How To Apply For A UK Fiance(e) Visa

Hi all,

We're almost finished with our online application.

However, when my fiance clicks at the "Register at Commercial Partner" it goes to the VFS website and we're confused.

How do we go around this or do we need to register in VFS?

Many thanks

I got confused by that too...

I THINK you can ignore that step - from memory, when you complete the Payment step you will be directed to the VFS appointment booking page.

An update to my (or our) fiancée visa application.

I originally expected to have this all done and dusted for October 2017! However, getting my own affairs in order and buying a house delayed things somewhat. The whole house buying process coupled with this visa application have been the most stressful 7 months of my life.

Miss Adobo got her English certificate with ease in the end. Her English has room for huge improvement because I have been a poor teacher. I go down to her level and slip into Taglish rather than try and help her improve. If she can pass the English test, then anyone who can rattle off a few sentences should do OK.

The TB test was done twice because of the 6 month validity. Her test showed no evidence of TB but said there were some irregularities. Nobody seemed concerned by this so I went along with it.

With this done, she sent me the 2 certificates via FedEx. Took 3 or 4 days to reach me in the UK (including a Bank Holiday over Christmas/New Year).

Finally, the application was submitted online on 4th February 2018. A cool $2016 and then PHP40,281 for the Priority Service. I was only going to do this once, so what hell, I paid for priority.

The appointment was made for Miss Adobo to go to VFS Manila on 12th February 2018.

I collated all my documents. This included:
*Her TB and English certificate
*Certificate from Land Registry ordered online which was with me in less than a week.
*6 months payslips.
*6 months bank statements with salary payment highlighted but otherwise demonstrating that I am skint. These were just printed off HSBC's website. I went to the bank to ask them to either stamp my print outs or provide me with official print outs. The guy in HSBC seemed pretty clued up and said their print outs would be identical to what I already had and they would only stamp documents for Russian visas.
*Printed a scanned copy of my passport and got this certified by the Post Office which was £8-9, I think.
*Email for provisional wedding ceremony booking from Blackburn & Darwen Council which cost £50
*About 30 photos (not date stamped) of us both together over the 5-6 years we have known each other. Photos from an array of places including Cambodia, HK Disney, Phuket, Bohol, Palawan, pictures of me at her brother's wedding in 2013 (although truth be told, this could have been me with any bunch of random Filipinos). I wrote a brief description underneath each photo with 3 or 4 apiece sellotaped on A4 paper. I did not include any online chatlogs. I figured if the photos weren't proof enough, then banal chat history on FB Messenger wasn't going to add much to the party.

I sent these documents to Sheffield on 10th February 2018.

Miss Adobo duly attended VFS Manila on 12th February with her ID, passport and Appendix 2. It is then I realised I made a big mistake in not including the Appendix 2 with my own documentation. I had got the wrong end of the stick somewhere and thought this was handed in with the other biometric stuff in Manila. I quickly printed one off, filled it in, and sent it by recorded delivery at 8.54am on 13th February. At 1.36pm, I received an email from VISAINFO.SHEFO@fco.gov.uk which told me :

On 15th February, I received an email telling me that "Your online application has been received at the UK Decision Making Centre. Your application is currently being prepared for consideration by an Entry Clearance Officer." I was fairly sure, but not 100% sure, that this email was in response to receiving Appendix 2. Eventually, I threw caution to the wind and scanned and emailed them an identical version of Appendix 2 on 19th February. I had already messed up, so I might as well mess it up some more by sending them 2 copies of Appendix 2 to confuse the hell out of them.

In the application, I put an intended travel date of 14th May 2018. That might be too early or too late. God knows. It was just sit down and wait.

Waiting until 26th March 2018, that was. I received the email telling me a decision had been made. Miss Adobo got a text some 12 hours after my email. She lives in a poor signal area, so this could have been a fault at her end. As she is living in a an awkward part of the country, we chose not to have the courier service. She took the bus on 27th March 2018 to Manila whilst I was stuck in work with all sorts of thoughts going through my head between 7am-9am. If the application was refused (which could only have been for a technicality), it would be a colossal pain to go through all that again. It would wreck her confidence as well as she has been fielding questions about when she is coming to England for months and months.

