At what stage in the visa application do we need our passports?
Jun 29th 2013, 5:36 pm
#1
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Joined: Apr 2013
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At what stage in the visa application do we need our passports?
At what stage in the visa application do we need our passports? Question applies to both skilled migrants visa and temporary work visa as we may end up applying for both.
Reason I ask is our entire family need new passports between lost/need replacing/never had one and it's not something we've got round to doing yet. I'm just looking into it now but reading it can take up to 4 weeks in summer. OH has a job interview (via skype) in a week, and in the event of him getting it we'd need to get the EOI sent off right away and then the application off speedily as soon as we get an ITA (if we do), which could all theoretically occur within the next 4 weeks. Unlikely I know but possible - so wondering if we'd be better off getting fast tracked passports just in case. However we'd prefer to avoid the extra cost of doing that if we won't need to show the passports towards the end of the process.
Also: In terms of actually sending off an EOI, how much paperwork is there and is it something we could mostly fill in advance so it's ready to send off once a job offer comes through with no faff? And how about the actual application itself, could we get that done in advance or would we need to wait for an ITA before we can access the forms?
Reason I ask is our entire family need new passports between lost/need replacing/never had one and it's not something we've got round to doing yet. I'm just looking into it now but reading it can take up to 4 weeks in summer. OH has a job interview (via skype) in a week, and in the event of him getting it we'd need to get the EOI sent off right away and then the application off speedily as soon as we get an ITA (if we do), which could all theoretically occur within the next 4 weeks. Unlikely I know but possible - so wondering if we'd be better off getting fast tracked passports just in case. However we'd prefer to avoid the extra cost of doing that if we won't need to show the passports towards the end of the process.
Also: In terms of actually sending off an EOI, how much paperwork is there and is it something we could mostly fill in advance so it's ready to send off once a job offer comes through with no faff? And how about the actual application itself, could we get that done in advance or would we need to wait for an ITA before we can access the forms?
Jun 29th 2013, 8:13 pm
#2
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Re: At what stage in the visa application do we need our passports?
We had this problem. Ours had expired and we hadn't done them. You need passports for the EOI - and they have to be in date (I phoned immigration and checked). We had this delay which is why we have ended up doing the WTR instead. You needn't for the medicals and police checks as well. I'd get them done now to hopefully minimise the delay!
Everything about your story is so similar to ours - spooky!
Everything about your story is so similar to ours - spooky!
Jun 30th 2013, 1:51 am
#3
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Joined: Dec 2007
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Re: At what stage in the visa application do we need our passports?
Not much time so this will be short
The EOI is cheaper if done online, you can fill it in, save it and only submit it when ready.
The ITA is really just a paper version of the EOI with a list of the documents needed so not much extra to fill in. Get all your work experience, relationship and qualification proofs ready now. The police cert has to be <6m old and the Medicals <3m old when submitted. Once submitted they last 36 months so can be reused if necessary (thinking if you need a WTR/work visa to start work before the SMC appl)
I would phone round the panel docs near you to ask about costs and how soon you can get an appt. I wouldn't do the Medicals until you need to if possible, 3m isn't that long and you would need to repeat them if things take longer than hoped for. That's a lot of cash to lose...
Also you'll need the long version of your birth certificates so get them now if you haven't got them
Short and to the point as promised
The EOI is cheaper if done online, you can fill it in, save it and only submit it when ready.
The ITA is really just a paper version of the EOI with a list of the documents needed so not much extra to fill in. Get all your work experience, relationship and qualification proofs ready now. The police cert has to be <6m old and the Medicals <3m old when submitted. Once submitted they last 36 months so can be reused if necessary (thinking if you need a WTR/work visa to start work before the SMC appl)
I would phone round the panel docs near you to ask about costs and how soon you can get an appt. I wouldn't do the Medicals until you need to if possible, 3m isn't that long and you would need to repeat them if things take longer than hoped for. That's a lot of cash to lose...
Also you'll need the long version of your birth certificates so get them now if you haven't got them
Short and to the point as promised
Jun 30th 2013, 2:18 am
#4
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Re: At what stage in the visa application do we need our passports?
fill in the EOI online, easier to track in the long term.
Start getting your evidence together, work references detailing hours, wage responsibilities etc. partnership evidence, if you are married a marriage certificate is not proof of a stable relationship you need joint bills, invitations, holiday bookings proof of shared experiences, photo's etc
If you start doing that now it does save loads of time in this case more information you can provide the better.
agree don't book any medicals yet or get the police check done until you have the Invitation To Apply. but not harm ringing around to get costs.
Start getting your evidence together, work references detailing hours, wage responsibilities etc. partnership evidence, if you are married a marriage certificate is not proof of a stable relationship you need joint bills, invitations, holiday bookings proof of shared experiences, photo's etc
If you start doing that now it does save loads of time in this case more information you can provide the better.
agree don't book any medicals yet or get the police check done until you have the Invitation To Apply. but not harm ringing around to get costs.
Jun 30th 2013, 10:55 am
#5
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Re: At what stage in the visa application do we need our passports?
Ooh thanks so much for the tips. We are on a mad hunt this afternoon for proof of our relationship now.
