redlion

I am bloody mad! after weeks and weeks of putting together all the forms and papers for my TRA and sending them off to the agent, i recieved an e.mail yesterday to tell me that they are all useless (not their exact words) because i have had them certified by a police officer. I did this becuase their own documentation says that a police officer can do so but to be sure i even ran a thread on here and asked people who had used a police officer to certify, i got replies saying than not only had they used a police officer to certify but to do a stat dec too. So naturaly i took this as an ok to go ahead.

WRONG WRONG WRONG!!

So thats another two weeks, in fact probably a bloody month by the time i re-print and get a solicitor to sign, totally lost and we are still in this bloody place with me working two jobs so i can get the visa and im dropping dead on my frigin feet cos of all the work. Oh and just to top it all off some git stole my credit card number this week and helped themselves to £170 quids worth of phone credit at our expense, boy am i gonna do some tonight!

Sorry, rant over. I feel much better for that.

Thanks, Nev.

gobbyjock

Our TRA stuff was all certified by a Police Officer and we had our TRA go through no probs about October last year (I think can`t remember exact date)

robos

that happened to mate we spent months doing hubbys tra and sent it of to be looked at by an agent they told us it was useless so we spent a further few months doing mine sent it off and got a yes within 7 days.


keep your chin up youll get through it mate

good luck

jan xx

john_w

Extract from the TRA site:

What is a certified document?
A certified document is a copy of an original document that has been sighted and certified by an appropriate officer declaring it to be a true copy of an original.

Who is a certifying officer?
Certifying officers include:

Justices of the Peace (JP)
Commissioners for Affidavits
Solicitors and/or Lawyers
Notary Public Officials
Prominent Citizens
All certifying officers' contact names and details must be clearly stated on any certified documents.

I would contact the TRA ([email protected] ) to clarify if a police officer comes under a notary public official.

lori

its times like now ,When i read this that I,m glad i used an agent,good luck .It still took a long time through.

Alan Collett

Hello Nev.

Details as to who can certify documents as true copies are here:
http://www.gomatilda.com/news/article.cfm?articleid=236

Note that some categories of people can certify documents as true copies in Australia but not in the UK - such as police officers.

Also, it is possible the assessing body in Australia will accept certification from a person who would be acceptable if s/he were in the same occupation in Australia - but possibly not. And that's the risk you run if you submit an application with documents certified as true copies by someone who isn't technically permitted to certify documents.

Better to get it right now than to lodge an application and have it returned because your documents aren't correctly certified, I'm sure you'd agree.

Best regards.

gobbyjock

Not being funny Alan , but when we used GM for our TRA app we had them certified by a police officer and at no point were we told that this could be a problem and we got ours approved by TRA within a couple of weeks.

Alan Collett

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

I will make due enquiry ...

Best regards.

Tuxtrip

What a hassle. Good lesson for others then - choose an agent who does the certifying of documents for you. And the TRA forms.

redlion

Thanks Alan, all done with a solicitor now and papers on their way to you as we speak.

Nev.

boom_meringue

you have to remember that it depends on your TRA, some of them are just out to be as much of a pain in the ass as possible whereas others make it less difficult

phoenixinoz

A thread came up about this some time ago:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...fied+documents

I knew there was a name for someone who had to sign the forms and I couldn't remember at the time. It is a "Notary Public Official"

At the time we were getting our docs signed off, I asked if a Police officer would be sufficient or even a solicitor? I was advised only a solicitor with "Notary public" accreditation could do it, so we eventually found one who was qualified in this field.

At the time the solicitor [with notorary public accreditation] did explain that not all solicitors have these credentials. He said he was however qualified to sign for Australian and USA documents.

I think the thing that confuses people is that some have just used Police officers or solicitors or whoever to sign their documents and they seem to have been accepted. Maybe it is only for certain documents

Chin up and good luck.

It's only a short delay in the grand scheme of things m8

sg1964

Hi All,

We have a similar experience, sent all documents in for a spouse visa, I am Oz by birth so sponsoring my lovely wife and her 2 lads, on advice from various forums I put together the stat dec that the lads father needed to sign , dowloaded off the web, on the listing it had a whole range of person who could sign the dec.........but only if you are living in OZ....DOH !! So not his fault but we have to redo this and ask him to sign again, this time using the smaller list of approved in the UK persons...!

The contact we have had with our case officer in London has been very good and he has been replying to my wifes e-mails within minutes of receiving them

Good luck to everyone getting things signed/certified, and a lesson to me is not to rush and make sure I have read it all properly..

sg1964

TRIMIX

And mine were done by a bobby from West Mids.