Hi all

[Terpe]

Hi Terpe...

Yes that is my point, as it is no use giving us email addresses as you did before.

I have to tell you, we still have not heard from them yet.
So what other chances do we have?

Regards
Louis & Olivia

I can't do any more than provide the contact details.
Surely worth a try to contact and get your documents back though ?

I have to agree the Embassy is terribly slow in communications.

Well, I make no apologies but, here are the details to 'up-the-game' and little and escalate your valid complaint:-
(Please try)

Stephen Lillie - British Ambassador to the Philippines
Trevor Lewis - Deputy Head of Mission, British Embassy Manila

Email: ukinthephilippines@fco.gov.uk

Telephone +63 2 858 2200
Fax (Management) +63 2 858 2237

[Terpe]

.... but off the chuff, how many could you say did have their visa and how many on here did not have their visa granted?..

As Rayna suggests, there's just not the stats available. Besides which they really would not have any meaning when presented as one 'lump of data'

If you have an interest in the refusal rate at the Manila Hub for settlement type visa's submitted from the Philippines alone
I can tell you it's 10% during 2012/2013
Between 2008 - 2011 the average annual refusal rate was 8%

There was a 'bit of a blip' during July 2012 which was likely caused by some folks not having a good understanding of the new immigration rules. The increase in refusal rate is almost certainly due to lack of experience in meeting the new Financial Requirements. It must be stated though that small clarifications/changes/allowances in the rules during the past few months have made a slight improvements in covering more examples of peoples earning differences. (eg Salaried Employment v non-Salaried Employment)
These days a "zero-hours" contract is getting more common and until the recent changes all but impossible to precisely fit into the UKBA 'Financial Puzzle'

[louismc44]

So all in all Terpe
Would you say in about 100 applications
Only 10 were approved of?
Thank you
Regards
Louis & Olivia

[Terpe]

So all in all Terpe
Would you say in about 100 applications
Only 10 were approved of?
Thank you
Regards
Louis & Olivia

No Louis, it's the opposite.
In every 100 applications 90 were successful.
In every 100 applications 10 were initially refused by the ECO's in post.
Of those 10 refusals 9 were appealed

How does historical data help you?
Since that data has been collated there has again been a significant number of changes. Most of which take a much better account of the changing employment & pay conditions.
Unfortunately doesn't change the gross Income threshold limits though

I believe that the forthcoming changes will also have impacts, especially to those folks who currently qualify for exemption from the Financial Requirements, but may face challenges in the future.

Anyway have fun with the data

[Terpe]

I can't see any problems as she has an audit paper trail via the marriage certificate.

However, I prefer that someone who has first had experience of exiting Philippines that way will make some comment.
Sorry

[louismc44]

Thank you Terpe
We've already booked the ticket and should be here on the 4th June touch wood all being well and good.
Regards
Louis & Olivia

[Terpe]

Thank you Terpe
We've already booked the ticket and should be here on the 4th June touch wood all being well and good.
Regards
Louis & Olivia

WooHoo

Louis, do some searches here for threads about what documents to bring in hand-luggage.
Also did you pay for the ticket with your Debit/Credit card? then it would be an idea to phone the carrier to see if they can validate or if Olivia needs to have a photocopy of the card (front and back) as validation at check-in.

Probably some other stuff too.

[louismc44]

Hi Terpe
Sorry what do you mean by carrier?
Yes I paid for it and I have it confirmed by the travel agents too
What card are you on about Terpe?
Oh by the way they did not send all my original documents back to me
I have phoned, a few times and written many emails and nobody has bothered to reply or answer the phone at the visa office.

From reading other's who have travelled along this road before me, it looks like they too did not have any satisfaction of a reply from the visa office either.
So what are we to do about this?

Thank you
Regards

[louismc44]

Hi all

Can anyone help me here?

Olivia has her visa and we booked a flight for her to come here by the 3rd June

Olivia has her visa, her CFO sticker, her passport, her marriage certificate, And her valid ticket here to the UK

What other documents does Olivia need to bring and show to the immigration's officer here in the UK?

Thank you
Regards
Louis & Olivia

[Terpe]

Hi Terpe
Sorry what do you mean by carrier?

The airline

Yes I paid for it and I have it confirmed by the travel agents too
What card are you on about Terpe?

Credit Card/Debit card

Oh by the way they did not send all my original documents back to me
I have phoned, a few times and written many emails and nobody has bothered to reply or answer the phone at the visa office.

From reading other's who have travelled along this road before me, it looks like they too did not have any satisfaction of a reply from the visa office either.
So what are we to do about this?

Continue to 'bombard' the British Embassy (for the attention of the Ambassador) demanding your treasured and important documents be returned,
You must already know by now just how slow the wheels of Government Agencies grind.
Keep the pressure on. E-mail Theresa May, David Cameron, your MP etc
Keep being a pain until something moves. Involve the media, your local newpaper etc.

[Michael Parnham]

Have a good flight Louis, good luck for the future!

[louismc44]

Thank you Michael

Have a good flight Louis, good luck for the future!

Regards from us both

[louismc44]

How many rings of fire are they going to make us jump through before they let us in? and how many more times are we going to have to bang our heads upon this brick wall?

[grahamw48]

Good advice, and as only photocopies/scanned are required...easy to comply with.

I'll give you rep for that.

