Algorfa1950

Thanks, that is really helpful. I will be applying in Manchester and I did read online on their website that you could leave an A4 envelope with "Special Delivery" stamped on it and they will return your passport to you, no mention of the Visa. Yet the woman who was helping us with the paperwork said they won't do that and will only send it back if you pay £25 each for the return, again no mention of the Visa being returned. To be honest even though we have paid her £1641 to do the paperwork and advise us, it feels like we are doing most of the work and I have found it most stressful, more stressful than moving house or dealing with a death in the family !!

PoloMarco

The visa is stuck into the prerequisite blank page in your passport. So if granted the visa it will come back in your passport. Maybe now they just charge for the return rather than managing lots of RMSD envelopes. Go with what your advisor suggests then complain if they’re wrong - they are supposed to be the experts!
I’d be interested to know who they are privately - message sent.

1sexsmith

It is very true that we often pay alot for services that essentially involve ourselves doing alot of the hard work and the service often just then sending the paperwork to a government department. For instance, I needed an apostilled death certificate. There are lots of firms suggesting that they will make everything easy if you use them. One quoted me £80 but I still had to send the certificate registered post etc. Yet you can just send it direct to UK government through their service where it is £40. There is no difference and the only thing that determines the time is the post service which you can not control. Probate is another example of an extraordinary cost where you do all the hard work such as sending documents to banks, NS&I etc then finding stuff, making copies, getting stuff signed etc. Then you give it to a law firm who just add it all up and fill in the requisite forms and send to HMRC- and for that they charge a fortune. Still you can see why everyone wants to be a lawyer.

Lynn R

My brother and I obtained probate after both our father and our aunt died, and my nephew did the application for Letters of Administration after my sister died without leaving a Will. In all 3 cases the grant of probate/Letters of Administration were granted within 4 weeks and we only used a solicitor for the sale of their houses.

The current probate application fee is 273 pounds (was a little bit less when we did our aunt's in early 2020, as I remember) if the value of the estate is over 5k (free if below that) and there are very clear and comprehensive instructions on what needs to be done and how to do it on the Gov.UK website. I don't know why they bother saying it's free for an estate worth less than 5k really, as banks/building societies usually don't require a grant of probate before releasing funds to the executor(s) if the account is under a certain limit (my aunt's bank said they didn't as it was under 50k) and her insurance company just sent me a cheque for her small life insurance policy - all they wanted was a death certificate, not even a copy of the Will much less grant of probate!

Algorfa1950

Yes I can, it does all seem like a big money spinning exercise for all involved except the customer !

1sexsmith

Yes I can see that it can be done in UK without professional help but I think the complexity of some estates mean many people need help and the average time for probate is meant to be 6 months. Having said that you can't do it without professional help in Spain.

Tom000

Hi,

​​​​​​Did you find your answer to the 790-052 form question, or anyone that more information?

I to used a solicitor and they really live up to there name unfortunately.

Number two on the checklist for the non lucrative visa application is the ex-01 form which I have, plus the 790-052 fee form which I have for myself as have an nie number but can't generate one for my wife as she doesn't have an nie number.

Any help would be great, or if I am not posting in the correct place please advise
Thanks

Algorfa1950

We took both the ex-01 and the 790-062 for both of us which she had completed and yes we paid the fee at the consulate for that and we both have NIE Nos. which we provided at the Consulate.

Hope this helps.

Tom000

Thank you for replying.

Yes we are going to the appointment next week, we believed we had everything then this 790-052 appeared.

Mine was straight forward as I have an nie number, but can't generate a payment page for my wife as it keeps saying invalid number when just using the British passport number.
Guess we will find out next week, thanks getting back wish the solicitor would

Algorfa1950

As I said, we just took the forms as completed by the Advisor but I am sure as you pay the fee at the Consulate they will tell you what to supply if your wife doesn't have an NIE No.

PoloMarco

Similar issue with 790-052 with no NIE when applying for NLV as the NIE would be issued as part of the visa process. So to generate the payment form used a dummy NIE number and submitted at Consulate.

Algorfa1950

Sesems to be a common practice in Spain where they want you to put the cart before the horse when doing essential paperwork and you have to do everything in a certain order! I don't think perhaps they have anyone who actually thinks these things through when they ask for them ! I certainly didn't have my NIE which they asked me for I believe following issue of my S1, because although I have got the S1, I can't obtain the NIE until I am in Spain and I can't go to Spain until I get my Visa granted, but yet again no one seems to take that into account, that you can't do anything really until you get your Visa and you can't get your Visa without all these different pieces of paper and official registered numbers that they seem to think you would already have.😮

PoloMarco

Agreed but the 790-052 form is used for so many payments that require an NIE. In this case it is an IT design failure.
E.g. Validation should verify if the option initial visa is selected, then allow an empty NIE value or verify the value is in the correct format (it doesn’t check the NIE exists!).

Algorfa1950

I agree it needs looking at, more so as the Visa process is already very stressful without having these difficulties which could be avoided if they actually proof checked the forms process for infilling the fields before they put them online.

DLC

But you can apply for a NIE before completing this form. It'll be a NIE for financial matters on a white piece of paper, not a TIE for residency.