UK Visas and British Citizenship

The article was about UK Spouse visa rules, particularly the £18,600 income threshold introduced on 9 July 2012: "How new UK spouse visa rules turned me into an Englishman in exile":   http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/09/uk-australia-spouse-visa?CMP=share_btn_fb First of all, in this case a spouse is Australian and could probably apply or an Ancestral visa instead because her grandfather was most likely born in the UK. This is a visa for 5 years (instead of 2.5 x 2.5 years in case of a Spouse visa) and has no income requirement like £18,600. It allows to work in the UK, it is cheaper (only 1 application and then permanent residency, no extension is usually needed) and it leads to permanent residency after 5 years in the Ancestral category. It may not solve a problem of the wife being able to train as a midwife but it is a cheaper and easier alternative. Furthermore, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians (and some others but these nationals are very c

We are often asked about when to submit the biometrics (fingerprints) and whether one needs to apply separately for a biometric residence permit. The answer is all this is a part of one visa application, i.e. part of one process. Applying inside the UK by post: First you send your visa application via post-office to the Home Office (passport, supporting documents’, application forms including printouts of the online form etc). Then   you receive a acknowledgement from the Home Office and once your payment has been processed, an invitation to submit biometrics. You have to go to a designated post-office, with this invitation, to do this. After that you wait for a decision on your application. Contrary to a popular belief, you submit biometrics before a Home Office caseworker looks at your application (only some admin department looks at it at this point). Therefore, an invitation for biometrics shouldn’t be used as an indication of how well your case is progressing). Once –and

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-accredited pr

Multi Travel Visas o ffers bespoke Russian visa service. It is very fast and convenient and a visa applicant can submit an application - and biometrics - at our office in the City of London (Monument area). This service allows us to act as a visa centre and collect the biometrics (fingerprints) at our office in the City of London , which is easily accessible by all transport links. Under this procedure we prepare an application form, check the documents, order a visa invitation if needed. Then, rather than going to the visa centre and queuing there for hours, we will provide a biometric kit at our office. Conveniently, you would have a 1 – 1.5 hour window to come to our office (the day/time pre-arranged as convenient). Right here, on the spot, and without queuing, you will be able to provide the biometrics (fingerprints), we will ‘submit’ your documents and pay the application fees to the official staff operating the biometric kit (here at our office). If there are any issues with t

A business plan was made compulsory for initial applications from 6 April 2015.   Over the past several years we’ve been dealing with the Entrepreneur visa applications for our clients. As a part of each application, we have to read client’s business plan, ask to make changes and generally, to include the information relevant to the Entrepreneur visa rules as well as based on the questions a client may be asked at a interview (from our experience of clients’ visa interviews). Our experiencedallowed us to develop an approach to creating the business plans from a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa point of view. Instead of using standard templates, we focus on what the visa officers want to see, ie on what a migrant will be required to do while holding this visa: investment of £50,000 or £200,000 and what your client is going to spend it on. For example, paying yourself a salary is not counted, yet it is very common for clients to do this.      Another example will be including a plan of creat

A Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) category is one of the very few remaining visas, which allows to come to the UK to work. It leads to permanent residency after 5 years, does not require a job offer and does not depend on an employer for sponsorship. The “catch” is the applicant needs to have access to £200,000, available to start or join a business in the UK. The funds can be from family or other third party sponsors, including in the form of a loan. Although it is a substantial amount of money, it is more realistic than an Investor visa, which requires £2 million. This category is becoming very popular since a Highly Skilled visa was closed in 2011 while the UK is a fantastic place for business! The idea behind an Entrepreneur visa is sometimes described as “active investment”. Once a migrant has a visa, this is when the hard work really begins! One has to register a business in the UK, invest the money and create 2 jobs for settled workers and generally, to be active in the business.

Multi Travel Visas Ltd can assist with renewing a UK passport using same-day or 1 week service at the Passport Office in London, with the authorisation from you as per the government requirements. We can submit applications on next working day after receiving your documents, there is no need to wait for an appointment. We may also be able to submit on the same day if we receive your documents before 12pm (midday) and they are in order. We can also help if for some reason you are unable to apply yourself. If 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). 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 if you need to renew not only yours but also/or your child's passport urgently.  Example: British expats living or working in the USA, the Middle East, Asia and

Multi Travel Visas Ltd is an accredited agency with the official French visa centre in London, we have many years of experience of working with French and other Consulates. We use a separate system of appointments and can provide an appointment sooner than available for the public. FRENCH SCHENGEN VISA: It is possible to obtain a visa within 4 working days from the date of the biometric appointment for most nationals, such as Filipino, South African, Russian, Indian, Chinese, Turkish and most others. It takes longer for some nationals, up to 3 weeks, a list is available on our website: http://www.multitravelvisas.co.uk/schengen-visa-france.php   GERMAN SCHENGEN VISA: German Schengen visa takes 5 working days from the date of appointment. No biometrics, no personal attendance needed! Furthermore, spouses and family members of UK/EU citizens don't have to book tickets/accommodation before applying for this visa. This is the best Embassy to apply for a Schengen visa for spouses and

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 about them on the Tutors page. Unlike most traditio

This post does not cover all scenarios but does cover most common enquiries in our day-to-day practice. This category, Family Life and Private Life but Family Life in particular, has become very popular when it was introduced on 9 July 2012 (feels like it was yesterday). In this post we are focusing on FLR(FP) application on the basis of Family Life as a Spouse/Partner of a British Citizen or as a Parent of a British child, in the 10-year route (not in the 5-year one). This category is meant to be used as exception from the Rules, so Family Life application involved Exception section of the Appendix FM and a paragraph EX.1. Why do we advise against it? Firstly, because we advise to use it as a ‘last resort’, this is what it was designed for. It was not designed to be a routine application to avoid having to meet one of the rules for an application without exception (ie for an application ‘within the Rules’, such as FLR(M)). This category should not be a starting point.