We have been together about 3.5 years, not married, I can find 25 photos of us together (a handful are from the same day though, so maybe 20 individual occasions) - think that'll be enough? It should be clear it's over a period of time due to ages of our kids in the pics and my OH's ever changing hair!
I am mildly concerned as if someone does the maths you can see our relationship 'officially' started about a month before my middle child was conceived (we were seeing each other for a few months before but didn't announce it or anything until then). I also have a child from a previous relationship. It sounds like something off Jeremy Kyle I know, (we aren't chavs I promise!) but we are in a very secure stable relationship, having been living together for 2.5 years and a few months ago had a third (planned) child. Do you think the dodgy looking mathematics at the beginning of our relationship could work against us?
We've managed to find a couple of bits we've kept from letting agents, tenancy agreement etc. with both of our names on, a couple of joint council tax letters, a few joint tesco clubcard letters, one HMRC thing for us both, one thing from a gas company for both, one wedding invitation for us both, one house warming card (rest are awol)... is that going to be enough do you think? So much stuff seems to have gone missing!
Any other ideas? Oh yeah the other thing, we email frequently when he's at work and I'm at home, have done consistently since months before we were in a relationship. It says provide evidence of correspondence, would printing out a load of this be any good? And if so how much should we print? I don't think I could possibly print the lot as it would be books worth!
And would screenshotting interactions of Facebook be worth anything?
Thanks again for all your help. Worked out last night if we do fast track passports it's going to cost a couple of hundred more than if we do it by normal snail mail so considering just getting a snail mail one applied for on Monday, and hoping that if he gets the job they don't mind waiting another week or two for us to kick off the process - still not 100% decided though.
PS. Ooh I've just thought of another thing, we had a local news article about us a couple of years back about this venture we were planning to try and raise funds to emigrate to NZ. Do you think we should include that - or would it look bad that we were talking about emigrating to NZ so early on in our relationship and like that may be why we've stuck together (which it isn't at all, it just happens to be a dream we've both always shared!)? And also if they wanted to see evidence of the venture we ended up letting the website lapse as we got too busy for it...
We have been together about 3.5 years, not married, I can find 25 photos of us together (a handful are from the same day though, so maybe 20 individual occasions) - think that'll be enough? It should be clear it's over a period of time due to ages of our kids in the pics and my OH's ever changing hair!
I am mildly concerned as if someone does the maths you can see our relationship 'officially' started about a month before my middle child was conceived (we were seeing each other for a few months before but didn't announce it or anything until then). I also have a child from a previous relationship. It sounds like something off Jeremy Kyle I know, (we aren't chavs I promise!) but we are in a very secure stable relationship, having been living together for 2.5 years and a few months ago had a third (planned) child. Do you think the dodgy looking mathematics at the beginning of our relationship could work against us?
We've managed to find a couple of bits we've kept from letting agents, tenancy agreement etc. with both of our names on, a couple of joint council tax letters, a few joint tesco clubcard letters, one HMRC thing for us both, one thing from a gas company for both, one wedding invitation for us both, one house warming card (rest are awol)... is that going to be enough do you think? So much stuff seems to have gone missing!
Any other ideas? Oh yeah the other thing, we email frequently when he's at work and I'm at home, have done consistently since months before we were in a relationship. It says provide evidence of correspondence, would printing out a load of this be any good? And if so how much should we print? I don't think I could possibly print the lot as it would be books worth!
And would screenshotting interactions of Facebook be worth anything?
Thanks again for all your help. Worked out last night if we do fast track passports it's going to cost a couple of hundred more than if we do it by normal snail mail so considering just getting a snail mail one applied for on Monday, and hoping that if he gets the job they don't mind waiting another week or two for us to kick off the process - still not 100% decided though.
PS. Ooh I've just thought of another thing, we had a local news article about us a couple of years back about this venture we were planning to try and raise funds to emigrate to NZ. Do you think we should include that - or would it look bad that we were talking about emigrating to NZ so early on in our relationship and like that may be why we've stuck together (which it isn't at all, it just happens to be a dream we've both always shared!)? And also if they wanted to see evidence of the venture we ended up letting the website lapse as we got too busy for it...
Last edited by tiger mama; Jun 30th 2013 at 10:59 am.
Jun 30th 2013, 8:43 pm
#6
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Re: At what stage in the visa application do we need our passports?
all that sounds about right, the time thing at the beginning won't be relevant you need to show the amount of time you have been together and shared an on going"stable relationship"
Jul 5th 2013, 4:08 pm
#7
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Re: At what stage in the visa application do we need our passports?
We have been together 11 years and married ten. The marriage cert wasn't enough even! We sent a range of photos spanning the years in question with details on each of date / place and that was fine.
You need a passport when you send the final application for the ITA / visa, aim sure it needs to have a certain amount of date left on it too. Bear in mind if its a short date to expiry you will need to pay more from abroad to get a new one and will also have to pay to get the visa moved over too.
You need a passport when you send the final application for the ITA / visa, aim sure it needs to have a certain amount of date left on it too. Bear in mind if its a short date to expiry you will need to pay more from abroad to get a new one and will also have to pay to get the visa moved over too.
