# UK Spouse Visa Nightmare



## Tedney (Feb 8, 2017)

Firstly , I'm writing the below this long post as I want to help others to avoid the deliberate pitfalls of this highly stressful process of obtaining a UK spouse visa.
Also, let me say that on the 2nd attempt my wife's UK spouse visa was accepted after a lot of expense and worrying we are now currently both in the UK together.

The first failed application cost in total £1.6K.

The process is horrendous - it is designed to try and make you fail and there is zero understanding from the Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) if you happen to overlook a few documents amongst the many papers you submit and for £1.6K I would expect some understanding, if it was £100 then maybe I can understand it , but at £1.6K I will never understand - In my opinion a money making scheme from honest people who are trying to follow the correct steps.

I completely understand that we need to have strict controls on the documentation required to enter the UK for foreigners but the complete lack of clear and concise information on the official websites available is very poor indeed - you are better off to look at an many expat sites as possible or use a reputable company to handle your application for you (this will obviously cost more money and there is no still no 100% guarantee it will be successful). 

Like I say there is no definitive list with examples on the official websites, its more a mention of what is required and then its up to you to understand and interpret what that means documentation wise.

On our 1st attempt we had my wife's family history, her successful medical in bangkok, our marriage certificate (translated into English), 75 pages of snapshot evidence of the relationship dating back 2 years, evidence of my 6 trips to Thailand to visit her, evidence of 2 trips to the UK to visit me, evidence of myself living with her for 3 months in Thailand, her work history , including a letter from her current 
employer, my work history, letter from my work, my house in England details, my bank statements, our bangkok bank statements, wedding receipts, pictures of us together in England and also Thailand, pictures of my wife with my family in England and pictures of myself with my wife's family in Thailand. I filled in the online and hand written documents required - note they are written in a very complicated way - 
obviously to make it as difficult as possible to understand unless you are an expert on it.

We submitted on the fast track option for an additional 20,500bt (£460). This was about the only thing that was ok in the whole stressful process is that with the fast track option you jump the queue and instead of it being up to 3 months process, it is around the 2 weeks.

We waited and received an email 7 working days after the submission. It simply says a decision has been made and you can collect your documents in 2 days...... This is horrible, leaves you hanging, not knowing if it is successful or not. While not just say in the email instead of giving everyone a minimum of 2 days worth of no sleep, extra stress and worry. You are better off to know immediately so you can deal with the outcome.
It can be 4 days wait (due to the weekend) if you are unlucky to receive that email on a Thursday.

Our first application failed, everything on my wife's side was fine but it was failed on myself submitting only 3 payslips instead of 6 (for the 6 month visa we previously had it was 3 payslips required) and secondly myself not supplying my divorce certificate from a previous marriage I had to English wife.

I submitted 6 months of bank statements so they could clearly see salary from my employer going in and if that had just contacted me I could have had the additional 3 payslips sent to them very quickly.

The 2nd reason was just laughable - To marry in Thailand you have to go to the British Embassy in Bangkok and show (if applicable) your original divorce papers to
then have a stamped "Freedom to Marry" document, which you then use to register your marriage legally in Thailand England so the Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) should have been able to work out pretty easily that we would have had to go through that process and the ironic thing is I showed the divorce papers to the same British Embassy that the Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) worked for..... He could have checked on the computer or if they required it again (don't know why they would need it again), I could have had it to them very quickly.

You can appeal, but the appeals have no fast track option and you are put in a slow queue which will take anything up to 12 months to be heard -designed to put you off appealing as you cannot submit anymore applications during an appeal i.e. could mean you live in different countries for up to 12months and that's only if you are successful on the appeal... So better if you can to write the money off.

It cost me £1.6K for the first application.... All that money gone over 3 missing payslips and a ridiculous 2nd rejection on the divorce papers.

2nd time we applied I hired an English Visa immigration expert on a No Visa, No Fee agreement. I strongly recommend you go down this route as they know what they are doing and you have a much higher chance of getting it through. The cost for ours was an additional £900 but it was well worth the money and I will I had done it on the first application. I fast tracked the 2nd application too and so in total for
both applications to get my wife's UK visa it cost me £5.5K

Good luck to everyone going through this process. I wish you all the best.


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