Well, yesterday I flew back to the UK with the mum in law on one arm. It has been a relativly simple process to get he the settlement visa, but not one I would like to do again in a hurry.
The application was incredibly simple, involving a mere phone call to the CAVA people to come and collect the application paperworks and supporting documents. Their guy actually went through the papers checking each was in order before he took them away, and he was on the phone to the embassy at the time liasing with them over every document that was in the pile. Only when he was satisfied they were in good order did he take them away.
A week later a letter from the embassy stated that they wanted more info on property and savings from the MIL, and this must be produced at an interview, about five weeks after that.
The interview took a whole day, with two seperate viewings on the same afternoon, but the visa was granted and stamped there and then. No going back after a month to collect it.
The CFO was just an informal interview type affair, and the only bit the MIL really remembers was being told to eat all the food on the plane, because it is free!B)
Flying to the UK was relatively painless, though it still baffles me as to why the Philippines has a unique airport system compared to every other country.
The queue for the check-in wended and wound its way the whole length of the NIIA building. I've never, ever seen that sort of thing in other airports.
The check in girls seemed to be using pens for something, despite having a computerised system; a lot of writing was done :blink:
The conveyor system didn't work, and the three zillion bags of OFW going to Dubai were handballed away on luggage trolleys :lol:
Between us the MIL and I checked in 66kgs of bag, and nobody said a word B)
The check in girl did not seem to comprehend that all our 5 of bags didn't need to be piled up in a wobbly tower to weigh them. Doing them seperately and adding the weights together was an alien concept
She had forgotten to give the boarding passes to the previous checked in passenger and she ran off for fifteen minutes to find them, leaving me half checked in.
The midnight flight to Dubai would have been okay, except they decided to wake us all up four hours into an eight hour flight to give us 'breakfast'Any ideas why?? They then turned the lights back off an hour before landing.
Arrival at Birmingham, an hour late, because all flights seem to be an hour late when Filipinos are the principal passengers, was fairly uneventful, and immigration was just a couple of questions over where MIL was going to live.
Customs was a pain, as some hero decided to pick us out of the other 500 passengers to test their new baggage X ray machine on. I tried to keep a smiling face and go along with the joke, but when they asked if I had any problems with it I had to suggest that they might have picked on somebody flying in from Paris or Amsterdam, rather than a couple of passengers, aged 45 and 62, who'd just completed a sleepless 24 hour trip from the other side of the world.
Anyway, we arrived home safely, the ordeal is over, and it only cost me a mere £2500 for the whole operation :( <_< :o .
