Apply for a Family Visit Visa when initial visa still valid.

[da_tnt]

Hi,

I am planning to get my mother in law in December when my wife will be giving birth.

I applied for the visa very early (june 2012) and I have specified in the application that she will be here for 1 month (december 2012 to January 2013).

I thought that the 6 month period start from december and that if she needs to stay longer or come back later (by june 2013) her visa will still be valid.

But the problem is that the visa ends 1 week after the birth date.

I know that I can extend the visa from the UK but I don't want to do it and it costs a lot.

My questions are:

1/ Can I apply for another visa before the other one expires? ie if I apply in september and it gets approved in october, it will be valid untill april 2013.

2/ Can I apply for a 12 months family visit visa knowing that she already came last year on a 6-month visa? (I was told if you get a 6-month visa, you can apply for a 1 year one then a 2-year then 5 - year)?

3/ My wife's sister would like to come for a visit/tourism prior to her due date and she can apply for general visitor or family visitor. Does it affect future applications if I get more and more people sponsored through family visit path rather than them applying on their own for a general visit visa. Because i notice there is a question in every application "have you ever sponsored someone before in the last 5 years" and who?

Thanks for the advice.

[da_tnt]

any suggestions?

[da_tnt]

anyone?

[MPH80]

1) Yes

2) Yes - you can - and the theory is that you step through like that - but there's no guarantee of success and they may choose to issue a 6 month visa anyway.

3) If you sponsor your sister - that's fine if you can afford it. There are two reasons that question is useful - firstly to spot anyone mass sponsoring and secondly to stop one person sponsoring every member of their family when they can only support one.


M.