Anyway, soon enough I received a photo message showing her visa

Thank Christ for that.

The visa is valid from 14th May, so I regret not putting an earlier date on the application. Ah well. Not the end of the world. Now all I have to do is get things ready for her arrival. An advantage of being new to my house (and deliberately not doing much decorating or buying of furniture) is that it can feel equally like her home rather then her feeling that she is coming to my home.

So from start to finish, it was 50 days in total (or 36 working days) which was certainly quicker than I was anticipating, even with priority service.

Just need to add my thanks to all the contributors on this excellent thread and elsewhere who have helped me during the process. I started out very half heartedly wondering whether I should go through with this and I somehow now find myself on the verge of completing it all! If I could do things differently, I would have got married in the Philippines and done a spouse application instead. However, the fiancée visa will give us both 4 months or so to work out whether she will be happy to settle in the UK and whether we will be happy living together permanently rather than 2/3 week holidays. Should be an interesting remainder of 2018!

another success--well done !




donr forget--the CFO seminar

Congratulations! Don't forget the CFO ...

Hi All,

We have finally submitted the online application and my fiance's VFS appointment is set to next week!

I have one question though, we have set the planned date of arrival in the UK as 28th of July 2018 - when his visa is going to be approved, is this going to be the validity date of his visa???

Anyway, @PorkAdobo congratulations!

Congrats, PorkAdobo...

Something that stands out to me, from your story, is that you received an email advising that your application had been received and was being processed.

I wonder if this only applies to those who pay for the Priority service, as we have received absolutely no communication from UKVI whatsoever? No acknowledgement, no documents returned...!

UPDATE
=======

At last, email received from UKVI acknowledging receipt of the ONLINE application - sent 14/02/18, biometrics sent by VFS on 22/02/18!!! & all 'physical' evidence sent by me on 05/03/18 - at least we now know someone has seen our application...!

Hi All,

After we have submitted the online application, I think we have overlooked something on my details...



I have held another nationality (Filipino) before... We don't want to seem like we are lying...

Do you guys think that this would be a good reason for a visa refusal?

are you filipina ? have you ever been anything else ?

Hi @bigmac

Yes, I'm Filipina but have been naturalized as a British citizen last 2013...

Im guessing she must currently be British but just a guess.

That's right, @HaloHalo I'm currently British at the moment but was of Filipino nationality before.

when did you submit the application ?
either contact ukvi and ask if it can be amended...or be prepared to cancel the application and do a new one.

We just submitted the application yesterday...

Do you know where in the website we can cancel the application?

just google it--i just did.


https://www.gov.uk/cancel-visa

If your intended travel date is July 28 then applying now is TOO EARLY. You can apply no early than 3 months from the date of your travel. Like if you say the intended travel date is July 28 then you can start applying from April 29.

well spotted @Brom27 --i had missed that. yes--the applicant needs to cancel and re apply.

Thank you both for your help and input@bigmac and @Brom27! Lesson learned to double check and confirm everything first especially when it involves a hefty sum of money!

If we cancel the application and re-apply today (29th of March), then do we put the travel date as 28th or 29th of June?

Yes put June as travel date if you re apply now.

Just wondered how others would interpret the following, taken from the confirmation email received from UKVI -

"Please note that UKVI aims to complete all Visit Visa applications within 15 working days and all Settlement Visa applications within 12 weeks of the application date."

Would 'within 12 weeks of the application date.' (for a Fiancé(e)/Settlement visa), mean (a) from the date the online application was sent, (b) the date my Fiancée's biometric data was submitted by VFS, (c) the date UKVI received our physical documentary evidence, or (d) the date of this confirmation email? Bearing in mind there is approximately 6 weeks between (a) and (d), during which time I'm guessing UKVI may not have even opened our evidence bundle!