UK Visa Saga
It’s great to kick start the new year of 2009 back in London and continue on with my journey after suspending it or rather put it on hold for the past 2 months at home in Melbourne. Now that I have returned and everything appearing to be back on track, I can begin to map out the next travel destinations and what to do with myself for the next couple of years.
It’s taken almost 6 months but finally I have the skilled visa to stay in the UK for the next 3 years with a possibility to extend and stay longer. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I had been diagnosed with anxiety attack symptoms but to say that the past 6 months has been a bumpy ride is an understatement. The past 6 months have culminated into a rather eventful and stressful period of which I never want a repeat of again.
With my future in the hands of the UK Home Office and for them to take 6 months to decide my fate, I cannot describe the to you the euphoria or huge sigh of relief when news of the visa approval mid December. I was neither excited nor screaming and running around the house but rather I was just mirthful inside to know that the saga had ended and the ending was a happy one.
I’ve described below some of the events that transpired in the last 6 months. I fathom those who are in limbo and for who are about to experience the same predicament and so my only advice would be is to be extremely patient. If you really want the visa, you’ll have to wait for it.
1. Before planning the 3 month around the world trip from end of Jan to end of April 2008, the plan was to come back then earn a bit of cash before applying for the UK skilled visa from the UK working holiday visa. However little did I know that upon returning to London, the UK Home Office had implemented a new immigration system which was based on a points system (adopted from the Australian Immigration System).
What this meant was that I could no longer apply for this skilled visa here in London but instead I had to apply from my home country, being Australia. The new immigration system was being rolled out at the end of June 2008 so I had to rush to get all the paper work and get the application submitted otherwise I risked going back to Australia and waiting 3 months to obtain the skilled visa.
2. I submitted the application 1 week before the new immigration laws were passed. The reason I cut it so fine was because my pay slips just prior going on the around the world trip was £100 short of the minimum threshold for salary earning requirement. I still cannot believe it was £100 short so I had to wait about 2 weeks to include the first few weeks of work earnings prior to coming back.
3. The UK embassy in Canberra, Australia had imposed a ridiculous rule which they later overturned due to the number of complaints. This rule was the infamous 50/50 rule which states that you can not work more than 50% of your stay on the UK working holiday visa. The working holiday visa actually states you cannot work for more than 12 months of your 24 month stay. So if you were to work the 6 months of your visa and then decide to go home and apply for the skilled visa, you have broken the visa rules because during those 6 months, you worked 100% of the time.
Since you have broken the rules, your name has a mark against it and future applications for a visa to any country will be problematic. If they hadn’t overturned this decision, I wouldn’t have continued on with my application for the skilled visa. I didn’t want to risk being blacklisted for breaking visa rules and being questioned about it if I had any intention of applying for a visa elsewhere.
4. Last but not least, the 7 day bank statement rule for the maintenance requirement. To obtain the Entry Clearance, you had to have in your bank account a sum of £2800 and above for the last 3 months. If during this 3 month period whereby your bank account dips below £2800, you will be denied the Entry Clearance. I didn’t have a problem with the maintenance requirement but I did have a problem with proving it.
The UK Home Office wanted from my bank a statement which proves that I had £2800 and above for the last 3 months. They wanted this particular statement to be valid for 7 days. This meant that the moment I obtained this bank statement, I had 7 days to get back to Australia and submit the Entry Clearance application otherwise this statement becomes invalid. How ridiculous is this rule? A bank normally takes 3-5 working days to get this statement out to you so that means if you order a statement on a Monday, you would be lucky to get it on a Wednesday.
When you get the statement, you will have to leave the UK the following day and you will arrive on the Friday when all businesses would be close. The UK Embassy in Canberra doesn’t work on weekends so your only choice is to have the application submitted on the weekend and hope it arrives on the Monday of which the bank statement would be INVALID. It is invalid because if you order bank statements on a Monday, it is 8 days until the following Monday. Whoever came up with this stupid rule should be sacked in all honesty.
How did I get around this problem? I was lucky enough to go to a bank and using a template from my immigration consultant, I asked them to draft me the same letter with the information I needed and dated when I asked, so that I would have enough time to get back to Australia and submitting the new paperwork and still have a valid bank statement.
I am happy to say that common sense has prevailed and the UK Home Office has now changed this ridiculous requirement and stated that the bank statement need not be 7 days valid but instead a full month. Read about it here.
Happy New Year!
smiles