# UK ancestry visa application experience



## TravelgirlSA (Mar 27, 2016)

After many months of research and discussions, my husband & I decided to take the giant leap of moving to the UK from South Africa.

I found the forum to be quite useful at times. For this reason, I thought I would provide our experience to hopefully assist others. All applications & individual circumstances are unique, and this is therefore just a guide of our experience. 

In our case, I was applying for the ancestral visa (from my grandfather), and my husband a dependent.


*Completing the online application*:
When applying you need to register on the Visa4UK website. Generate one account for the main applicant only. When completing the main applicants section, there is a tab at the top of the page that mentions adding a dependent. You should click on this tab & it would then link the dependent application to the main applicant. 

We made a slight error when completing ours in that we did a separate account application for my husband. We only realized at the end of his application when they requested one year worth of NHS payment from him, instead of the full 5 years. 
The suggestion was to write a letter advising that he had only been charged for one year and include it with his documents that we submitted. We did this, and a few days after submitting our documents we received a notification with a link to pay the remaining NHS payment. Phew!!

*Documents we submitted for main applicant*:
**They will only accept original documents**

-	Printed application
-	Grandfather original birth certificate
-	Grandfather & grandmother original marriage certificate
-	Mother original birth certificate
-	Mother & father original marriage certificate
-	My original unabridged birth certificate
-	6 months original stamped bank statements
-	6 months original pay slips
-	Passport
My mom also happened to have my grandfathers National Insurance number, so I included that as additional supporting document.

*Documents we included for dependent*:
-	Printed application
-	Original marriage certificate 
-	6 months original stamped bank statements
-	6 months pay slips
-	Passport 
-	Letter requesting link for remaining balance of NHS payment


*Supporting documents*:
-	It is not necessary to have a job lined up prior to arriving in the UK (although it would be very beneficial & one less thing to stress about). 
You do need to show that you will be able to work, and are actively searching. Both my husband & I applied for and printed out jobs that we may be eligible for. We included these printouts and correspondence with recruitment agents. We also included a copy of our CV’s.

Seen as we did not have work lined up, we had to show that we would be able to support ourselves financially for a few months.

-	We were not 100% sure if we needed to have accommodation pre-arranged, so we ended up booking a cottage for 2 weeks via an accommodation booking site. We went with an option that was refundable in case we needed to cancel it. We asked the landlady to email us a written confirmation that we would be staying with them, and included this confirmation. We used this address then on our online application. 


The website mentioned having passport photos, which we took along to the interview, however we ended up having our biometrics taken at the visa center on day of interview. I say interview, but it is really just an appointment to hand in your documents. They do not actually interview you.

When it comes to submitting your documents, it is not necessary to have fancy files. Have your documents in an order that will be easy to find each page as the official asks for it. Do not use any clips or staples on the pages. A handy tip we got was to place all the original birth certificates etc in a zip lock bag. This will ensure that they stay safe. 

After submitting our documents, it took 14 working days to receive a reply. In our case, our visas were granted! 

We have been in the UK now for about 4 months and settling in nicely.

I do hope this will be useful!


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## freddzim (Nov 15, 2016)

hi there thanks for your useful information.. What visas did you apply for for your children, and for yourselves. my husband and i are from zimbabwe and we trying to apply for right of abode for ourselves but not sure what visas to get for our children.. both grandmothers are british citizens 

hope you can assist. thanks


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## TravelgirlSA (Mar 27, 2016)

Hi there

I am unfortunately not sure what visa your kids would need, as we do not have children.
Would they not be classified as your dependent?

If you visit the gov.uk website there should be a section on family members. Perhaps it might mention something there?

I am sorry that I am not much help in this regard :-(

Good luck!


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## vancouveright (Jan 20, 2017)

Hello,

I just wanted to give another successful experience that was slightly different because I had some concerns going in about whether or not I would be rejected. I applied from Canada, so that may change the process a little bit.

Documents submitted

-	Printed application
-	Grandfather birth certificate ordered from UK GRO
-	Mother's long-form birth certificate
-	My long-form birth certificate
-	4 months original stamped bank statements
-	Record of employment for previously held job
-	Current and old passport
-	CV with potential jobs that were within my experience level and industry
-	Letter from girlfriend stating that I could live with her rent free until I found work
-	Floor plan of apartment
-	Passport photos

I don't know if this is Canada specific, but they did not need to send originals of any of my birth certificates to the UK Visa processing office in New York. At the visa office they offered to photocopy them for 1$ each and I was able to keep the originals. Same as OP, they did not need my photos, they had a sign in the office saying the home office no longer required them (they should update website to reflect this).

For my proof of accommodation, I only included a letter from my girlfriend with the floor plan (no proof that she actually has an apartment there). She has not actually moved in there yet, so she did not have utility bills etc.

Hope this helps someone!


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## MaaikeAU (May 3, 2017)

*documents*

Did you need the original full birth certificate of the parent you used?

My mum only has an extract or short-form version of hers and she doesn't live near me to get the original from her. Would a scanned copy suffice? Or should I get her to order a full copy and have it sent to me?


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## vancouveright (Jan 20, 2017)

You need original longform birth certificate to show the full ancestry link, they will not accept a scanned copy (it has to have her parent's names on it). It doesn't have to be THE original, a "new" original will work if ordered from the registry.

Also, if you do not have your parents marriage certificate, make sure your birth certificate has your mother's maiden on it so that the full lineage is visible and there is proof of the name change.


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## MaaikeAU (May 3, 2017)

Another question.
I am applying for myself, husband and two children. 
I am completing the application for myself as an ancestry visa, do I do a "Work, non points-based working visa, dependants more than 6 months" for my husband and "Study, non points-based system, student dependant" for each of the kids? Or is listing them all on my Ancestry application as dependants travelling with me and having no visa supposed to add them to the application?

I have tried calling the help line but they just hung up on me and when I tried emailing they just didn't comprehend the question and responded something about they can't tell me what documents to provide! *frustrated*


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## vancouveright (Jan 20, 2017)

I did not have any dependents so unfortunately I have no experience with this, hopefully one of the experienced posters sees this though.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Husband and children are dependants. Don't do children's application as students, unless they are 18+.


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