Vaf4a and setting a travel date.

[chesstar87]

hello
I am currently married to a british national
In completing a spousal form vaf4a, you are required to put in a date you will like to travel,
IF application is successful and form is approved, do you have to travel on this date or can it be delayed a few abit days/weeks or can u travel as soon as the passport is returned to you?
IF someone, to be on the safe side, put a distant day like two months in the future on the application form as the day they wish to travel. The form is approved, say within a month, and they now wish to travel Before the stated date on the form, will that be possible. I am currently dont need any sort of visa to travel to the uk for a visit, I was there earlier this year.

So for example, if I send in my application next week and put my intended travel date as 14st feb 2010 but it got approved by 1st jan 2010, is it ok to travel to the UK as a visitor and then stay there until the 14th Feb?

The reason I ask is that, I want to give my currently employers enough notice of leaving so they can get a suitable replacement.
At the same time, I miss my wife terribly and want to be with her as soon as it becomes possible. Basically, I want to travel within a week of getting back my passport to the UK, notifying my work and booking ticket maybe on the very day. But its hard set a date to do that, cos I notice huge variations in time for processing from less than a month to 4months+.

[taromiew]

The visa will be issued with the date you've specified and this is the date from which you can travel from - if it was the 14th Feb, you can only travel on or after this date (and not before). Of course you can delay your travel by a few weeks.

I don't think you can travel before the intended date as you can only hold one visa at any one time so if you get the spouse visa, the visitor's visa becomes invalid.

[chesstar87]

So if i put the date of travel as the 14th feb, and say it takes 4months to process, ie a lot longer than 14th feb, what will happen then?I guess they will automatically give u a later date than you requested?

[Danbrix]

you can only travel on or after this date (and not before)

Where does it say you cannot travel before this date? You can enter the UK from the date the visa is issued. Depending on how quickly the visa is processed, date of issue can be before or after when you said you would travel.

If you have a valid UK visa, we will not normally refuse you entry to the UK unless your circumstances have changed, or you gave false information or did not tell us important facts when you applied for your visa.

IF application is successful and form is approved, do you have to travel on this date or can it be delayed a few a bit days/weeks or can u travel as soon as the passport is returned to you?

Have a look at this.