Ok so its nearly crunch time.

We need to validate before March and we still havent sold the house yet,plenty of interest but no one else can sell their house so its all systems no go

So what i'm interested to know is how close to february ( the month we've chosen to validate ) would you recommend i book a validation trip.We've decided to give the house another couple of weeks before i begin to start looking at a trip.I know february is cutting it a bit fine but i cant really see any other way around it.
Has anyone else out there left it that late before their validation cut off point? How feasible is it to book everything a month or so in advance,i.e flights accomodation etc ? and yes i know its the busiest time of the year !

Oh gawd i've actually go way past the fretting stage,it really is all one big ball ache

Regards

Lee

We booked with Singapore Airlines within 4 weeks of travelling with no problems at all. I really do sympathise with your house situation as we are in a similar boat - need to validate but not sold yet. We've bitten the bullet and are moving at the end of the month and just hope the house sells very quickly after that.

We booked 2 and 1/2 weeks before we went at easter (travelbag flew with qantas) and had no problems!

Our cut off date is also March 13th i think we are flying on Feb 10th but i dont see why you couldnt go a week before the cut off date as long as it is before dont worry.

You mostly get E tickets now so not like you have to wait for the tickets to come in the post or anything, book last minute you will prob get a good deal.

Bear in mind that you can't rely on a sale in any way until contracts are exchanged. A large proportion of U.K. house sales "fall through" before even reaching this point. (unless you are in Scotland where laws are different).

Considering that the Christmas season is nearly upon us, you may need to plan for a validation trip anyway, rather than have panic at the last minute.

We booked flight between Xmas & NY, with no probs travelling at the end of Feb (nearly 2 yrs ago).

One issue with leaving validation to the last minute, is if a member of the family became ill and could not fly - I seem to recall this scenerio about 3yrs ago from someone on expats

Hi Lee

we booked on a Wednesday and flew on the Sunday - the only prob was telling work

hope things come together soon for you

We booked Sunday lunchtime (online) & flew out Tuesday evening with SQ. That was back in May this year. OH validation date was the end of May. (although he had been over the month before - we didn't realise the house would 'go through' as quick as did) I wanted to make sure everything was signed & sealed with the house sale - which took place the Friday before.

I think you'll always get something - whether it's the price you want to pay is a different matter!

We booked to Perth a week before going. We also validated our visas 2 month before they ran out.
When we got back we sold our house straight away, so we were back in Perth 8 weeks later.
Should be pretty easy to book anything.

You shouldn't have any problems with February. Shouldn't be busy. School hols are over and everything is back to normal - whatever that is

Awwwwwwwwwww mate sound like your going through it.
Cant really say any more than the others have, just wanted to send you a great big hug.

Amanda x

We are having the same problem selling the house. We need to validate by the 16th March so looks like we will have to do the validation trip as well and then come back and hope this place sell quick. It just seems to be a horrible time for selling houses in Ireland and the UK.

Sandra

That was my main worry about validating at the last minute

Lee

snap :curse:

Dont you get 2 years to validate, from issue of visa?