[1.] Says VAYU (EC in CANBERRA) - Just spoke to the EC lady at the UK high commission in Canberra. She informed me that I can delay my entry date into the UK up to 3 months after the date I apply for the EC.
I specifically asked the hypothetical question, does this mean an applicant can get HSMP approval, wait till the last week of the letters validity, and then apply to enter 3 months after that date. EC officer responded that was possible.
All in all though, she told me that I have to enter the UK within 6 months of the date of my letter being approved. So thats the catch if you want to call it that.
[2.]Says NATIONONE (EC in BANGALORE) - You are expected to land in the UK within 90 days of the Visa's date of issue. This applies for your dependants too. So my plan - of doing the EC for my dependants now and then expecting them to join me 6 months later - did not work.
[1.] First and foremost, has anyone received the '3 month' deferred stamping in India ?[3.]Says RAJP (EC in NY) - I applied for EC at the NewYork embassy. I used the fast track online system,filled the form, printed it and posted it along with my passport and the required supporting documents on June 17th-04.I received an email today stating that the visa has been granted and my passport is in the mail and i will be receiving it tomorrow. The whole process thru the post took approx. 2weeks. I requested the starting date to be 20-SEP-04. I'll update with further details after i receive my passport.
Thanks,
Rajp.
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I received my passport thru FedEx this morning. The passport was stamped with a start date of 19-09-2004(I think this is because the embassy started processing my application on June19th and the max time allowed is 3 months from the date the embassy starts processing the application). So with the given advantages i used the 3months period to apply for the EC(HSMP letter was dated as of March 25th),another three months for the start date(19th sep) .I finally succeeded in getting another 3 months to finalize my things here in USA before i land in UK. The other point to be mentioned here is the EC on my passport is valid for ONE year only. Maybe I wasn't lucky to get the TWO year validity.
[2.] Along with the stating of the validity as 1 year, does the EC stamping also restrict entry to the UK upto 3 months from the date of stamping ? To my mind, visas are simply and unconditionally valid for a period. How true is this '3 month' entry rule ?
[3.] Isn't there some official word on this ? Can someone point a link ?
I am utterly confused