Procedure after winning appeal?

[lutga]

My wife recently won her appeal for a spouse visa, overturning the initial refusal, and got the following email today:

***

The decision to refuse your visa application has been overturned and our office will now proceed to the next stage of your application. To complete this process we require you to undertake the following steps:


1. Please submit your passport to the Visa Application Centre (VAC) where you made your original visa application .


2. Please also submit a copy of this e-mail so that the Visa Application Centre will accept your passport.


3. If you require a TB certificate for travel, please ensure this is up to date and valid.


You will be contacted when a decision has been made and your passport is ready to be collected.



***


I have a number of questions on her behalf that I would like answered to help us in how we proceed next:


1) Since her initial application, my wife has changed her surname to mine and following this, now has a new passport reflecting this name change. Does she need to submit her new passport, and will this this name change be reflected on the visa she is issued? Should she bring her current and all previous passports with her to the VAC, as well as evidence of her name change (eg. marriage certificate / family register and certified translation)?

2) My wife travels frequently for her job, and requires her passport for this. Is there a guideline for how long it will take for her visa to be issued once she takes her passport to the VAC?

3) Similarly, the above email does not mention a date when she needs to attend the VAC by - is there a deadline for submitting her passport to the VAC? Could she wait until next month to submit the passport (due to work commitments), or should she submit her passport as soon as possible?

4) Lastly, when attending the VAC, is she able to attend at any time without an appointment as long as she brings a copy of the above email with her? Or does she need to book an appointment with the VAC beforehand, as it is unclear how to do so in cases like this?


Any help would be much appreciated!

[Appeal32011]

I received the exact email in February, and submitted my passport last week (April 29th).

The answers to your questions:

1) It shouldn’t matter, but someone else may want to comment on this. You can write a formal letter explaining the name change an attach it with the email sent to you, then submit with your passport.

2) I was told by UKVI in Sheffield that it will take 3 weeks. I have however seen cases where people had to wait for months. But these cases are exceptional.

3) No deadline to submit her passport. I submitted mine about 2 months after receiving the email, but this is because I was out of my home country on work commitments. I think it’s best to submit ASAP.

4) No need to book an appointment. Just walk in and submit your passport with a copy of the email. You may also be required to take an A4 envelope. I had to provide the envelope, but you may not have to. (I applied in Nigeria).

[lutga]

Thank you very much for the reply! Very helpful information.

Another thing I'm wondering about - we initially applied for the fiance settlement visa, which lasts 6 months (which you then upgrade once in the UK). But we got married in her country while waiting for the appeal to happen, so now it's in our interest to get the full 2.5 year period settlement visa (as we're married already).

I heard that when you win an appeal, you get the 2.5 year period visa by default - is this true?