shoshparkin

Hi, I'm about to book an appointment to submit my wife's settlement visa so we can move back to the UK.

I'd originally planned on sending my supporting documents directly to the Sheffield center, but the VFS Japan website is saying it should be done by the scanning service.

I've heard about staff missing a document or two when scanning everything and then visas getting denied.

Has anyone submitted a UK settlement visa at the Osaka office in the last few months and can tell me whether the scanning service is an option or requirement?

thanks very much
Josh

osakamackem

Hi Josh,

My Japanese wife and I will be submitting our application to the VFS Osaka office later this week.

I've not read anything at all about the Sheffield centre; my understanding has always been that we have to apply through VFS Global Osaka, who pass our application to the British Embassy in Manila, where the decision will be made.

Just quickly looking around for confirmation of this now, and I can't find anything on the website, apart from this mention in the FAQs on the VFS Global Japan webpages:

So a suggestion of the role of Manila there. I might well have this wrong, but it's the assumption I've been going on for some time now!

osakamackem

One more from me.

Despite what I've written above, just come across this, which suggests that - yes - application has to be posted directly to Sheffield:
UK Visa Information - Japan - How To Apply

Still confused, after having been reading about all this for months now!

osakamackem

And another.

So it seems that settlement applications need to be posted to Sheffield:
http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/japan/pdf...an-Eng-New.pdf

Other applications can be scanned from VFS Osaka:
http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/japan/pdf/Annex-A-New.pdf

Although VFS Global state that a scanning service has been introduced 'for all categories':
http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/japan/how_to_apply.html

So I've had it wrong all this time, but I'm still unclear about this.

It's alsol not entirely clear what order these things need to be done. The first link above says you 'may' submit the documents to Sheffield before the VFS Global appointment, but the VFS Global information says you need to take your 'application pack' with you to the appointment.

shoshparkin

Hey Osakamackem,

Yeh I was reading everything I could find about this for days and panicking like crazy, but then realised the answer was right infront of me.
On the homepage of VFS Japan in the Info section this was written

Settlement application - All customers applying for UK settlement, including Priority Visa applicants, must send their supporting documentation directly to UKVI in Sheffield, UK by post. Prior to sending any documentation to UKVI, applicants should make sure that the courier company they are planning to use will deliver to Post Office (PO) Box addresses in the UK. Please click here to view the details.

I guess the reason for this is that settlement visas require so many supporting documents that it's unpractical to use the scanning system.

I think it was in march last year when they closed the manila office and required everything to go to the Sheffield office.

I've just sent off my documents to the UK cause I've got a bunch of stuff from England that need adding before going to sheffield, so I really hope I'm right.

My wife's appointment at the VFS office is on wednesday, i'll ask her to double check with them at the VFS office, and will let you know.

If you've got everything ready here in Japan, it'd probably be safest to take everything to the VFS office, then after the appointment send everything to Sheffield via EMS or DHL.

That's what my immigration lawyer recommended (even he wasn't 100% sure where it was all supposed to go). Unfortunately I had to add the stuff in England so couldn't afford to wait the extra couple of days.

So my wife will take her current passport, all receipts for NI surcharge, Application Fee, Priority Service, The VAF4A application with Appendix 2 and two photo's.

I've also put copies of these in the bundle to sheffield.

As for photocopies, I copied everything and put it in a folder marked 'copies', as instructed by the immigration lawyer.

good luck!

osakamackem

Thanks for the helpful reply, Josh. Much appreciated.

If you could let us know how it goes on Wednesday, that would be a big help. My wife's appointment in on Friday.

I've had my parents posting various documents over here from the UK, thinking everything needed to be submitted at VFS here! Seems like we didn't need to bother with that, and could've done what you've done! What a pain.

I saw that line on the VFS homepage too, and thought it clarified it. But the very next paragraph mentions this scanning service, which confused me again. It seems like they send scans to Sheffield, and then you also have to post originals. And the scans have to be organised accordingly to the guidelines here:
http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/Japan/pdf/Annex-A-New.pdf

So still not 100% sure what to do. As you say, best to take everything to the VFS appointment, and hope they understand and can explain!

Anyway, best of luck to you both, too!

BritInParis

A few observations: Manila is UKVI's 'superhub' for processing applications submitted in Asia and Oceania. A decision was made in around April 2017 to repatriate settlement visa processing from a number of overseas posts, including Manila, to Sheffield. With the usual foresight the Home Office didn't provide enough staff or resources and Sheffield was quickly overwhelmed. The processing was then apparently temporarily returned to Manila to help cope with the backlog. It now appears to have been returned to Sheffield.

osakamackem

Thanks for the insight, as ever, BritInParis. You’re a huge help on this forum.

