armed with all the documents you're supposed to have (birth certificates, bank details, wage slips, passports, and 1000s of pages of correspondence), and my husband by my side, I entered the Consulate. I needed to be checked in due to my 10am appointment. since my husband holds a British passport, he was allowed in with me, no questions asked. we stood on the line to realise my husband left his birth certificate in my bedroom! (if I had been denied because he had forgotten that I wouldn't have let him forget it ever!).. anyway, the time came for my husband and I to go to the window, where we were met by a man who asked for my application and passport. he then asked for my husband's passport, and made copies. then he asked for our marriage certificate, bank details from us both (not 6 months worth, just the last 3 weeks sufficed), and my husband's employment status. since my husband just changed jobs, and had been called THAT morning on his mobile to be told he got his new job, all he had was a letter asking him to go in to his now employer for an interview. the man took and photocopied that stuff, gave back all originals except my passport and the application, and sent us off until 12noon. we were told that my visa would be ready if all checked out. at this point it was almost 11am.

come 12noon I went back and waited for a different man at a different window to be ready for me (he was helping someone else). once I got there, I expected to be taken into an interview room with someone asking questions, wanting correspondence, etc. etc. what I got was asked my date of birth, and upon delivering the right date, I was handed my passport back, with my visa inside. my $1050 sticker, which I stressed out about for WEEKS and WEEKS because I was so worried I wouldn't get it, and my 1000s of pages printed to prove our relationship meant nothing. they went to waste. after all the horror stories I have read, what happened to my husband and I was a blessing, and was about the easiest thing that could have happened. walk in, show a minimal amount of the bare basic stuff, go out and get lunch, come back and get your pretty, expensive sticker.

I want to thank everybody for all the advice and help you've given to my husband and I, and I urge anyone needing the British Consulate in NY tyo go on Friday, as they close half day and don't seem to want to be bothered to do things thoroughly.

 

Re: Congratulations!!

im in the same situation, me and my husband will go soon for my family permit but, do i need bank documents under my name for this??

if my memory serves me correctly they did ask for my bank statements as well, which were simply my internet banking coverpage with my accounts and the amounts in them!

do we also need to prove our relationship somehow?

i can not imagine you wouldnt have to prove your relationship somehow.. if you have lived with your husband for long enough i believe that may suffice (in which case you would have to bring bills in both names or the house deed or rental agreement or something like that).. my husband and i didnt live together until after i got my visa, so we had to prove our relationship (so we were told) with emails and old phone bills and text messages dating back a few years.. i can only imagine that being rather important to be able to produce.. i'm really not annoyed they didnt ask because if i didnt have so much stuff they would have asked i bet, and i'd rather have too much than not enough to show them![/1]

my husband is duth and im chilean btw, and we are at this moment in Germany, i've been told to go for the family permit to the country where i registered, which is Holland, as a visitor, which i've also been told its enough for beeing legal in a country...

i am not on a family permit.. i'm an american on a spouse visa living in the UK with my husband, but if i remember reading on here correctly, a family permit should make you legal in the country you're looking to settle in.. but check around the topics or ask the public about that if you cant find out anymore information.. or search it out online! what you can and cant do on various permits/visas!

again, congratulations and hope that everything turns out brilliantly for u 2!

thank you very much! so far all is going as expected.. best of luck to you!

Heather