gotta pay it all off

Not knowing your stepson, I would say just say, let him wait one years here. At 19 he will be able to go back and study, let him study partime here (english,ecdl, A+, N+, mcp for example) and possibly get a partime job.
This should help him on his I.T degree, if he has practical skills and learned some life skills.

He can then save and pay his way and that normally focuses the mind when studying.

We have to many people who come to our company with a fancy degree from wherever and simply have no practical skills, but can write great reports on why their department cocked up

[joebloggs]

thanks andypaul,

as for paying it off, well soon as the £1,500 i kindly donated to IND for ILR * 2 went from my cred card, i went to me bank, and told them to transfer me cred card balance to a loan , and transfer the balance that had built up in the last 8 months, £2100 was for visa's !! , (visa for stepson to join his mom £300+, FLR for all of them £300+, ILR £1500 ) and of course the £900 for me dogs op.. , plus stepsons air ticket..

yes iam thinking same lines as you, i need to find out if he could claim naturalization a year from now as his mom and sister can, as i'm sure you have to be in the uk 3 years to cliam it, hes only been in the uk 6 months , but then many 'experts' told me he couldnt claim ILR while only been in the country for a few months. wrong they were .. , but iam sure you can claim it after 1 yr of having ILR !!!. if so its worth me keeping him here for a year, like you said, so he can come and go as he pleases, i was thinking if i could get a job for him were i work, earn some money, he can go back to the philippines see his gf a copule of times. save money, after the year, go back to the philippines to do a degree, iam sure he would struggle here, hes got a strong pinoy accent, and finds it difficult to known/ remember what words to say in english.

about the IT quals, certifications A+, microsoft etc, is what i was thinking while here, it looks like internet security is going to be a real big thing from now on. having done MCSE in NT4 , oh so many years ago , its alot of work... but like you said, MCP, one exam at a time..

yes i know what you mean about peeps with degrees but no experince. but the degree should enable you to know what you should be doing

anyway thanks, i need to find out about naturaliaztion thou, , how much is that going to cost for the 3 of them !!! £655 for my wife. £655 for stepson, and £400 for my daughter, time to get her a british passport !!, £1,700 , , really are taking the , looks like iam going to be back off to the bank again

all in all for visa's with naturaliaztion it will have cost me hmm £355,£355,£355, $355,£1500,£1700 a total of more than £4600

and to the gov minister the other day, who said, british citizenship is a privilege, your right there !!!, the privilege of those who can afford it , tell the hoodies in scouseland that .

and to IND , where's me nice folder gone i put all the papers in , you , tea leafing . , they nicked me folder and just shoved all the papers in a cheap jiffy bag ...

the only thnig they kept, was the letter of support from me for my wife and daughter, a letter of support from my mom (my mom owns the house we live in), a letter of support from me and the wife for her son, and a letter of no support from his bio dad.

ind didnt contact my work or my mom. and as far as i can tell never have in the past.


i think i'll phone ind and crash their system, when i ask them if my stepson can apply for naturalization, , iam sure he cannot , he has to be in the uk 3 yrs,, but then you can apply for naturalization after 1 yr of ILR !

[troubled]

my wife, our daughter and stepson have all got ILR.

Is it contagious?

[joebloggs]

well done troubled, looks like you can still laugh a bit

, well its one thing, you wish you caught , and your doc can't help you with thou

[tiger@tigress]

Congratulations finaly its over....

[KeithD]

Joe wins the '2007 Smilie Usage Award'

[baboyako]

well done jb. all you need to do is get on and work a bit harder to pay all those bills


if you kid likes IT then getting into cisco/oracle/microsoft is never gonna be a bad move , by the sounds of things He'll be earning more than you pretty soon , don't tell him he'll be supporting your retirement just yet

[joebloggs]

well done jb. all you need to do is get on and work a bit harder to pay all those bills


if you kid likes IT then getting into cisco/oracle/microsoft is never gonna be a bad move , by the sounds of things He'll be earning more than you pretty soon , don't tell him he'll be supporting your retirement just yet

badboyako, or is it workingako now

yes i was a bit worried for him, as ive said, he got here a few months b4 he was 18, and i wasnt sure he would get ILR, while only beening in the uk 5 months

yes i thinking if he wants to do pc support/ techincian, etc, degree is a bit useless, but certifications would be better, at least its relevent to a job..

oh he could easy earn more than me, i was working for cheeky southerners for years, who pay us northerners peanuts, anyway when i retire , to a life of doing nothing on Puerto Princesa :9: , wife will be working, shes 6 yrs younger than me , oh but i got to live that long thou

[andypaul]

One thing i noticed is make sure if he has not been schooled here is maybe for him to get some basic microsoft training as well like the ecdl. A lot of librays do the exams and cheap training sessions.
I found at work as well as the degree peeps with no practical skils, other peeps with great hand on skills who hit a ceiling when their basic office pc skills ie excel even word using skills stop them getting any further up the ranks. As always its a balance of skills the it industry as you know needs.
Also make sure he is ready to have to constantly retrain and learn new technolgies every 18 monrths or so, aome people cant hack that. others like me think of it as one of the best bits about the industry.

[eljean]

[joebloggs]

One thing i noticed is make sure if he has not been schooled here is maybe for him to get some basic microsoft training as well like the ecdl. A lot of librays do the exams and cheap training sessions.
I found at work as well as the degree peeps with no practical skils, other peeps with great hand on skills who hit a ceiling when their basic office pc skills ie excel even word using skills stop them getting any further up the ranks. As always its a balance of skills the it industry as you know needs.
Also make sure he is ready to have to constantly retrain and learn new technolgies every 18 monrths or so, aome people cant hack that. others like me think of it as one of the best bits about the industry.

tell me about it, i got a mcse in nt4, in what 1999/2000, and did nothnig with it and then they brought out the 2000 exams, and its just a never ending time and money. but with vista just out now, i might start doing a few exams myself.also started an OU degree in computing. did 3 yrs, and not done anythnng for 2 yrs, due to lack of and paying for visa's

[mach]

congRatulationS joe