ILR - Personal Appointments

[David&Em]

My wife's and step-daughter's settlement visas expire on 17th April and today is the first day of the 28 days prior to expiry on which I believe I can make an appointment. Been on-line early this morning and no personal appointments for SET(M) available at Croydon, Birmingham, Cardiff, Sheffield or Liverpool right through into May, which leads me to a few questions

1) What are my chances of getting an appointment before their visas expire
2) Can I arrange an appointment, should I find one, after expiry date without problems.
3) Should I expect new appointments might appear on Monday and just try again then.
4) Will I have any better luck trying the phone line on Monday?
5) If my luck is out, how long should I expect a postal application to take (my daughter goes to France with school in June and her passport will be essential).

Thanks in anticipation of some pointers here.

[Gary & Nok]

I thought you could not book an appointment more than 28 days in advance, so it is incredible that all of those offices are full already.

By all means try again on Monday but I would suggest the phone on Monday as well, hopefully you won't be kept hanging on too long.

You MUST apply, if need be by post, BEFORE the last day visa runs out otherwise you will create problems for yourself.

As for the length of time I am afraid I am not sure these days, but sure someone will know. Hopefully you would be lucky and get the passport back in time for June.

[m0ntecarl0]

Ive been monitoring the on-line appointments since January....my wife's Spouse visa expires May 27th and yesterday I got an appointment for April 29th (28 days before visa expires) to get her ILR (SET M) - basically you HAVE to book way in advance - I booked 10 weeks before my wife's visa expires - if you dont think it an be very difficult to get an appointment although there are cancellations that appear frequently.

Suggest you telephone on Monday and sure you will get an appointment in the next week or so.

Good luck

[m0ntecarl0]

Basically all on-line appointments are made available 9-10 weeks before you need to apply - they seem to all go on a daily basis - think the emfasis is for people to book on-line (90% are now processed on-line).

How easy is it to get to Lunar House in Croydon by train?

[-Keith-]

I'm pretty sure that your Daughter will not require her passport for a school trip to France, there has been mention of this on here before. Someone like Tobias will probably remember.

[-Keith-]

Found the relevent post

Here's a link that will tell you what the school will need to do:

http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/Do-you-...n-visa-to.html

[David&Em]

Thanks one and all. Chris, you are spot on. Called the UKBA phone line yesterday to be informed that there are no appointments available, so it seems we will have to go down the postal application route with the possibility of a 26 week wait and the dangers that brings.

As we all are aware here you have to apply within 28 days of visa expiry, but making an appointment for a personal appearance well in advance of that 28 days is possible.

Keith, I think you can make a school trip to Europe without a Schengen visa, my daughter just did that to Belgium with another school trip following good advice from this forum taken up by her school, but she still needs her passport regardless I think you will find.

[m0ntecarl0]

Dave - was speaking to a friend who recently sent through a postal application - they got it back in less than 4 weeks!!

I can't afford to take that risk as going to LOS in June for 7 weeks with wife and son so need passports available.

Basically I think they encourage people to book 10 weeks in advance - like I say I was monitoring since January although occasionally spaces do appear for appointments in the next week or so.

Spaces are taken very quickly on a daily basis (10 wks in advance) and 90% are made on-line now.

I would keep ringing - again a friend did the same and they got a cancellation - if you can afford the time would suggest you try this route and explain the situation and sure you will get a quick appointment - may mean travelling to another PEO office in the UK though.

[David&Em]

Thanks for the advice Chris. We've actually completed everything today and the paperwork is now winging it's way to the UKBA by special delivery, arriving tomorrow, according to the Post Office. Will let everyone know how long it takes when we hear something (assuming we provided all need info). I included a mention of my daughter's school trip in the hope it might help speed things up. The last thing I want to see is her disappointed that she cannot go.