I’m hoping this return to processing in Sheffield means they’ve got that house in order, and applications are being processed in reasonable time. Fingers crossed!

osakamackem

The combination of scanning service and needing to post application documents to Sheffield still has me very confused.

The guidelines stated here would suggest that all application documents need to be scanned by VFS:
http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/Japan/pdf/Annex-A-New.pdf

And, the way I read it, this would be in place of posting to Sheffield ourselves.

Very unclear indeed... at least it’s only a few more days until we at least know what we’ll have to do.

BritInParis

That document doesn't mention Settlement visas so the assumption is that you'll be posting your supporting documents to Sheffield.

osakamackem

Thanks, BritInParis. That was my assumption too, but the cause for confusion comes from the VFS webpage, which links to that document:

(my bold)

Plus, I called the UKVI fee-charging helpline, and was told that both scanning at VFS and posting to Sheffield would be necessary.

I'm leaning towards thinking that the webpage quoted above is in error, and that I was told incorrect information by the person I spoke to on the helpline. But still, don't feel certain.

shoshparkin

Hey Osakamackem, we went to the VFS office in Osaka yesterday to submit the application.
So yep, all your supporting documents go to the Sheffield center in one package.

bring the applicants passport, VAF4A form with appendix II, any receipts for payment of application and priority service to the appointment.

Make sure all those receipts are copied and put in with the bundle to sheffield, we also sent a copy of the VAF4A and Appendix II to sheffield.

The appointment took around 30mins

good luck getting back to sunny Sunderland

cheers
Josh

osakamackem

So my wife had her appointment today. Everything went smoothly, and the staff were very pleasant. She was in for about 40 minutes.

However, a few of the things which happened kind of contradict some guidelines on the VFS webpages, Home Office webpages, and what I was told when I called the fee-charging helpline. And some things are even different from what Mrs shoshparkin experienced just two days again.

A quick rundown of what happened, in case anyone is interested:

- They only took receipts for the priority and courier service, and the first three pages of the online visa application form printout. Unlike Mrs shoshparkin's experience, they didn’t take Appendix II, or even look at it. They didn’t look at any of the forms they took, nor any of the other documents we took along (we took everything, before sending to Sheffield, as some parts of the website suggest).
- They didn't take Mrs Mackem's previous passport, any passport photos, or photocopies of passport (current and previous). We're now wondering whether to send these over to Sheffield or not?
- They made no mention of the scanning service (when I called the helpline, I was told all documents would be scanned and we'd need to post them to Sheffield).
- When asked if we should include X, Y or Z in our application pack to Sheffield, they said they didn't know what we should include.
- They told us the passport will go to Manila, and we were given a tracking number for when the passport is sent back (this is the courier service we paid extra for).

They told Mrs Mackem that a decision would be made by Sheffield within 30 working days of their receipt of our application documents (we paid priority service). And then it would be another 4 working days until the passport was sent out.

In sum, I was expecting that this whole process would be unclear, but I'm kind of shocked by how poor the lines of communication between VFS and UKVI seem to be. It does explain why so much information on the VFS webpages isn't clear - they just don't seem to know. I'm a little worried that they didn't take everything I really expected they would (e.g. Appendix II form, previous passport, passport photos), but I guess we just have to trust that they got that part right.

This forum has been a huge help so far, so thanks for everyone whose responses have helped us get to this stage. Fingers crossed it's a bit quicker than they've suggested it will be!

smashcut

Just to add to the above, my wife had her biometric appointment in Tokyo yesterday and was told that they stopped offering scanning for settlement visas towards the end of December.

The information on the site is still vague enough to be confusing, not least because they swapped out a PDF that had previously included scanning as an option for settlement visas, for one with that line removed at some point.

It looks like this might be happening in a few places. I've seen threads here and elsewhere with this same experience in Australia, Japan, and Taiwan, so I guess they've decided it isn't well suited to the heavier documentation required for settlement visas.

They copied the first three pages of her application, took her fingerprints and photos, and that was that. The meeting took twenty minutes.

I'm not sure now whether to use the sections/barcodes from VFS, or go with the older approach of sequencing the documents, as this isn't really explicitly stated anywhere, either.

MariaJon

send it to sheffield