[louismc44]

I don't know why people from the Philippines get so patriotic about it?
The two times I have been there

Two hours power cut every day, and sometimes in the evenings too.

We talk over the internet in yahoo messenger, if we are lucky? We might go about 5 minutes before we are cut off again and again.

Scorching heat all day long, in the mid 90's
and not much cooler in the nights, around the 80's

The rain, that is another thing, it don't rain like it does here.
It comes down like sheets, flooding everywhere and if your plumbing is not working properly, then God help you, because no one else can.

Yes you have to be either tough or stupid to live and survive over there, believe me it helps.

I thought it was an absolutes hell-hole and that is putting it mildly, and I was so glad to get out of it.

It reminds me of that song, 'There Is A Rose In Spanish Haarlem'?
That is exactly how I see, and feel about Olivia
I want to take that rose out of there and watch her grow over here in our UK gardens.

Of course, the UK is not perfect, we have a lot of problems over here, but least I feel we do have a chance to make our lives a little bit better then those poor so and so over there have.

We speak over the phone a lot.
One bit of good news for all those who call the Philippines 'Virgin Media allow me to call up to 250 minutes per month with an extra £5 added to my bill.

[grahamw48]

Just scan in or make a photcopy of the card you used to buy the ticket.

A photcopy or scan of the photo page of your passport should keep them happy, in the absence of another form of 'photo ID'.

All this has to do with money-laundering/fraud/anti-terrorist regulations etc. It's no big deal. Nobody is trying to steal your ID. Just go along with their little rules.

Upload them into your PC and send them off to your lady. She prints them out. Job done.

[gWaPito]

Hi Louis
As Graham said, just go along with their little rules. .luck or as it now seems unlucky for me, my wife wasn't asked for such proof.

The next hoop of fire you got to jump through is luggage. ..namely keeping within luggage allowance. .most other countries allow a small margin of being over weight, this does not apply in the Philippines. ..believe you me, the Philippine airport authorities have turn't it into a nice little earner.
If they can extract even more of your hard earned, they will. Make sure you weigh your bags before leaving for the the airport.

[grahamw48]

Those little Filipinas are STRONG....dragging around those 100 kilo bags.

[gWaPito]

Those little Filipinas are STRONG....dragging around those 100 kilo bags.

They don't have a problem dragging muggins around

[Terpe]

I've always believed that life is what you make it.

[raynaputi]

I've always believed that life is what you make it.

[louismc44]

I've always believed that life is what you make it.

No life is not only what you make it
It is also what other's will let you make of it too

[Terpe]

No life is not only what you make it
It is also what other's will let you make of it too

That's a tad too negative for me.
I'll stick.

[grahamw48]

That description of the Phils is a partial list of why I love the place.

It IS a third world country.

Personally I love its craziness and the challenges involved in living there, despite the annoyances that us mollycoddled Westerners sometimes experience.

[louismc44]

That description of the Phils is a partial list of why I love the place.

It IS a third world country.

Personally I love its craziness and the challenges involved in living there, despite the annoyances that us mollycoddled Westerners sometimes experience.

Then tell me great O great one.
Why are there so many people from around the world, making a bee line for the western way of life?

[louismc44]

I know what I know, and what I have seen, and that is it

[gWaPito]

I have seen and met many westerners while's travelling in Asia
They walk around like the own the world with a young woman hanging onto their arms.

They lord it up over there with the high pensions that can buy servants , food and almost anything else that the can afford to have. I've seen the way they have given themselves a veneer of high important of which they never could archive here in the west, where they came from.

Its not nice to see and I think those Philippines know that they are being looked down upon and they try to make up by you double, or treble or even fourfold the cost of things. The yanks and the Spanish were there for years.
I think it has made the Philippines nation into a bunch of pirates

Of course there are maybe 1 or 2 very nice decent people from all around the world.

Life is very cheap over there. Did you know you can have someone bumped off for about £20 or even less?

Come on Louis, don't sit on the fence, say what you really feel.

I think you been talking to my wife Louis. .that's how she views it well, maybe just us westerners.

I didn't realise it was as much as £20...worth bearing that in mind. ..I'll award you with a rep for that.
Cheers.

[gWaPito]

Then tell me great O great one.Why are there so many people from around the world, making a bee line for the western way of life?

Come on Louis...let's be nice. .I would imagine the westerners that are partial to the place is because they have the option that when the novelty wears thin, they can revert to normality on a whim.I remember us staying in our dream paradise in a remote part of Bicol..we were there 3 weeks. .it was sure good to get to a kfc in Manila.

[jake]

Come on Louis...let's be nice. .I would imagine the westerners that are partial to the place is because they have the option that when the novelty wears thin, they can revert to normality on a whim.I remember us staying in our dream paradise in a remote part of Bicol..we were there 3 weeks. .it was sure good to get to a kfc in Manila.

What do you mean?
Have spent 14 years living in the Philippines and the 'novelty' has never worn thin! Maybe you should spend some more time learning about yours wife's culture, instead of seeing everything as negative.

[gWaPito]

What do you mean?
Have spent 14 years living in the Philippines and the 'novelty' has never worn thin! Maybe you should spend some more time learning about yours wife's culture, instead of seeing everything as negative.

Steady on cowboy. .as I've just said, I was being jovial trying to stop this thread descending into a slanging match. .I suggest you wind it in a tad.