PrairieWriter

Alright folks, it's go time!

We're sitting here filling out the Settlement — Husband visa application online (that's got to be the right one, correct?!), which mercifully has a "save" button on the side of it, meaning we can come and go as we please. We have a few questions (I don't think any of them are major, but we want to make sure we dot the i's and cross the t's):

Before we begin, thank you in advance for your patience with me and I'm very sorry if I seem a bit paranoid! The stakes are always high, aren't they, when it comes to immigration.

1. Place of issue for hubby's US passport: USA? (there's no specific place listed)
2. Not enough room to write "US Department of State" in the "Issuing Authority" box, so I've put "US Dept of State"—is that okay?
3. I thought we'd have to send all his prior passports in (from the beginning of time), but apparently they only want travel docs from the past ten years. Does this mean we can keep his older passports rather than sending them in, or should we send them in to be on the safe side?
4. In the Travel Information section: we're all planning to travel from here to the UK together, so I have put my name and our daughters' names in here. In the "Visa Held" box, I've chosen "Not Required," as we're already British citizens and hold British passports. Does that all sound correct?
5. As an answer to the "How long do you intend to stay in the UK?" we've put "Permanently." Is that the right answer?
6. In the "Name of Person/Hotel" in the UK address section, should I put my mum, as she is currently living in the house we own? It's our home and we own it outright, but she is taking care of it for us, so if they were to call there, they'd get her on the phone.
7. Following on from the above, in the "Primary contact number" for our UK address, should I put my mum's mobile number? This is a tricky one, as we obviously don't have a UK number yet, though we'll take over the landline she has at the house when we arrive. Maybe landline number first and my mum's mobile as the secondary contact number (am I overthinking all this? Probably!)
8. Again following on, whose email should I put in the email box in the UK address section? My mum's? Ours? Nobody's?
9. "Have you ever travelled outside your country of residence, excluding the UK, in the last 10 years? (Have you travelled outside your country of residence, excluding to the UK or a Commonwealth Country, in the last 10 years?)" We've been to Canada, which is a Commonwealth Country, twice in the past ten years but nowhere else except the UK, so the correct answer to that question would be no, correct? No need to list the trips to Canada?
10. In the section about hubby's mother: do they want her married name or her maiden name?
11. In the Employment section, I am assuming that the figure they want is in British pounds? Both hubby and I are self employed and will be going the savings route via Appendix 2. Being self employed, our income isn't the same from year to year, so it's hard to come up with a monthly total. We haven't filed taxes for 2018 yet, but will soon: should I divide the adjusted gross total on our taxes from 2017 by 12 and use that figure, or the projected AGI from our upcoming 2018 taxes and divide that by 12? Is it necessary to be obsessively precise about it, since we're going the savings route?
12. Again in the Employment section, my husband uses his own name for his employer name, as he's an artist. Should we put "self" or write his name out (my goodness, I probably sound really pedantic, don't I!)?
13. Again...Employment: since he's self employed under his own name and we don't have an external studio, it'll be our address and telephone number and email all over again. Is that what they want to see?
14. Sponsor's UK passport "place of issue" is GBR, right?
15. "Where is your sponsor now?" Ummm....sitting on the couch? That is an odd way to phrase a question! Are they looking for a town, a state, a specific address here? We live together at the address we've entered into the application already innumerable times and "your sponsor" is sitting here drinking Earl Grey tea filling out this infernal form!
16. We wrote a short statement of intent to emigrate as a family in the "Additional Information" section, basically stating that we want to remain together and emigrate together as a family unit, met in 2014, got married in 2017, that hubby adopted my daughter in 2017 etc. etc. Is there anything else we should put there? They'll see we're genuine from the evidence we submit, no?

That's it for now. Bless you for reading and thank you for answering if you have the energy to do so!

PrairieWriter

My husband says that this post is probably the longest ever written on this forum. If that's true, I apologize.

PrairiePainter

"Probably" the longest...says Onslow.

Sammy2018

PrairieWriter

Arf arf! Actually, he just had shoulder surgery and can't type very well. We're both following along with the research, though I'll be the one assembling the packet and getting needlessly agitated and hypervigilant.

PrairiePainter

Super smart, thorough, and creatively insightful--there's no one in the world I'd trust more to lead us on this critical visa process research than my lovely wife, PrairieWriter. I'm so thankful for her tireless work on behalf of our family move/logistics. Exciting times ahead!

Sammy2018

BritInParis

1. Whichever city he applied in. If he applied by post then 'USA' will suffice.
2. That's fine.
3. Just his current passport. Send photocopies of the biodata pages and stamps in any previous passports. You can send them all in if there's a lot to copy and you can't be bothered.
4. That sounds right.
5. 'Indefinitely'.
6. Just the address if you own the property.
7. The landline number.
8. Yours if it's web-based, e.g. Gmail, Hotmail. If not then leave it blank.
9. Canada is a Commonwealth country so if that's the only place your husband has been other than the US and the UK then 'No' is correct.
10. "Family/Last Name as stated in the passport or travel document."
11. Give the currency you are paid in, i.e. USD. Give whatever the gross average will be for the last 12 months if possible. It won't really matter if you're using cash savings to meet the financial requirements.
12. Just give his name.
13. Yes.
14. GBR is the country code. If you applied to the UK then 'United Kingdom'. If you applied via an embassy then write the city in which the embassy was located. Issuing authority will be IPS, HMPO, etc..
15. 'Living with me with in Bumsville, KS' is fine.
16. That's fine. You can either use that section to give that information or write a covering letter.

PrairiePainter

PrairieWriter

BritInParis, thank you so much for answering all my questions so thoroughly! Both hubby and I really appreciate your input. We feel confident that everything is filled out correctly on the online VAF now, so we'll go ahead and submit that tonight. Then it'll be on to the biometrics appointment—oh, and of course we need to fill in Appendix 2 this evening as well. What a behemoth that form is! Will be back with a list of final documents etc. to ensure we submit everything we ought to submit.

Thank you again for your kind reply and for sharing your knowledge with everyone on this board. It's sincerely appreciated!

PrairieWriter

All submitted and paid for etc! Tried to make an account with VFS Global, but there's an internal server error going on, so I suppose we'll have to wait for them to fix it tomorrow before paying for the return envelope/priority service etc. Bummer! Wanted to get it all done tonight!

Never mind. Will work on the enormous Appendix 2 instead...guffaw...

PrairiePainter

PrairieWriter

Good Lord, this application and supporting evidence is seriously going to use up half a ream of paper. Does everyone send in a massive stack of printed paperwork or is it just us? My goodness! Hubby suggests we measure the width of the stack when we're done!

Coming soon to a forum near you: a post containing a checklist of what we're submitting. Hubby has his biometrics appointment on Friday, and we're gathering all the evidence together so that we can both upload it to VFS Global and simultaneously pay for a priority application. With this Brexit business, we think we'd better be extra careful. I'll send everything to the scanning hub as well, again for diligence's sake, but also because I'm slightly paranoid about VFS Global's server technology (the US VFS Global site wouldn't accept new registrations all weekend because of a server issue). Watch this space...

BritInParis

You shouldn’t have all that much if you’re going down the savings route. What’s making up the bulk of your paperwork?

Sammy2018