Hello all,

My fiance recieved her Fiance Visa on Friday. There had been a major mix up at the consulate but the main thing is that we have it now. I wanted to say thank you to all the members of the forum. Your advice and answers to many existing questions on here has made the process much easier to go through and for that I appreciate it dearly! In return I thought I would share some advice about the process in the hope that it will cause people to be more relaxed and not as paranoid as I was getting.

Firstly the cost of the visa is indeed expensive. I remember that it is particularly daunting when you first find out about the cost. Particularly if you are American and paying in dollars. Obviously there is a certain amount of fear with applying anyway because it means so much and when you are in love there is nothing that can keep you apart so of course knowing that someone might try to keep you apart to is very scary. The thought of losing $1000 in a failed application is also scary.

The whole process is not as long or as scary as you may think. The most important thing is preperation. Many of the helplines have staff that seem to have been trained at different times. Their stories will differ often about what you have to give them. Many will tell you that you do not need your Fiance's british passport. YOU DO!!! The full list of everything that you need to prove / show is here:



http://www.britainusa.com/visas/articles_show_nt1.asp?i=65035&L1=41000&a=41031

The next thing people worry about is whether or not to book an appointment or to mail in their application. Getting appointments at the New York consulate is not as difficult as people make out. The online booking system only takes bookings one week in advance. If you have seen the system you will know that the days say 'not yet available'. They do not tell you what time they switch to available but studying the system over a number of weeks I can tell you that it tends to switch to available at about 8pm British time. So that is around 3pm New York time. So make sure you are refreshing constantly then.

When it comes to the appointment do not be intimidated by the staff. They are paid to see you as a statistic and aren't swayed by tales of great love. Do not be suprised if they only glance at your photos. In all honesty they are not too interested in these. The main thing they want to know is that the pair of you are capable of supporting yourselves when you move to the UK as their main aim is to prevent immigrants claiming benefits. Therefore ensure that the UK Citizen has a job or a decent amount of cash in the bank. Immigration have said that it is usually a case of the couple showing that they have enough to support themselves for two months whilst looking for work.

If they ask you to mail something ekse to them after your appointment then please be advised that you are still considered an in person appointment and therefore will be expected to collect your visa from them after you have recieved the e mail telling you that it has been issued. Do not wait for them to mail it back in this case.

If anyone has any questions then please do not hesitate to message me and i'll do my best to answer any questions.