• This topic has 25 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 6 years ago by andeh.
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  • Advice: UK visas, the Home Office and lost documents
  • andeh
    Full Member

    I need a bit of advice, if anyone would be kind enough to oblige? This might take a while. First though, a bit of background info in bullet point form.

    -My wife is Canadian, living and working here on a visa, but not a citizen, so has to reapply every 2.5 years.

    -You can’t apply for a visa more than 4 weeks before your old one runs out (despite it taking up to 8 weeks to turn around)

    -a UK working visa costs about £1000, plus 500 or so for an immigration health surcharge (regardless of wehether you pay tax or not….which she does). If you want it faster, that’s another £400 and if you want it in a day, that’ll be another £800. It’s expensive. We could only afford the normal “service”.

    -You complete the application by filling in an online form and then sending off your supporting documents (passports, birth certificates, bills, pay slips…everything). It’s not obvious where these have to be sent.

    So, 4 weeks before her visa runs out, we complete the application and go to send off the documents. Theres no obvious address shown so we call up the “hotline” (read: sit on hold for 45mins) to ask. We are told to send it to Durham.

    Send docs recorded, delivered the next day. Wait.

    That was 6 weeks ago. Today we get a letter saying that nothing has arrived with the Visa and Immigration folk. No passports, no pictures, no bills, nothing. We have 10 working days to get the docs sent off or the application will be declined and we lose our £1500 and wife may get deported. Obviously, we don’t have these documents, as we thought they were with the Home Office, carefully being ignored for the last 5 weeks. The letter is from the Sheffield office.

    Now, putting 2 and 2 together, I’m thinking that the wonderful, helpful chap on the phone gave us a wrong address. So all our worldly documents are lost somewhere within the lumbering beurocracy system of the Home Office. How the hell do we go about getting them back? What are the chances of my wife being deported? Why would they not simply return the documents or forward them to the right place?

    Now, that’s not even the end of it. On the 11th of July I’m due to accompany 30 students from school to Tanzania. I don’t have a passport. I don’t, yet, have a Tanzanian visa. How **** am I?

    Ah, and because it’s the weekend now, we can’t get hold of anyone in the dept. on the phone. Thinking of going to sheffield office tomorrow but not sure if we’ll actually be able to talk to anyone about it.

    Is this the definition of omnishambles?

    TLDR:We’ve sent a wallet full of detailed personal info, irreplaceable documents and our passports to the wrong place on the advice of a gov employee. I need my passport next week to get a visa. My wife needs the documents so that she isn’t deported.

    Thanks in advance

    ninfan
    Free Member

    Now, putting 2 and 2 together, I’m thinking that the wonderful, helpful chap on the phone gave us a wrong address.

    No specialist knowledge on this, but Postal site doesn’t necessarily mean office location

    Phone up again quoting your proof of delivery

    andeh
    Full Member

    Yeah, it’s just a post box at the local delivery Office. Presumably it gets collected and take to the offices…..wherever they may be.

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    Greybeard
    Free Member

    Are you applying on form FLR_M? If so, this link has a Durham address (bottom of page 5):

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/601827/FLR_M_Guidance_Notes_-_April_2017.pdf

    It also (next page) gives an address to contact in case of problems and suggests you quote your recorded delivery reference.

    chewkw
    Free Member

    With recorded delivery you can check where your documents have gone to on Royal mail website. Just type in the reference.

    Or give them a call them early in the morning at 9am sharp (or 1 min before) when the office opens. It will very difficult to speak to someone after that because the entire world is calling on them …

    Royal Mail track and trace website

    andeh
    Full Member

    That’s the address which we sent it to, on p5 of that form, and looking at the tracking number it was delivered on the 25th of last month. I just don’t know where it could have got to.

    chewkw
    Free Member

    andeh – Member
    That’s the address which we sent it to, on p5 of that form, and looking at the tracking number it was delivered on the 25th of last month. I just don’t know where it could have got to.

    If it is delivered to the right address then all your documents are with them. The proof is there.

    davros
    Full Member

    Firstly I’d forget worrying about your wife being removed, you have made every effort to conply with the rules, you have proof of having submitted the documents and her application remains outstanding. Your explanation regarding the location of your documents will have to be investigated by the caseworker. Even if the worst case scenario occurs and the application is refused you will have the option of appeal to the tribunal or admin review; it hopefully shouldn’t come to that.

    I would advise against attending the enquiry office at sheffield unless someone confirms for you that your passport has been located and is ready for collection. Otherwise i fear you’d be wasting your time.

    In order for them to look into the location of your documents visit https://www.gov.uk/visa-documents-returned

    Complete the online request form then chase it on monday when the phones open again.

    Good luck

    andeh
    Full Member

    Just thought I’d update progress.

    Wife called this morning and found out that the address we were given was, in fact, the wrong one. Woman on the phone was very apologetic and asked us to register a formal complaint once things have been straightened out.

    We now need to contact our case worker and inform him what happened. How, I hear you ask……by post. Yes, post. Do these people not have emails or a phone within staggering distance? God knows how they manage to keep turning when they rely on Royal Mail.

    In other news, I emailed our MP (Tory, so not expecting much….maybe he’ll come round and deport Mrs A himself) and, again, he responds by post! What is wrong with the government? Can someone please offer to run a CPD session for gov. employees covering the benefits of living in the developed world.

    So, saga continues. Our stuff will be hunted down once the case worker sifts through his IN tray in godknowhowmany days time and reads our letter. I had to go out and buy parchment specially 🙄 Chances of me making it to Tanzania are diminishing by the day. Best start planning that road trip around Scotland instead.

