Evening all. We have previously had a 6 month tourist visa, in November we got married in San Carlos city, the next step for us is to apply for a marriage visa. We finally have our marriage certificates, our CFO and my asawa receives her passport back with the updated name change at the engbof this month. The immigration lawyer we used for our tourist visa was a total comedy, I won't go into details but needless to say I'm not going to use the same one again. Does anyone have a recommendation?
I'd rather have the security of knowing it is done correctly. I have heard a couple of horror stories
Bigmac is correct. All an immigration agent will do, ask you to collect various documents, put them in a folder and give them back to you to send to the VFS, then charge you at least a thousand quid for something that you have already done.......... That thousand quid or more can be very useful to pay for FLR or ILR later on... We have had heroes that have used such so called immigration lawyers or agents and then coming here to ask why everything went pear shaped... Besides, by doing it yourself would show your Mahal, that you really care, and that goes a long way. My two pence.
When I was applying for my British passport, I sought the help of an immigration agent. My situation was complicated so I decided to go for their help. It's something I regret as I mostly did all the work. All they did really was authenticate/counter-sign and send the documents on my behalf. I was the one ringing up HMPO, sent a letter to Teresa May, contact MPs, etc. I spent about 500 quid for a 30 quid work. Try to do it yourself and just ask around here. A lot of people have already experienced similar situation such as yours.
Do you meet the basic requirement of: - income above 18,600 (payslip, cert of emplpyment and bank stmt to prove it) - accomodation in uk Then you should be okay. Saves you at least £500. Pay that towards the expensive one way ticket or priority (even if its not guaranteed 10 days).
I have been in the same situation as you, we wanted to be sure we got it right. The whole visa application intimidated us and we were too scared we might be refused. We used a travel agent based in the Philippines who caused us unnecessary work, delayed us and added to our stress. We gave up on him and decided to process our application on our own. And yes, we got the visa. The agent was a nightmare, we lost our money on him, and it still makes me agry when I think about what he did to us. Lesson learned, we should have just saved the money for something more important.
no problem. most of us did it without using a lawyer--but do advise it if the individual case is way out of the ordinary. what some members have done--is write up a list of things they are doing or sending--post it on here for others to see and make suggestions.
Ok folks, question #1 ☺️ I have a marriage certificate, we initially had an appointment at the British embassy to give a sworn affidavit. Do I need to get my new marriage certificates acknowledged by the British embassy? Do I need to go back to the British embassy for any reason now we are married. Thanks again Yuri
If I needed an immigration lawerthis is were I would go havnt so far £500 to check your application https://www.freemovement.org.uk/immigration-application-checking-service/
I dont think that is needed. You might need to have it registered at NSO/PSA (which is the registry of birth, marriage and death in ph). Im not sure how long it takes to get there- basically depends how fast your local registry office is in doing its job but it can be few weeks to a few months. I would suggest to start with following: - ask the registry (city hall) when or how long that piece of official paper can come out - and at the same time, open and account with ukvi and try navigating the spouse visa application form and requirements. The form itself is about 70+ pages that takes a bit of time to go through. Try answering the documents so you can do your research/ask questions.
Once you have your Marriage certificate, there is no need to go to the British Embassy. You have to wait 6 months before you can have it registered at NSO/PSA (Sounds like you have done that already if your wife has changed her name in her passport)
As long as you can get that marriage certificate issued by PSA then you should be okay to start your application.
We asked for the rapid registration when we went to city hall after marriage to register local and the NSO was ready within 4 weeks
