As we wait for the results of visa applications been reading around in various forums about the process and wondering about the start date of the vignette as trying to do some planning assuming a positive outcome. Does anyone who has got vignette remember if the start date is as the application or 7 days before the date you put in as travel date (have read somewhere that this happened but cant find definite info). For travel visa the date we put in was the date of the start of the visa and I had assumed the same would apply this time. I ask the question as need to plan in time to get the cfo sticker/register (wife has gcs certificate and stepchildren are under 13) and as I'm going to be in philippines from 22nd December to 31st December would like if possible for everyone to go back. If vignette start date is earlier then may be easier to get cfo sticker done but eats into time gave to be in uk by. Our time line. Application date online: 23rd September2018 Application planned travel date: 26th December 2018 Biometric date: 2nd October 2018 Documents received in sheffield: 9th October 2018 Email about error in charging for step children IHS: 31st October 2018 Emailed ukvi to ask for confirmation that have recieved documents:7th November 2018 Email from ukvi to say application is in process: 13th November 2018 We emailed back that we wanted to confirm they had received documents not to know whether application was still being processed: 13 November 2018 Email that query was being escalated: 16th November 2018 Email apologizing for delay in responding: 22nd November 2018 Documents received back: 24th November 2018 The wait continues although if 12 week time is from 2nd october biometric will be 24th December before find out. Documents have come back with usual covering letter that everything had been scanned. What did not expect was everything rearranged from original order of three separate sections of supporting documents for wife and two step children in line with the three different visa application numbers. Interesting is where a number of items that were separate in submitted documents are now grouped together - tb certificates, birth certificates. Part of me thinks they have been used as working copies and now no longer needed as opposed to a simple scan and return operation, which is what I thought happened, although possible that the scanning operation has logic applied and groups relevant documents together. Anyone else have experience of documents being reordered or is that normal.
For our fiance settlement visa application, I requested a travel date of Dec 4th. When my fiancée received her visa, it was valid from 27th November.
Oh and in regards to the order of returned documents... If our application had been thrown into a wind tunnel then gathered by a blind goat, they'd have been in a more sane order. We had application letters mixed in with our photo album, proof of premium payment in with my salary slips etc.
Lol. Like your description of returned document order. Kind of feels the same although some key documents did get grouped together. Thanks for the info on dates. Looks like matches what I had read else where. Was it only valid for 30 days from the 27 November ? Or was it valid for 30 days from 4th December. If end up with former will make things a bit more tight although if get lucky and get positive result before I go out then may make things easier in terms of getting CFO sticker and going back with me. Assuming can get everyone on same flight. Got to live in hope with these things.
Hmmm, you know, I never actually considered the 30 day travel window, as my plan was always about going to get her ASAP. Looking at the visa (she sent me a photo of it), it just says VALID FROM: 27/11/18 VALID UNTIL: 27/05/19 NUMBER OF ENTRIES: MULT It doesn't actually say any where that she has to travel within 30 days.
Thanks for that. Hope the marriage plans all go well. Six months go quickly when you have to organise a marriage. Don't think you have the same issues with the fiance visa - sure the 30 day vignette is only for the family settlement visa's from the philippines (and other countries). From my understanding of those they have a valid from and valid to duration of 30 days and have to land in UK within that window. The vignette is purely for travel to UK purposes and is separate to the visa duration which is set by the biometric residence card (BRP) that you get in the UK after arrival as opposed to the vignette sticker in the passport. Your fiance won't get the BRP until the visa application after you get married. Useful to know the dates for her visa as earlier than planned travel date by about 7 days, it is valid for the full six months which is the full duration of the finance visa and six months from start to end so no extra days even though it starts earlier than your planned travel date. We got the marriage visitor visa (have to leave the UK at end) and the first day on that was the day we put as arriving in the UK. So that is a difference in process between temporary visa's and settlement visa's I suspect that the fiance and settlement visa start dates are set earlier than normal visitor visa's - which from what I have heard of the CFO process is probably necessary to ensure that can get the CFO sticker in time for your planned travel date (as I understand it you can't get the CFO sticker until the visa start date). Have to see if anyone else responds on whether their visa's started earlier than stated travel date especially if they had the 30 days vignettes for the spouse visa. I'll do my planning on the basis for now that I have had the travel window get tighter by potentially 7/8 days.
I to was interested to know if the Vignette sticker start date is different to the date of travel day in the application, the 30 days makes things a little awkward in arranging time off work, collecting her CFO sticker, and arranging Flights, my wife wants me to fly over to meet her, and travel back together, we had planned to spend a few weeks in Thailand.. I really cant believe how awkward UKVI makes things, it takes 6 months to meet the financial requirement, up to 3 months waiting for a decision, then they expect all travel arrangements to be made in 30 days, they enjoy having a laugh dont they..
I'm coming to the conclusion that start date will be in advance of planned travel date but waiting to see if anyone adds any more. Assuming we get our visas early I'll post that info. Only time really works is if you apply six months in advance of planned travel date and get three months after application. That would give you time to organise move from another part of world and tidy up. CFO is another annoyance as I understand they won't give sticker until after visa start date which also eats into the travel window.
