pb3

Hi Everyone,

Around 3 months ago my wife, who lives in the Caribbean, applied for a settlement visa to join me in the UK.

Our lives went on hold for the next 3 months while we awaited a decision. My wife has just been advised by the local British High commission to attend to collect her passport.

The good news is that her application was successful and the spouse visa has been granted. However the bad news is that the visa was actually approved in Sheffield 3 weeks ago - and the 30 day clock started ticking.

This means that my wife has only 7 days remaining in which to arrive in the UK! On complaining she was told "sorry but tough luck - you either have to arrive in the UK within the next 7 days or pay for an extension"

I'm not amused. Purchasing an airline ticket for travel within such a short time frame will be costly, but more importantly this does not leave my wife much time to sort out her affairs before she travels. The alternative is to cough up over £200 I believe to obtain a 30 day extension.

So my queries

1) Is there any mileage in our raising a complaint in the hopes of the extension fee being waived - given that there was a 3 week delay before she was actually notified of the decision? I assume we would have to complain to Sheffield?

2) Assuming my wife manages to get on a flight - would she be able to stay for say a month or so intially - return to the Caribbean for a couple of weeks to sort out her affairs and then return to the UK without penalty?

The whole process of applying for a spouse visa and the waiting is traumatic. I am overjoyed it has been granted but the 7 day travel window seems rather unreasonable given the 3 week delay before she was notified.

BritInParis

Providing your wife can get a flight to the UK within the next week and spend enough time in the UK to collect her Biometric Residence Permit then she can return to the Caribbean to finish sorting out her affairs for up to six months without it affecting her status in the UK.

pb3

Thank you for the fast response, and for answering my second query. This is most likely the route that we will be forced to go.


I'm puzzled as to the 3 week delay as according to what I've read, the applicant's passport is retained at their local British High Commission while the application is processed in Sheffield. When the decision is made the local High Commission is notified by Sheffield, and they (local high commission) place the visa in the applicant's passport.


Of course not everything on the Internet is fact, so the above may all be cobblers


I'm simultaneously overjoyed that my wife will be joining me but also fuming at the 3 week delay that lead to this.

BritInParis

I highly suspect that is cobblers. The whole point of visa section repatriation was to save money by no longer hiring staff and leasing buildings overseas which is expensive. Having an office of people sitting around waiting to print visa labels whilst the decision is made elsewhere doesn't seem likely especially as an ECO is going to want to see the applicant's passport.

Far more likely was that Sheffield issued your wife's visa three weeks ago and there was a delay in getting the passport back to the local High Commission (Bridgetown?) especially if it was going by diplomatic bag.

michali

Actually that is how I understand it to work too! Two years ago we applied through Jamaica so it was all done there but last year my friend applied for ADR (of course she was not granted the visa) but her supporting documents went to Sheffield and her passport went to and was returned from Jamaica. Sounds daft but that is how it happened. You would still need more staff to go through documents and make important decisions than to just stamp the odd passport in between your other responsibilities!

Good idea to travel quickly and then return to wind up affairs but pretty expensive!

pb3

I've had nose around the Home Office website and have found a complaints form. It is also possible to send a complaint via email.

Info on complaints can be found at this link

However I have accepted the fact that the best option is for my wife to come over in the limited time before the entry window runs out. I'm certainly not happy about it, but the fact is that a complaint can take several weeks to be progressed with no guarantee that it will result in the extension fee being waived or refunded.

I will file a complaint with the Home Office. The current "30 day" system is in danger of being viewed as a money spinning racket given scenarios like mine are possible.

BritInParis

Intriguing. I will do some digging.