Settlement Visa Approved and in the post - Bogota Office

[odee]

Guys

Ive been reading here for months now trying to clue-up on the process for getting my Wifes visa in the event of us returning home to the Motherland. I have to say, first of all, for anyone new to this process it can be stressful to do (reading the forums top to bottom). I say this because in general I came across about 90% worrisome posts and only a few people tended to post success stories with good method to go with it.

Of the success stories I read, many were from appeal or after a long winded, horrible process and most speak of being apart from ones family for months on end.

So, I thought it might be nice to contribute a bit to the Win column for anyone in need of some de-stress.

Not long ago I received a job offer in the UK, luckily they were willing to wait more than the 4 week standard for my start date. This was paramount as it then gave my Wife and I time to get sorted at this end (latin america country).

The FIRST thing we did was appoint a Visa Advisor who, to be honest, helped us more with what we DIDNT need rather than lead us into supplying a package of a million documents. His advice was to keep it small and neat, make the decision easy by not flooding the ECO with information. Answer the main questions but dont over-answer. The advisor helped us by putting together a list of what we need, gave us a couple of weeks to go and collect those documents, then put together the pack for submission.

From application to Approval - 2 weeks. Total time spent gathering documents for application - about 2 weeks. So we were looking at about a month total...

Ok, the documents list. We kept it minimalistic and ordered and Ill try to be as precise as possible.

PROOF OF RELATIONSHIP:
Marriage Cert (original, its in Spanish, dated October, we are newlywed)
Marriage Cert Translated
Photos from 2009 until present including us both and various family members, (Hand Labelled) Couple of photos from weddingonly 3 or 4 tops.
Emails dated from early 2009 until present
Email Flight Confirmation from my arrival to current country to be with Wife

WIFE:
Degree (original in Spanish, we apostilled it but they told us it wasnt required - this was not sent to Bogota, they gave it back at the application appointment)
Copy of Degree (Certified for sending to Bogota)
Degree Translated
IELTS Letter
Passport Photos
Passport
3 months payslips
3 months payslips Translated
3 months bank statements
3 months bank statements translated (showing Wifes salary, my salary and sale of car, my salary highlighted in particular)
Bank Account Contract listing me as a user of Wifes account
Bank Account contract translated

ME:
Copy Extract Decree of Divorce (Stamped as COPY)
Sponsorship Undertaking Form completed.
Letter of Support for Wifes Application and brief explanation of our relationship and reasons for settling in UK etc.
Passport for Presentation at Embassy
Copy of Passport photo page to go with Letter of Support
Current Visa for Presentation at Embassy
Copy of Visa to go with Letter of Support
3 months payslips
3 months payslips translated
Employer letter in English stating salary and account paid to, linking my salary to Wifes bank account
Letter of Offer of Employment in UK, Original signed by Director of company.
Contract of Employment, Original, stating salary and start date etc. Signed by Director of company.

ACCOMMODATION
Letter of Accommodation By Owner stating we are guests, how many rooms, address, ownership, we would be rent free etc.
Copy of Owners passport
Owners last Council Tax Bill (Annual)
Copy of Owners Land Register (title for his home)

The appointment was made for the following Monday. We both attended but they told me to wait outside and didnt even ask to see me.

We got an email two days later to say RECEIVED by Bogota, and the other day we got an email to say APPROVED and on its way to local Embassy for pickup. We are just waiting for the email to say when it arrives. We applied two weeks ago and should be arriving TOGETHER in the UK next week.

I hope this helps, please ask any questions and I will try to be precise and full in response.

Thanks guys, lots of good information here, I hope this is a sound contribution.

O'D

[odee]

I'm sorry all, in my haste and excitement I wrote the wrong titla, I meant entry clearance, not settlement! Idiot.

[markworton]

interesting... my wife is ecuadorian, I am a british national in the UK waiting for her to join me, if you can give me a little advice before she send the papers as she will be mailing her application to Bogota next Tuesday 22nd Nov.

Just after info mainly about how recent does the evidence have to be? bank statements, pay slips, skype calls, emails etc as we will be submitting about month old papers as when we filled the applicaion online (26th october) our next appointment for biometrics was 22nd november. So do you think we would need to gather more evidence post the application date? (26th Oct)