Sorry, this is so important, I think it deserves a new thread.

Does anyone know, if unsuccessful, do they return all your documents, if not, i will need to get everything again ready for next year...THIS IS IMPORTANT

IELTS REPORT
House valuation
Mortgage statement
copies of passports and birth/marriage certs -all certified.
photos
reference
qualifications -all certified true copies
police checks

i had forgoten how much work went into this.

Someone must know for sure.....please help.

If your pack misses the NOC quota, then the full pack is returned to you. If your pack goes into quota but they decide you are not eligible, then no, these documents are not returned. Always, always keep a full copy of what you submit to them.

I'm pretty sure when/if you are successful you never see any of it again. We certainly never saw any returning paperwork. But then I suppose it had done its job.

If you have sent any originals then you can ask them to return them and generally they will do.

If the application is successful, do you get the documents returned after the whole process? I spent alot of money on my notarised copies.

You can request that they return them to you - generally they only return originals. You don't need to get many things notorised these days anyway.

We sent notarized copies of certain docs, plus legal copies of birth and marriage certs and photocopies of other docs. We didn't ask or expect to get anything back, but everything was returned in a pack with the medical requests (apart from photos which they use). We were, however, in the 2007 queue, so perhaps things are different now?

We just had our University transcripts and our birth and marriage certificates sent back when London VO sent the request for new Police checks (old ones were about to run out they had taken so long to process.) August 2011.

So, they seem to send things back if they are done with them and if they need to send you something by mail.

The only documents I got back were my TEF certificates.

Thanks for the info, i only need them back if we fail to get through the quota. We then need to re-apply and would then need the documents back, this would make our life much easier for the reapplication. Again thanks, hope we don't see them again.

No need to post any further, we now have the info. Cheers.

I think they are different now. We got our visa very recently (around 2 months ago) and can confirm that no documents were returned to us at all.

Nowadays I think the only way you get any documents back is if your application is returned as incomplete or if the quota is full. Once it gets past the stage you do not see the documents again.

Since the only originals were PCCs, work references, bank statements, IELTS result and University transcripts I cannot see our needing any of those items again. The rest such as birth certificates/marriage certificates etc were notarized copies.

Wayne.

So they send back original documents for applicants they have not finished processing yet, and fail to send back original documents for the ones they have?

Genius....