Tuesday, June 15, 2010
visa service
My suggestion to anyone who ever needs a visa: use a service. There are services you can hire who apply for your visa for you. They make sure you have all the info you need, and can give you status updates, where you can't get them if you apply on your own. With all we've gone through with ours, it would have been WELL worth the money to have saved our sanity.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
More visa info
Wow. Well, our visa applications have been submitted, mailed overnight last night and should arrive at 10:30 this morning. However...
When you fill out your application online (which is how you do it if you live in the US), be sure to READ everything on the screen as you're filling it out. My husband applied for a Tier 2 visa, and on the very first page of the application, it gave us some really important information about things that needed to be included as supporting documents.
DO NOT trust the list of required documents that comes in the email once you've completed the application. That makes it look like you hardly need to send anything at all. If I had gone by that, we'd be sorely wounded when we got rejected or severely delayed. I encourage you to go to the following website. It was the most thorough about listing all required information. All other places I looked only gave pieces of info. How To Apply For A UK Visa Select the visa you are applying for and it will give you the info you need. Keep in mind that this is specific to the UK, since that's where we're going, but I'm sure there is a page similar for your destination.
The worst part, I found, about submitting our application was the lack of guidance. The website mentioned above is the best one I found, but unfortunately I didn't find it until we had already sent our applications. Once I know whether we've been granted visas, I'll post a list of tips; things I included with our applications.
Either way, the process is not easy. A lot of what you do is repetitive, but necessary. And it was very hard to part with all original documents to send in the applications, including our passports. But yes, you MUST send original documents.
Stay tuned for an update on our application status.
When you fill out your application online (which is how you do it if you live in the US), be sure to READ everything on the screen as you're filling it out. My husband applied for a Tier 2 visa, and on the very first page of the application, it gave us some really important information about things that needed to be included as supporting documents.
DO NOT trust the list of required documents that comes in the email once you've completed the application. That makes it look like you hardly need to send anything at all. If I had gone by that, we'd be sorely wounded when we got rejected or severely delayed. I encourage you to go to the following website. It was the most thorough about listing all required information. All other places I looked only gave pieces of info. How To Apply For A UK Visa Select the visa you are applying for and it will give you the info you need. Keep in mind that this is specific to the UK, since that's where we're going, but I'm sure there is a page similar for your destination.
The worst part, I found, about submitting our application was the lack of guidance. The website mentioned above is the best one I found, but unfortunately I didn't find it until we had already sent our applications. Once I know whether we've been granted visas, I'll post a list of tips; things I included with our applications.
Either way, the process is not easy. A lot of what you do is repetitive, but necessary. And it was very hard to part with all original documents to send in the applications, including our passports. But yes, you MUST send original documents.
Stay tuned for an update on our application status.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Visa update
I was wrong about something with the visas. Actually, my husband was wrong. He thought we couldn't complete our visa applications until we had an NI number. This is incorrect. During the application process, you are asked if you have an NI number. If you say Yes, it will obviously ask you for it. Since we don't yet have one, I said No and was able to complete the application process easy-peasy.
The best part of all is that we don't have to travel to the consulate in NYC like we thought we might have to. We can go to a local support center for fingerprinting and photographs, and then we mail our applications to NYC for processing.
If you're way behind schedule, like we are, you can also purchase priority processing which allows your application to be processed in 48 hours. The cost for that is $150 per visa. Ouch. But if you're in a bind, it might be worth it.
The best part of all is that we don't have to travel to the consulate in NYC like we thought we might have to. We can go to a local support center for fingerprinting and photographs, and then we mail our applications to NYC for processing.
If you're way behind schedule, like we are, you can also purchase priority processing which allows your application to be processed in 48 hours. The cost for that is $150 per visa. Ouch. But if you're in a bind, it might be worth it.
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