JG,
One thing I learnt from my experience of applying EC for wife later. It was really a painful process. She was called for interview and we had to spent a fotrtune to go to another city and long painful waiting of 5 hours and then the dumb blonde Brit lady sitting behind the glass (in the interview room in HC they have this buletproof glass erected between candidate and a VISA officer - similar to those which u see in USA jails in Hollywood movies. I'm not sure whether such kind of things exist in another countries also ?) smiled and said that she just called for interview because of some confusion.
May be situation in ur country is better
And yes one more silly stupid funny thing. This was the same lady who by coincidence has corrected my HSMP EC from 2 years to 1 year, and after looking at my EC she just smiled.
And making situation more hilarious, she didn't know what does HSMP mean. My spouse had to explain the meaning of HSMP.
God save the queen and these dumb VISA officiers...