3 months almost gone

[john sergison]

morning all

well we have just passed 11 weeks now waiting for my 10 yr old step daughters visa .

has anybody else gone past the 12 week target for processing visa??

who would be correct to contact UKVACS or visa dept HIGH COMMISSION??

what is the longest time anybody on this forum has waited??

have a good day all
john

[joebloggs]

you've already asked b4

i waited nearly 3 months, and becuase i wasn't getting anywhere with emails to the embassy and with my missses calls to the embassy , i emailed every manager i could at the embassy, telling them why i was getting , next day the misses and our daughter got a call to collect their visa's ..

m months is a long time for a visa for a child, what could thier excuse be, doing 'local checks' for a 10yr old

[islander]

that's sad news!

although I'm still on my 6th week, but I'm expecting it to arrive hopefully on the 8th week, like that of Sephean. But knowing this situation, makes me worried now about my application.

But we'll still hope for the best, one day our visa will arrive in the right time!

[john sergison]

yep i know i asked before but as you can see by the other post this lucky lady put in her application for a fiancee visa more than 2 weeks after i submitted my stepdaughters visa app and they are lucky enough to be granted it before we hear anything .

so i was just putting out the feelers .

but i think i will do the same as you and email everyone at embassy because it is odd that a 10 year old kid is waiting this long.

john

[joebloggs]

yes that sad, making a 10yr old wait 3 months ,,, has she been asked to attend an interview ? i take it from your post she has not..

might be worth a try sending a nice email to these email addresses..

manilavisaenquiries @ fco . gov . uk
consular.manila @ fco . gov . uk
management.manila @ fco . gov . uk
uk @ info . com . ph

good luck

[andypaul]

yes that sad, making a 10yr old wait 3 months ,,, has she been asked to attend an interview ? i take it from your post she has not..

might be worth a try sending a nice email to these email addresses..

manilavisaenquiries @ fco . gov . uk
consular.manila @ fco . gov . uk
management.manila @ fco . gov . uk
uk @ info . com . ph

good luck

Great Advice

Also may be worth asking your MP to ask on your behalf if it carries on much longer.

Three months is a long time even for the summer

[john sergison]

thanks for those email addresses joeblogs.
just gettin abit !!!!!!off with them .

john

[Shamrockdave2003]

Joe did you get any responses from those email address's which one was the best?

SD

[joebloggs]

well it was more than 3 yrs ago

but i'm sure the reply i got was from the management one,

oh yes i got a reply, it was CC email to another manager, saying i wasn't having any luck with embassy staff, and could they help me out..

both guys had british names, and within a day my misses got a call from the embassy telling her to pick her visa's up..

it's finding and getting hold of the right person to make something happen , maybe i was just lucky, but i was really getting ..

[andypaul]

I used ManilaVisaEnquiries @ fco. gov.uk

And at first i got a reply from one eco (the name was familar from another applicants report of an interview at the same time) saying they were out of office.

A little later the manager replied

her name at the time was j lewin

As you know many companies used the format

Jbloggs @ fco.gov.uk for example

I have no idea if she is still there?

but a quick google shows there is a

ANDY BATTSON, ENTRY CLEARANCE MANAGER, BRITISH EMBASSY, MANILA, PHILIPPINES

mentioned on vfs global website.

Whoops should have mentioned this auto response was from Jlewin back in 2005.The football distracted me last night.

What i was getting at is they themselves have guidelines that they should reply within 20 days (i presume they dont have blackberrys that or
really fat fingers)

Now i got a auto response straight off which had written among other things

Thank you for emailing the Visa Section at The British Embassy Manila. All correspondence will be replied to as quickly as possible within our best practice guidelines of 20 working days.

I would if nothing is heard by late monday start to get in contact with your MP they should be able to ask on your behalf and from what i read they normally get an answer very quickly not always the right answer for you but are rarely ignored.

A manger in an office in the british embassy will not want a complaint or an MP kicking up a fuss for most they want a better posting so will not want to blot the copybook.

[joebloggs]

well said andy

it shows sometimes how the embassy drag things out, near 3 months for a child, i just hope they don't ask her to attend an interview after all this waiting..

her life and her parents life are on hold waiting..

as for auto responses, that's what made me , i would receive an email from someone, then i would reply, and then i would receive an auto response saying that they were on holiday for 2 weeks, on a training course, out of office from different people, after a few weeks i had enough , getting a reply from a different person, then sending a reply only to get nowhere

my email wasn't nasty, but i do remember saying something like ' if you're going to reject the visa application, just do it, so we can get on with our lifes and end this wating game, so we can start an appeal..' also 'is everyone on holiday, on a training course, out of office' i was really by then..

[andypaul]

well said andy

it shows sometimes how the embassy drag things out, near 3 months for a child, i just hope they don't ask her to attend an interview after all this waiting..

her life and her parents life are on hold waiting..

as for auto responses, that's what made me , i would receive an email from someone, then i would reply, and then i would receive an auto response saying that they were on holiday for 2 weeks, on a training course, out of office from different people, after a few weeks i had enough , getting a reply from a different person, then sending a reply only to get nowhere

my email wasn't nasty, but i do remember saying something like ' if you're going to reject the visa application, just do it, so we can get on with our lifes and end this wating game, so we can start an appeal..' also 'is everyone on holiday, on a training course, out of office' i was really by then..

I guess things can get lost/stuck in the system and worth just asking and reminding goverment workers of their duties and obligations.

[joebloggs]

i don't know the reason why they take their time, 3 months is just tooo long,
funny when i sent the email thou, i'm sure i sent it 7am so it would have been 4pm+ in the phils., but it was less than 24hrs b4 my misses got the call from the embassy..

[IainBusby]

Hi John,
I also wrote a few polite but slightly sarcastic emails to the British Embassy in Manila when we were waiting for my wife's visa to come through and at the time the best address to use i found was ManilaVisaEnquiries.manila@fco.gov.uk.

As Joe said, you quite often get an automated "out of office" reply first, followed by a real reply with a real person's email address, but if you then reply to that email, you usually get the automated reply again followed by a reply from a different person. I definitately think it's worth doing though as it seems to make things happen.

Iain.