I got married in the Philippines last year we had a civil ceremony. I didn't go to the british embassy prior to the wedding as I thought having a dual citizenship it will be ok not to. In our marriage certificate it says my citizenship is filipino. Would this be a problem? I am so worried now..
As a dual national you can’t get diplomatic help from the British government when you are in the other country where you hold citizenship. For example, if you hold both British and Philippine citizenship you can’t get diplomatic help from the UK when you’re in the Philippines https://www.gov.uk/dual-citizenship
ahh thank you so much. Just lost hope there for a minute! Thanks a lot! And also. A friend referred me to a British lawyer in the Philippines to help me process everything. She said I need to pay them £1200 processing and £900 visa fee :/ Do you think it's worth it? As I have no idea of what I'm doing at the moment/where to start at the moment.
Read through posts on bf http://www.british-filipino.com/ind...he-philippines-and-settlement-in-the-uk.9718/ become familiar with requirements, importantly your british spouse meets required financial requirements. If all then makes sense, then could end up saving £1200
note: you still need to do the gathering of info for visa application lawyer / immigration adviser offer assistance with no guarantees DIY applications are ok for none complex cases
Apply for the visa yourself and save yourself hassle and more importantly money, it costs a lot of money to get the loved one to the UK and the further visas beyond. If you apply for the visa yourself you will have full control over what is happening, and at the end of the day it will be you who is doing all the hard work gathering all the required documentation and paperwork. If you need any help on filing the application, all the required information for a successful visa application is contained within this forum, you just have to dig around a little as I'm sure you've already been doing. You can of course post any questions you have here at BF and someone will help you using their experience of the process. Good luck
Paying for a visa agency is like giving money and you still have to do it yourself. All they have to do is give you a list and comply everything. The information mentioned above by our good friends is right. Doing it yourself saves you a lot of money.
Visa Agencies can help you, though, as long as you use a good one. If you do decide to get assistance then there are some people here (myself included) who can point you in the right direction. A lawyer will not be the best option, and will cost more too. A good agency would charge about £750. Certainly not £1200. And will probably have more of an idea of what is required. But, as others have said, people here will be happy to give you most of the same information we have gained from our own experiences as you would get from an agency.
It is personal preference whether or not to use an agent, I was thinking of using one myself before I came across BF, without a site like this I would find the visa process very daunting indeed. The best thing about this site is that it helps enormously to get you underway with the visa process and to get your mind-set right which is extremely important for a successful visa application. I really do not think there is a reason to use an agency, all the information required for a visa is contained within. The visa process and everything that goes with bringing the loved one here is very expensive and any the money saved doing it yourself can be much better spent I'm sure.
