I just wanted to give everyone at this forum a great big heartfelt THANK YOU!!!

Just got my fiancee visa today and it was approved!! Thank you for all the advice, useful information and tips. I lodged my application on September 20 and got a text after office hours last Friday to come and pick it up today, the 30th of October so all in all it took 5 weeks and 5 days.

I'd like to share a few tips for the next ones who are planning to go through the same thing...

1. Put original documents and xeroxes in separate piles already as they will ask you to do this (I just saw cinmickey also put this in a recent post). I spent an extra half hour separating the whole stack I brought.

2. For financial documents, the sponsor's financial documents are most important. Whatever financial documents belonging to the applicant are segregated and put together with all the other "supporting documents" and placed at the bottom of your application. I asked "Why?" and the checker replied that it is mainly the sponsor's financial capacity that they consider.
My fiance was worried that his salary alone might not be enough to show so I transferred money into our joint account and showed that. Not entirely sure but I think presenting it this way helped our application a lot since I had a bit more savings than my fiance.

3. Make sure you recheck everything before you get to the fingerprinting/biometric area. I had to go back since I noticed that some of my submitted documents were not ticked in the checklist that was about to be submitted.

4. They don't take the xerox of your VAF2 Form, in case you would like to save a couple of bucks on that! Also, bring an extra xerox copy of the first page of your passport because that is where they will attach your claim stub.

6. I had a post before regarding existing visitor visas. I was wondering if they revoke existing visitor visas once they grant a fiancee visa-- they didn't revoke mine in case anyone else was wondering!

5. Basic stuff: It's cold in there. Bring a shawl, light jacket or something. They have a water fountain inside so no need to bring water. You are not allowed to bring anything apart from your docs into the room anyway. All in all, the new process has cut the waiting time so I'm pretty chuffed about that!

Hope this helps! Good luck to everyone else applying!
I'd also like to ask about the CFO seminar that I have to attend? They just handed me my documents and didn't tell me anything.

Now I know how the other happy couples in this forum feel. I can't think straight! I'm so happy and excited to talk to my fiance... he should be arriving home from work shortly! Time to celebrate!

Warm Regards,
Skye