Every Filipino leaving the country to join their partner has to have the sticker in their passsport to leave the country if the visa they have is an entry visa .No one will inform her ,you have to find out whats required hence forums like this and the links to Phillipine websites required. Im off line for 12 days or so guys see you all soon
Indeed. But where do you look. New obstacles keep coming out of the woodwork all the time. Is there not just one website which could clearly state exactly the process you need to follow. We were talking earlier - imagine the nightmare of us getting the visa and going to the airport to fly to the UK, only to discover she couldn't get on the plane because we hadn't been aware of this. So, any more hidden obstacles out there?
The Commission on Filipinos Overseas is the body responsible for this; there is a description here... http://www.cfo.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1347&Itemid=917 Yes, this has happened to quite a few people, resulting in delays, and lost monies from non-refundable air fares and visa applications. Being a requirement of the Philippines government (rather than the UK government) it is an easy step to miss, unless you are a member of a forum such as this one. I suspect a few will get caught out, even now, only to find they have to apply for another visa after 8 July and cannot meet the new income requirements! I still think it best to beet the July 8 deadline if you can. I did read that the new income requirement has to be met during the five years up to ILR. Should your income drop below the £18,600 figure you could well find yourself in problems.
It's a long time since I've been on this forum, but I'm feeling very self-congratulatory today because - da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa - we got a Fiance Visa yesterday!!! It took two attempts to get it. First time we failed mainly due to putting my trust in an agency who turned out to be a pile of rubbish! I actually felt that the documents we were submitting were a bit rubbish, but they insisted they were fine. result - failed application. Not only that but they then refuted any responsibility, claiming it was UKBA "discretion" and said they would do again - but wanted paying for it! Used another agency second time after being recommended them by someone who had been successful, and they were excellent and we got the visa. So we're happy now Interestingly, the agency that I see as little more than con artists are OISC registered. The one that were brilliant, really put themselves out on thoroughly checking everything and providing helpful information (including about the seminar that is required) were not OISC registered. Happy to name both agencies if anyone wants to know and is thinking of using one - because one is definitely one to avoid.
Glad that all went well in the end, and hope all the best for the future... One has to admit that as Chrissie pressies go, this one takes a lot to be beaten....:vhappy:
It was Capital Visas. Unfortunately I chose them after Googling "Capital Visas Reviews" instead of Googling "Capital Visas Scam", which I googled after being unsuccessful! Second time round I used marriagevisahelp.com. I would recommend them to anyone considering using agencies. The difference between the two was immense.
Good news indeed. I used Visalogic - OISC approved and they were good. Prior to that I had been intending to use MarriageVisaHelp and was in dialogue with a woman named Philippe or Philip. In the end I got cold feet and decided to go with an OISC approved advisor. I found Philippe very helpful but she wasn't happy when I eventually opted for another company.
Yeah, Philip was who I dealt with too. The lack of OISC was a slight doubt with me, too, at first but we were recommended them and Philip was, as you say, helpful in initial conversations so I decided to go with it and it worked out well. I don't know why they aren't OISC affiliated or, indeed, why the other lot are!! Or how you get that affiliation. It may be because they only do marriage and fiance visas rather than all types?? Don't know though, just guessing.
Actually it surprises me the number of people (Brit / Filipinos) I have come across that neither use an advisor or a forum. They simply seem to fathom it out, either by themselves or through a grapevine of some kind. Personally, I found it all a bit of a minefield and it was indeed Philip that helped me initially to get my head around what was required.
I can see your point. Personally, I have seen it get more and more convoluted over the past 10 years and especially over the past 3 years. I think that for some folks, researching the UKBA website can give a pretty good understanding of the rules. Especially if that research is 'drilled down' deeper into the immigration rules and to the guidance notes provide for the caseworkers and ECO staff. I really believe given this understanding and the experience and guidance from various forums then it's perfectly possible to submit a highly compliant application, if your circumstances are completely straightforward. But............plenty of folks, for all sorts of reasons, do not have completely straightforward circumstances that are easily compliant. Not everyone has sufficient time to dedicate to that depth of research, nor to dedicate to filtering all those forums. We all have busy lives. People lives can be complicated by all sorts of reasons. Those with the 'power' to decide, simply no longer have the same levels of discretion any more and are very tightly constrained by extremely ambigious rules designed to point to refusal. In those cases where full (non-marginal) compliance is not a complete given, my advice would be to seek good professional advice. Even if it's just a case of a professional document checking service. It's much too serious a venture to accept even the slightest risks at all. Risk is a gamble. Just my personal opinion
OISC is not an 'approval' scheme it is a regulatory body and anyone providing immigration services or advice in this country is required to register, subject to certain exemptions (mainly solicitors and barristers) MarriageVisaHelp.com does appear to be an American outfit albeit with a postal address and phone number in the UK. I am not sure if this exempts them from registration with the OISC though. But being registered with OISC is no guarantee of good service, Global Visas is OISC registered and has featured many times in the Mirror Blog by Penman & Sommerlad and its now former director, Liam Clifford, who has also appeared in the same blog for other companies he previously ran. Clifford is currently under a 5 year ban from being a company director - a fact that the OISC did not know until I told them a few months ago. This may be why Clifford resigned his directorship - in order to keep the OISC approval for the company.
Yes, in our case there was the Isle of Man factor which at the outset seemed to me to be a potential minefield ( though turned out to be essentially the same as for the UK ).