    Greybeard
    Free Member

    Since you have an apology and confirmation that it’s their error, I’d be pressing them to return your passport by return, and if not, issue a duplicate. I’m sure both of these are possible, if they try; it boils down to whether you can get enough leverage to make them try.

    tails
    Free Member

    Jesus they really are a joke, so at the minimum it’s cost you £1500 at worst you’ve lost lots of difficult to replicate documents, making the process impossible to complete. I’m applying for my partners first visa, I had to send everything to Brazil which at the time seemed ridiculous although having read this I’m relived.

    They provide so little information on the HO website I used immigrationboards.com as they are fairly helpful.

    Hope you get a result, although I’m doubtful with that shambles.

    ploeb
    Free Member

    Really sorry for your situation.
    I know the process, we paid a fortune for the premium service last month, cos i didnt want to lose our docs. We waited around all day, cos their computers were down and couldnt do the geometrics. Massive stress. And we paid a expert to prepare and list all the docs for us, because I honestly couldnt understand exactly what we needed to supply.
    They still owe us 75quid cos we changed from a early morning appointment to a less expensive one.

    andeh
    Full Member

    It’s incredibly expensive. Last time we went for the one day service and ended up waiting around for 5 hours. Like you, we originally couldn’t make sense of the literature surrounding the support documents, and my mother in law was ready to dispatch the solicitor. I insisted that we work it out without so spent hours on the phone with the HO ensuring everything was good to go.

    Now, if it seems like inaccessible, complex gibberish to native English speakers, what must it be like for someone for whom English isn’t their first language. They clearly make the process prohibitively expensive and confusing to maximise the number they can turn away.

    crogthomas
    Free Member

    Are you aware that it is possible to hold two passports? Very useful when one is being held somewhere and you need to apply for a visa (and a number of other reasons).

    If I were you I’d apply for a second one now to allow you to travel to Tanzania.

    andeh
    Full Member

    I started looking into that last night, though the info in the internet made it seem like it was specifically for people travelling to potentially undesirable locations for work. My plan for today is to look into seeing if I could swing it.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Need a specific business reason for 2 passports backed up with a letter from your company explaining the need – each time you renew either one of your passports from then on.

    I have 2 – I used to apply for visas in multiples for work.

    crogthomas
    Free Member

    Travelling for work (school trip) whilst your first passport is held up in the bewildering bureaucracy of the UK passport office surely counts as a valid business reason? Especially as this happens every 2.5 years. A letter from the Head should do it.

    andeh
    Full Member

    I figured that a letter from the head should suffice.

    This is a lot of stress and uncertainty that we (or anyone for that matter) really don’t need.

    R979
    Free Member

    Nothing to add other than hassling the office where your documents were delivered. I remember sitting in the Croydon office for a visa application interview and there were signs in the office behind reminding Home Office staff to keep windows closed to keep documents from blowing out in the wind! 😯

    It’s an expensive and exhausting process so best of luck.

    jonba
    Free Member

    I can’t help solve your problem. It sounds frustrating but I can probably add some supportive words.

    Your wife will almost certainly be fine, just restricted to staying in the country until things are sorted out. My brother’s partner is having a fight with the home office over immigration status. She hasn’t had a visa for some time. She can’t work and can’t leave the country (as she won’t get back in) but otherwise no one has turned up at the door and bundled her off.

    As for visas, have a look at the requirements. Last year my wife and I were told for months that we didn’t need visas to get to Mongolia. I found out 5 days before our trip that the rules had changed and we’d not been told. It was stressful but we got them. My wife went to the embassy in person and we paid for the 24hour visa service. Similar options might be available to you and the school might cover costs if it is work related. I know my company pays for visa applications – they hurried me one through for Saudi when they needed someone to go which i wasn’t that thankful for.

    andeh
    Full Member

    Thanks for the support! The one day visa option looks to be the best bet, provided I get my passport back.

    So, get this, I’m eligible for a one-day-turnaround second passport given the circumstances, however, I need to take either my current passport of a photocopy of my current passport with me to the interview. I have a birth certificate, my 4 month out of date old passport and signed photos, but they need the passport which is currently lost. Bonkers. Surely they have the details on file!?

    tails
    Free Member

    Have you asked your employer to let you off going to relieve the stress?

    andeh
    Full Member

    The thing is, I really want to go. It’s an amazing opportunity to do some really cool stuff for very little money. They’re starting to realise that there’s an ever slimming chance of me going, which I have come to terms with, but they have not. As it stands there’s no real backup plan, we’re relying on the tour operator to be able to fill in for me.

    To make the situation a little more stressful, the other member of staff snapped her ACL while we were on the ski trip earlier this year. She’s been fine up until now, but appeared with a big, soft cast yesterday, and is off work today. We’re supposedly climbing Mt. Meru when we’re there, which is a 4500m peak. Omnishambles….definitely an omnishambles.

    globalti
    Free Member

    Can’t you get a second passport? It is allowed if you can give a good enough reason. Perhaps a letter of explanation from the Visa office will be sufficient. They don’t need the first passport when I apply for a second passport; just the number is enough.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    andeh – Member

    So, get this, I’m eligible for a one-day-turnaround second passport given the circumstances, however, I need to take either my current passport of a photocopy of my current passport with me to the interview. I have a birth certificate, my 4 month out of date old passport and signed photos, but they need the passport which is currently lost. Bonkers.

    This is the Home Office in a nutshell frankly

    andeh
    Full Member

    Just thought I’d update.

    Passport and all other documents arrived today…..2 days after I was supposed to fly out to Tanzania 😡

    Luckily we managed to sort a replacement at the last minute, but I’m still annoyed. Think we’re going to kick up a stink about it with the Home Office, after being told the wrong address, not that anything will change, mind.

    Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining as I’m tagging along with some mates to Morzine now for a few days. Not quite the same but softens the blow a bit.

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