visit visa ADVICE NEEDED PLEASE READ!

[mrsahmed]

Hi all, My inlaws appeal was granted for a visit visa to uk from Pakistan. We submitted their passports for issuing of the visa, with intended date of travel, asking for a delay for a few reasons. This was not given, visa issued from NOV 2010 -SIX MONTHS. My question is this...if they do not travel on this visa what are the chances of applying again asoon as this one expires?? I have emailed them with a complaint saing that they didnt even acknowledge our letter requesting they delay the visa. Any one had this experience?

Any advice appreciated
Thanks[/b]

[mulderpf]

I think you need to give more details.

How long did they say they were coming for and what was their intended date of travel?

[mrsahmed]

we said that they would like to travel in April 2010, I know they can not delay that long but we wasnt anticipating them issuing the visa in two weeks. We didnt give a length of stay but we did submit a letter with the passports. Main reasons being it is now winter so pointless them coming and not being able to do anything, go anywhere. Also I am heavily pregnant so not practical for them to come. They didnt even acknowledge the letter to say they are not good enough reasons. Thats why we are in two minds whether to not bring them now and when this visa expires to make another application. but have made a complaint, dont know if it will get us anywhere..but thought it was worth a try!

[mulderpf]

I think you applied a bit early for a visit visa only due to start in April next year. I also think a complaint might end up drawing out the process too long!

[mrsahmed]

no it was an allowed appeal so recieved the call letter. thats why we wrote a letter along side.

[batleykhan]

I think you have only yourself to blame if you applied for a visa in November but wanted to come 5 months later.

The most you can delay visa is 3 months, no longer than that. You will have known that on average it takes about 2-3 weeks to get a visitor visa, so why did you apply so far in advance.?

[mrsahmed]

Not playing a blame game here. Allowed appeal - call letter to submit passports - submitted passports - and no we were not to know how long it would take - whole thing going on for around a year now so wasnt to know the last bit would take less that two weeks! Was looking for some advice as to what we could do now we are in this situation.

[mrsahmed]

does anyone know if it looks bad not ever travelling on a visa then applying for another one when the first expires???

[batleykhan]

If you travel on this visa, you will not be able to apply for another visa for 6 months after this one expires.

The rules for visitor visas are that you are allowed to stay 6 months in a 12 months period.

If I was you I would make most of this visa whilst you've got it. If you dont come now, trying to get a visa again the near future could be be difficult.

[geriatrix]

You can apply for your visa within three months of your intended date of travel. We are only able to post-date visas by a maximum of three months from the date of the decision on your visa application. This does not apply to visit visas which we cannot post-date.

regards

[mrsahmed]

we already have the visa, which could have been postdated, fair enough they couldnt postdate untill april 2011 but they didnt even update for the three months which they could have. They just chose to ignore our request on when we wanted to them to travel. I am not going to give up on this one. Fair enough if we made the applications 5 months before intended date of travel, we just responded to the call letter, infact when we recieved the call letter we emailed the embassy a few times to tell them that the situation was that we wanted them to come in april but because we recieved no response from them we submitted the passports along with a letter, we felt if we didnt then we would have been critisized for not submitting them soon after we recieved the call letter. We will pursue this!!

[mulderpf]

This does not apply to visit visas which we cannot post-date.