Spouse Visa Rage (I just need to rant)

Jonbvn

mrcow wrote: »

Still waiting for our citizenship certificates!

It's now been 6 months.

I assume you mean that you are waiting for your application for British citizenship to be approved? Surely you are aware that the certificates themselves are awarded at a citizenship ceremony, which you must attend after your application is approved?

I think that there has been a marked increased in naturalisation applications, due to the forthcoming change in the immigration law. This is waht is causing the delay.

For more info, check out the citizenship forum on UK resident.

mrcow

Jonbvn wrote: »

I assume you mean that you are waiting for your application for British citizenship to be approved?

Nope - we are all already British citizens. And all have British passports.

We are also all Canadian citizens. I already have all my citizenship paperwork and my Candian passport etc.

What I'm waiting for is my children's Canadian citizenship certificates to come through so that they can prove their entitlement to citizenship and apply for Canadian passports etc. if they ever wanted to in later life.

I've been waiting since January and they are still being processed. All the documentation has been sent off to Nova Scotia......it's been a long old wait!

mrcow

Well it's official - my children have their Canadian citizenship certificates. They came in the post today.

It took 14 months!

Whew. At one point I thought they'd lost the applications.

The wheels certainly do turn slowly.

chewmylegoff

nzmegs wrote: »

Hi, As a NZer I totally sympathise. The process for me was quite straight forward as I am from a "colonial" country and have vcertain rights to be here (my grandparents were born here). After marrying I wanted to get a UK visa. I have lived here for 11 years, my children were born here, my husband is a UK citizen and all I want is to be able to walk through the same entrance when I enter the country as my family.
But I have to pay around £1000 to do so. I can't afford it and so have to remain a NZ citizen when I really no longer want to be. Why is it so expensive?
Just another rant to add to yours.
Hope you and wife get it sorted. it really is a difficult process. I guess to put people off!

just to take this point completely literally: i am british and my oh is australian (she now has LTR but previously was on a 5 year work visa). after a couple of times of getting fed up with her getting caught up in queues behind people with no english at all entering on student visas, we just started queuing together in the "british and EU passports" aisle. We just say we're travelling together so we queued togehter - the immigration staff are always fine with it.

Maybelline_Eyes

I realize the original post is oldish now, but just to echo Chewmylegoff's post: I'm a Brit and my husband is an Argie, and we both do exactly the same.
On his first visit to this country he was absolutely grilled by immigration but on his next visit when he told them he was getting engaged they were entirely different! Since we married and he got ILR they've been fine with him coming through the Brits/EU queue with me, he just needs to complete a small form. Can't remember what that's called but i believe it's the one they give out on the aeroplane.
Congrats mrcow! That needed some patience!

clairehi

I know its too late for the OP but in cse its of use to anyone else applying for a visa.

I would strongly recommend paying the extra £200 to obtain the visa in person. It vastly speeds the process up as you can normally get an appt in a week or two, removes the uncertainty of not knowing how long it will take, and also you dont have to hand over your passport and other docs for weeks on end.

we recruit a lot of people who need visas to work in the UK and we have had some real nightmares waiting for months on end for a postal application so we now pay for the applicant to get their visa in person.

morocha

Maybelline_Eyes wrote: »

I realize the original post is oldish now, but just to echo Chewmylegoff's post: I'm a Brit and my husband is an Argie, and we both do exactly the same.
On his first visit to this country he was absolutely grilled by immigration but on his next visit when he told them he was getting engaged they were entirely different! Since we married and he got ILR they've been fine with him coming through the Brits/EU queue with me, he just needs to complete a small form. Can't remember what that's called but i believe it's the one they give out on the aeroplane.
Congrats mrcow! That needed some patience!

Im Argentinian too !!... they are always nice to me when we go to europe.. they always say "welcome home" etc.. but i never go over the UK/ EU nationals.. i am not a uk citizen( i am a uk resident), i kept my argentinien nationality, i have to complete the card and give it to them . but always go thru other nationalities, which is always empty if ur coming from europe.. and my oh and dd pass with me, so any of us have to wait the long queues for the Uk/ eu nationals.. heheheh

old_motters

clairehi wrote: »

I know its too late for the OP but in cse its of use to anyone else applying for a visa.

I would strongly recommend paying the extra £200 to obtain the visa in person. It vastly speeds the process up as you can normally get an appt in a week or two, removes the uncertainty of not knowing how long it will take, and also you dont have to hand over your passport and other docs for weeks on end.

we recruit a lot of people who need visas to work in the UK and we have had some real nightmares waiting for months on end for a postal application so we now pay for the applicant to get their visa in person.

My wife and I did this as I needed my passport for business travel. It makes sense to get it over and done with as quickly as possible.

I would also seriously suggest that you hold on to every piece of paper, photo, bill or whatever that has both partners names on it. The immigration people were ruthless with my wife during her citizenship interview. Both partners should go even though only the applicant is required.

Maybelline_Eyes

morocha wrote: »

Im Argentinian too !!... they are always nice to me when we go to europe.. they always say "welcome home" etc.. but i never go over the UK/ EU nationals.. i am not a uk citizen( i am a uk resident), i kept my argentinien nationality, i have to complete the card and give it to them . but always go thru other nationalities, which is always empty if ur coming from europe.. and my oh and dd pass with me, so any of us have to wait the long queues for the Uk/ eu nationals.. heheheh

Hehe good thinking!
Yep, my hubby's not a UK citizen either so i suppose we could do it the other way round like you and i go through with him and avoid the queues.
His mum and dad are coming over for a holiday with us in a couple of months. They've never even flown before, so we're trying to give them info a little at a time otherwise it's all too confusing!

morocha

I know,, as long as he has his passport on hand and fill the paper in... they will ask if he is there alone or not... and ask you too come over that side.. they always do this with my oh and my dd, although they are British.

My mum is coming next year ... everythings will be quite new to her, do they speak in english ? they will ask many questions from them unless they have a "big" bank account. Do you know if the need tourist visas to make everything easier ? Went i came over here in 2005 i did not need one, came with an invitation letter.. they had me for 3 hs in detenion as they were trying to find out everything about me ( no bank accounts, no cards.. i had no money, my bf invited me over).

Last time i checked you can get one paying for £30 i think if you have family here, just to make the process straighforward i will get one for my mun as she can not speak in english and they can be quite intimidating.