JimmyZA

Hi

My wife & I are British citizens by descent, and we have managed to get our children (South African) Settlement Visa's (Indefinite Leave to Enter) for the UK. They have a vignette that is valid until 13 December. We need to collect the BRP's from Belfast (Northern Ireland) and are planning to fly in via Dublin as I have some work to conclude there before heading to Belfast.

I am worried that we might not be able to collect the BRP's or that the visa might not be activated if the children do get processed by any UK immigration system, since there is no border control between Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

I got some information from UK Visa saying we need to take boarding passes for our flight to Dublin with us when collecting the BRP's in Belfast.

1) Can anyone confirm if there is anything else we need to take with us to collect the BRP's?
2) Is there anything we need to do to 'activate' the visa or are the kids fine to come & go from the UK once they have their BRP's?

A quick response would be greatly appreciated as we need to book flights & if we have to go via e.g. London instead of Dublin to get the visa's/BRPs sorted we need to plan accordingling.

Thanks so much for your input.

BritInParis

The vignette in their passports is merely to permit entry to the UK to collect their BRPs. If you are flying into Dublin then they are unnecessary as the RoI does not require SA citizens to have a visa and, as you point out, the Common Travel Area means there are no immigration controls at the RoI/NI border. The advice from UKVI suggests they want to confirm that you did in fact arrive by air into Dublin within the given 30 day period. If that's the official advice then I would take it. Once you have their BRPs then they are free to come and go.

JimmyZA

Super! Thanks for confirming