UK Visas and British Citizenship

" Thanks so much for your help and reassurance throughout this process. You went above and beyond; always providing prompt responses and meticulous attention to detail. Considering the complexity of recent changes in the law your help has been invaluable – sincere thanks and appreciation to Natalia and all at 1 st 4Immigration.” Lucy, applied for a Spouse visa for her American husband. The couple were using savings to meet the Financial Requirement. Since some of the savings were held in investments in the USA, ie in the funds, we initially advised to transfer the money from investments to a cash savings account and wait for 6 months, as per the Spouse visa rules. However, on 6 April 2013 the Rules were changed allowing to count the 6 months period, taking into account time the money (savings) was held in investments, providing the money had been transferred from investments to a cash savings account before application date. In this case, the applicant’s savings were held i...

“I'm so happy! Thank you ever so much, you don't know how much I appreciate your help!” Greta, Romanian national, applied for British Citizenship based on being self-employed in the UK for at least 6 years.   T his application was based on the client being self-employed in the UK since before Romania joined the EU. However, we could only count time spent in the UK under the European Regulations and only since 1 January 2007 when Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union. We provided evidence of self-employment in the UK for the last 6 years.   The applicant also has a daughter who was born in the UK. The daughter was entitled to be registered as a British citizen, so we submitted both applications together, one for the mother and the other for the daughter. Both applicants did not have to apply for a formal ‘permanent residency stamp’ and instead we advised to apply straight for British Citizenship for both.   Applications were approved by the UKBA af...

Visitors can come to the UK for purposes of tourism, visiting friends, business visits and similar. Visitors can stay for maximum 6 months in each 12 months . Not 6 months from each entry to the UK. Even if your visitor visa is for 5 or 10 years you can still stay for maximum 180 days in each of those years. How to count ‘6 months in 12 months’? A 12 months period starts from ‘now’, date in question or date of entry etc and you need to count backwards (not a calendar year). If you stayed in the UK for the whole 6 months then you have to stay away for the whole 6 months. If you come and go several times during a year then the total must be 180 days cumulatively in the last 12 months. Visitor rules are the same for all. Visitor visa rules aren’t. Visitor rules include: purpose of visits, no right to work, no right to use the NHS, no right to use the public funds (benefits), no right to switch to more serious visas inside the UK, ie no right to switc...

Civil Partnership is a registered partnership between the 2 people of the same gender, such as 2 men or 2 women. Civil partnership can be registered at a Register Office and partners have a certificate, similar to a marriage certificate. For the purpose of visas civil partners have the same rights as spouses, ie civil partners have the same rights as a husband and wife do. If you are a man and a woman but not married then you would be Unmarried Partners, providing you have lived together for at least 2 years in a relationship like a marriage. In other words, you have been married in all but name for at least 2 years. Most importantly, you can prove it, such as providing the documents showing your cohabitation: utility bills, tenancy agreements, bank statements, official letters and so on. If you are 2 men or 2 women but have not registered a civil partnership then you would be Same-sex Partners, which is the same category as for unmarried partners and have the same condit...

If you are looking for help with your UK visa application you'd generally find these 2 types of professionals.  1) Solicitors, ie lawyers in a traditional meaning on the profession. They have formal legal training and are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and also have a listing on the Law Society website.  2) Immigration advisers, like myself and others at our company, who are not solicitors in the traditional meaning of the profession but who are nonetheless fit to advise people on the Immigration Rules and who are regulated by The Office of Immigration Services Commissioner ( OISC).  What do we have in common?  We both can advise on the immigration law, we are both appropriately regulated (just by the different regulators) , both have to abide a Code of Practice, have professional insurance, both face penalties and being struck-off for acting against the regulations  etc. In fact, most OISC rules are written to be very sim...

No appointments required!  Multi Travel Visas  can submit applications on next working day after receiving your documents, to the Passport Office in London, with authorisation from you as per the government requirements. For an extra charge we can submit on the same day if we receive your documents before 12pm, see below. No need to wait for an appointment, which can be weeks away and no need to travel to a passport office. We offer practical help when you need a new passport very quickly but cannot get an appointment soon enough. For example, if you are living/working abroad (you can courier documents to our London office) and we can submit them promptly for same-day service, this includes if your passport has run out of pages. Or you don't have time to travel to a Passport Office yourself we can apply on your behalf (you don't have to come to London). Plus we check the documents, help complete the form and advise on requirements. F...

Naturalisation is a path to Citizenship. And Citizenship is one of the types of British nationality. We'll start from the one with the broadest meaning -Nationality. 1) British nationality. It consists of British Citizenship, which is the most common type. This is what people mean when they say "I want to apply for a British passport".  A British Citizen has all the rights to live in the UK, to have a British passport etc.  There are other types of British nationality, usually based on Britain's past as a British Empire. There are British Overseas Citizens, British Citizens (Overseas), British Subjects and British Protected Persons. These are NOT British citizens and do not have a right to live in the UK. Most are subject to the immigration control in the same way as Australian, American or Chinese nationals. Some can register to become British Citizens and get a 'proper' British passport.  2) British Citizenship. As above, it is the most com...