UK Visas and British Citizenship

This post is for those who have a Tier 2 (General) visa and is wondering when is the best time to extend it. On one hand, you shouldn’t apply too early because you may be ‘short of visa’ when calculating your qualifying period for Indefinite Leave (permanent residency). On the other hand, you may wish to apply as soon as you can to secure your visa and put your mind at rest (and as often happens, go on a well-deserved holiday). There is a popular belief that you should apply within 28 days before your current visa expires but that rule is for ILR applications, not extensions. In fact, you can extend your Tier 2 visa within 3 months before it expires. On your Certificate of Sponsorship (COS) your employer has to put some dates for ‘Work start date’ and ‘End date’. These dates relate to your future visa, rather than the job, because you are already doing the job, not starting it. The ‘start date’ has to be within 3 months from the date of application for a visa (no later) and you ...

Advice session is often the first, and very important, step in the immigration process and is useful to assess your eligibility or to advise on the visa requirements. We have two options for a consultation: over email and at our office in the City of London. During August you can save money on having advice session at our current advice fee of £100 including VAT, including if you book in August but your appointment is later. From 1 September 2015 our advice fee will be brought in line with the average market price of £150 including VAT.   August is the time to discuss your case as well as have the incredible value for money! As always, advice fee will be counted towards our service fee, even if you are making an application months/years in the future. Whether your visa expires soon or in years’ time, it is never too early to have a consultation. You don’t have to be eligible to apply for a visa now, yet by having advice session in August 2015 not only can you save mone...

A very informative and practical 2-day weekend course at our office in the City of London!  1st 4Immigration Ltd is a practicing OISC-accredited immigration company, OISC ref F200800152. After many years of experience – and hundreds of successful cases – we are sharing our experience to help you to prepare for your OISC Level 1 assessment and accreditation or, if you are already practicing, to increase your knowledge. You can read Testimonials on our immigration cases here. TRAINING DATES:     Weekend 26 - 27 September 2015 (in time for OISC exam on 28 September). Weekend 24 - 25 October 2015 (in time for OISC exam on 29 October). Weekend 14 - 15 November 2015 (in time for OISC exam on 23 November). Weekend 12 - 13 December 2015 (in time for OISC exam on 17 December). Our tutors are our very own OISC-accredited practicing immigration advisers who handle the real cases during the week and teach on weekends. You can read abou...

"Joanne, I am so happy to let you know that my mum has just got her visa today. No words can describe how grateful I am for all what you've done for us. Thank you, truly!” This testimonial (again for our adviser Joanne Wilson!) came from Nihal, who is on a Tier 4 student visa in the UK and who asked us for help to secure a visitor visa for her mother, so she could come and visit the UK from Morocco. The visa applicant in this case was working on the self-employed   basis in Morocco, so we advised to provide evidence of running a business, paying taxes in Morocco etc – and all worked well! For an individual advice or to make your application as successful please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com or visit www.1st4immigration.com   To read about our OISC-accredited adviser Joanne Wilson please visit this page: http://www.1st4immigration.com/about.php#advisers If you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration Training and CPD websi...

"Joanne, I just wanted to let you know that my (Brazilian) wife's EEA family permit application was successful. Despite being submitted in Brazil, the application was handled in Columbia, and in total it took almost 4 weeks. Thanks again for your help preparing this application. We'll be in touch again soon when my wife arrives in the UK and we have to apply for the residence card.” This came from Manuel, a German citizen who asked us for help to secure an EEA Family Permit for his Brazilian wife to join him in the UK.   A family permit is often the first step for the non-EEA family members of EEA nationals. It is valid for 6 months but it allows to work, use the NHS etc (there is no immigration health surcharge for those applying under the European law).     The next step will be to apply for a Residence Card which will be for 5 years. There is no same-day service (unlike for spouses of UK citizens), however, the on the positive side, there is no Financial...

" Joanne, I would like to thank you and all the team at 1 st 4Immigration for all your patience and assistance in acquiring the visas for Elsa and the children. Keep up the good work!!” This came from Robert , a British citizen who asked us for help to secure a Spouse visa for his wife in Dominican Republic, plus for Elsa’s 2 children (step-children of a British citizen). In this case we had to focus on the Financial Requirement, with the higher threshold because there were 3 applicants. We used a combination of pension and savings. Furthermore, we also had to concentrate on the ‘sole responsibility’ rule for the children’s applications. This is because step-children of a UK citizen can   secure dependent visas on their mother only if the mother can prove sole responsibility for the children’s upbringing, ie being the person responsible for the decisions on the children’s place of living, education etc, usually for a considerable amount of time in the years leading to the ...

We offer an intensive Saturday course at our office in the City of London. 1st 4Immigration Ltd is a practicing OISC-accredited immigration company, OISC, ref   F200800152. We are also a recognised CPD provider and can be found on the OISC list of the training providers. This course has a particular emphasis on Tier 2 General and Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa categories, applying for a Sponsor Licence and using Tier 2 Code of Practice as well as qualifying for an Indefinite Leave in these routes. It also covers (often forgotten in training) rules for family members of PBS migrants. You can earn 7 core CPD hours credit, subject to the successful completion of the test after the course. As a practicing company, we are offering to share our experience to help you deal with the applications of Points-Based System migrants, their family members and ILR applications based on PBS categories. You can read   Testimonials on our immigration cases here. Our tutors are our very own OISC-accr...