Fiance visa - evidence not received

[Giggy]

Hi everyone, was wondering if anyone else has had the same problem as below:

My fiancée (from South Korea, currently out the country) and I submitted our application for her to join me in the UK, I am a UK-born British citizen. We submitted all of our documents and carefully double and triple checked everything on the requirements list was there and sent it next day recorded delivery to Sheffield. We have confirmation it arrived and was signed for from Royal Mail.

Fast forward about a week and a half my fiancée just got an email saying they haven't received and of our documents and we have 10 working days to get them to them. We have photocopies of almost everything at home but all our original documents are supposedly at Sheffield where they signed to say they had been received - but now are stating they never got.

I phoned the helpline who couldn't trace the information themselves but said they would escalate it and my fiancee would get an email from them, it may be the email was sent in mistake. She said it may take a couple of days for them to check, then said we should hear back "this week or next week".

Has anyone else ever had this problem? We spent huge amounts of time and money on this application, did everything been were told to and as far as we were concerned they had signed to say they had received our documents. We're both quite panicked now and feeling completely powerless about what we can do to change things.

[Londoner007]

Maybe an automated message?

If you have record it was signed for you be can sure it has been received. You can send them the RoyalMail signature proof if you want.

[Giggy]

Thanks for your reply.

To update (in case it is useful for anyone in future) I phoned explaining that we had sent the documents and they had signed for them. They said they would start an investigation, it was likely sent incorrectly and we would hear back within 10-15 working days.

On day 15 (last Friday) my fiancée got an email confirming they definitely had our documents and that a decision had been made... which sounded ominous!

Fast forward to yesterday, my fiancée got her passport in the post (midday Korean time, 3am UK time - I did not get much sleep last night!) with her new visa in it! Success!!!


For good measure I had also posted them a copy of the receipt from our recorded delivery plus evidence they had signed for it, no idea if that actually helped. Though I guess we'll never know if our file had genuinely been misplaced or if the email had been an admin error - luckily it doesn't matter I guess!

[Giggy]

Hi everyone, my Korean fiancée received her passport back yesterday in the post (3am UK time, I did not sleep well last night!!) which included her new Fiancee visa with a start day of 8th December. We are both over the moon! But we had a couple of questions as the passport came without any explanation on what happens next.

1. Is there a set window of dates she must travel within?
We had been unsure on what day we would hope for her to travel to the UK when we applied in September, so we gave December 8th as a guess. Our current plan is for me to travel to Korea on the 8th and we go back to UK on the 16th together, my flights are already booked, we will book hers this weekend. We need to talk to her parents and make sure they are happy, eg: make sure they didn't really have their heart set on her being in Korea for Christmas, in which case we would try to accommodate that. If that was the case then we may consider booking her flight slightly later. I think I heard there is a 1 month window in which to travel - so in her case before 8th January, but I can't find specific evidence of this rule.


2. Are there travel restrictions whilst on the Fiancee Visa
My fiancée was hoping during February to attend a couple of family events in Korea, which would mean leaving the UK for a few weeks to return, before coming back. I would join her for the last week of her trip before we both then return to the UK but can't stay for the whole duration due to work commitments. I understand the visa says "Number of entries: MULT", but is there a limit on number of trips outside of the UK, number of days outside of the UK or max number of days per trip? Does it change at all depending on whether we are travelling together or solo? If so we want to make sure she doesn't stay in Korea for longer than the rules permit.


Thank you for your help.