I have mixed emotions as I have received an email from my best friend with my kids visas attached. I was so excited because finally I can now finalise their travel arrangements and then I noticed that there is/are annotations on the visa and to my dismay, they have categorised it as C-Visit Child Accompanied and is only valid if either myself or my husband accompanies them i.e. pick them up in the Phils, and then take them back to the Philippines. I know I should be jumping for joy but the thought of spending thousands of pounds for my airfare just to pick them up and then take them back will make a huge dent on our budget! I mean it's alright if you got loads of cash hanging around, a husband with disability, two young kids and oh yeah a business to manage. My husband and I run a small housing association for the disabled, homeless and elderly and it does take up a lot of our time. I clearly emphasised these situations on my letter to the embassy and also to DSWD who has by the way understood our scenario hence they have issued a 2 year travel clearance. My kids are 11 and 13, and we have inquired with Emirates Airlines about their Unaccompanied Minor Service and they said you are not the first and you won't be the last, and they do it on regular occasion. I am just blown that I have to spend thousands of pounds, I mean I am not putting any price but the money that we would spend on my airfare could be put on better use. I rang UKBA who was very helpful and they said that although the condition of their visa states that it is only valid if accompanied by me or my husband, we are expected to accompany them but it is not mandatory. It is the discretion of the receiving port whether they would allow it or not and also the airlines. I didn't want to take any risk so my husband rang emirates who was also very helpful and said they are surprised that the UK Embassy made a remark as Accompanied when their situation is not isolated and they accompany minor children who are even younger than my 2 kids as long as they are not 5 years old and below. Emirates then reserved their seats for Dec 15 and requested us to send an email detailing their visas, passport and their contact person. They are going to have words with the Manager of UKBA in Manchester Airport and I am hoping that they allow them to fly without me or my husband. If approved, they will put this in writing and inform the relevant authorities as we don't want to take any chances, as my middle name is complicated. I just would like to share this story as I know that my story won't be an isolated case and hopefully UKBA allows them to travel on their own. I don't have that huge money to fork out for my airfare and hopefully this time they can see it from my side.
Hi! If you don't mind can you share the outcome of your predicament? I have a similar problem now. My 12 year old daughter and her 14 year old cousin will be travelling to the UK this summer to spend time with their aunt. I specifically mentioned in the application form that the two kids will be travelling unaccompanied to the UK (even mentioned our intention to enroll them in the Unaccompanied Minor Program of Singapore Airlines) and will be met in the UK by their aunt - who will be flying to the UK earlier in April. Even their DSWD Travel Clearances state categorically that they will be travelling alone. I got their visas today and the notation they put there was: C-Visit-Child Accompanied (only valid if acc by MVC Sulit) - which is my sister in law who will already be in London weeks before! My problem now is this - SQ has told me that the kids will not be able to leave the country on their own because of that notation on their visas. We tried to chat with the visa help website but they were not very helpful. Their suggestion was to just cancel the visa and apply again - this after 15 working days of waiting for the visa to be issued! Then they told us to just consult a solicitor if we wanted to insist on ammending the visa. There is no way to contact the British Embassy - even VFS Global couldn't help us. I would appreciate if anyone can enlighten us on what we can do. Definitely we dont want to cancel the visa and apply again - the time and money wasted. We need to purchase the airline tickets soon also. Thanks!
Hi, Unfortunately I flew to the Phils as I didn't want to take any chances of them being held at the immigration. Emirates airlines on the other hand said to ask an immigration officer at the airport and to my surprise he said to me I shouldn't have bothered accompanying them since they are old enough to travel so long as the airlines are made aware of the annotation and they are fine with it. He emphasised it's the airlines discretion. When their holiday ended they flew back on their own and everything went smoothly. So we then book another trip for them to come back for Easter on their own and this is where it all went wrong. Last 28 of march they flew on their own which we have arranged via Emirates again and I made them aware of it I mean the condition of their visas. I then went to Manchester airport at Emirates desk to fill in the necessary forms, provided all information regarding their contact person in the phils, travel clearances, copies of their passports and visas and Manchester have said all is fine as they already have files with them. Not a problem at all in Manila Phils, they arrived in Dubai for their connecting flight and that's where it all got messy. A Dubai immigration officer clocked my son's visa annotation and was asked to leave the queue to board the plane, he was threatened that he is going to be put on the next flight back to the Philippines. It was very traumatic as he and my daughter went with him and was held at the immigration for nearly an hour and luckily their stopover was more than 2 1/2 hrs or else they would have missed their flight. After my son's heated argument with the officers and my daughters swollen eyes due to crying they eventually let them board the plane. On that basis, I would suggest that you have words with the airlines, and make sure that they are aware of the condition of their visa and make sure that you got them in writing to avoid any confusion. Also, ensure that you provide your passport copy, a letter stating why they are travelling on their own. And if the airline still refuse to take them, unfortunately, you do need to travel with them, but you don't need to travel with them when it's time to go back to the Philippines. Good luck.
