About the Spouse Visa

Hi!

My fiancé and I just received our Certificate of Approval 2 days ago. It took just over a month so we're really happy with that.

We're now starting to look into the Spouse Visa I will have to apply for once we get married. We're planning to do it in October and then go to Canada for 3 weeks to spend some time with my family and also apply for the Spouse Visa.

Does anyone know how long it is likely to take for me to receive that visa? Should I be able to receive it within the 3 weeks I'm there?

I've also heard that my then husband will have to have a certain amount of money in his account to prove he can support me. How much should he have roughly? What if I have a letter from an employer saying that as soon as I get my Visa, they'll hire me?

It is all so confusing!

Well, thank you for your help!

Catherine

Bumping this - as I have the same question!

Getting married July 30th in Greece to a British Citizen.then going back to Vancouver in September to apply for a settlement Spouse Visa.

How long is it taking to apply from Canada? I have to do this from Ottawa don't I?

Cheers, Melanie

Hi, I saw there was no response to your questions. Wondering how the process worked out for both of you. I am Canadian living in Winnipeg, marrying a Brit living in Scotland. I'll be in Canada until the wedding, and am trying to figure out the process. We are considering getting legally married before the wedding just to speed the process up and apply for a spouse visa beforehand. Any advice?

Hiya - the Canadian process is really straightfoward and quick.

Search this forum for a thread called which has a few other people's experiences: Spouse Visa - timescale/wait time?

Basically for me:

Got married in Greece in July then returned to the UK. I completed the online form in August, went in for biometrics in Vancouver on Sept 8th + sent the package off to Ottawa by ExpressPost that day and got the approval on the 12th of Sept! That was only 4 business days!

Since my husband and I met and got married quickly, I was worried about whether they'd have trouble with the speed of the relationship. So I included loads of personal proof of the relationship. In the pack I sent to Ottawa, I included:

1. A printout of the completed VAF4 UK Fiancé Settlement Visa Application form signed
2. My statement
3. Hubby’s statement
4. Passport sized photographs
5. Current Canadian Passport
6. Original Birth Certificate
7. Certified copy of Hubby’s Birth Certificate
8. Certified copy of Hubby’s passport
9. Certified copy of my previous marriage and divorce certificates
10. Certified copy of Hubby’s previous marriage and divorce certificates
11. Our new Greek marriage certificate translated to English – certified and apostle stamped
12. My bank statements
13. Mortgage and title deed documents for our newly purchased flat
14. Hubby’s last tax return indicating UK income
15. Letter from my previous employer detailing Canadian salary, duties and length of service
16. My resume
17. Wedding invitation
18. Airline tickets for Greece for the wedding
19. Copy of wire transfer to Greek caterers and hotel for wedding
20. Receipts for engagement and our wedding rings
21. Personal letters to each other
22. Personal emails (we had loads)
23. Tickets and flight stubs from when we flew to see each other
24. Personal cards from friends and family
25. Photographs
26. Mobile Phone Bills + copy of Skype activity

Hope this helps.it really is quick if you're organized. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply and these really helpful details. Can you tell me if I would be able to get my biometric data in Vancouver before applying for the visa? Do you need to set up an appt to go? I will be in Vancouver about 4 months before the wedding. Also, it looks like you applied online from the UK. Does this mean no interview, and your husband didn't have to be with you in Canada when you went for the biometric stuff?

Hello! I am not sure if anyone will be able to help???? I am an American citizen who just got married November 15th. My husband is a UK citizen. I submitted my spousal visa application 3 weeks ago. We prayed that we could be together for Christmas, but obviously didn't work. I am having a horrible time with the waiting process, and to top it off, I am pregnant. I just want to be with my husband...asap. Has anyone recently apply for a spousal visa and maybe let me know what the wait time was for them. This is, by far, the worst thing I have ever been through.

Hi weedasi11,

I have not yet applied for my visa, but have been researching for a while now. On the UK immigration website it states that the wait time for visa processing is 12-15 weeks. If you search through the forums here you will find that people have received their visas as fast as 3 days, and as long as the full 3+months. It seems that those who have received theirs faster included a letter 'begging' the office to speed their applications up.

Good luck and I hope you can be with your partner soon!

Hey dandyday!

From another 'Pegger now living in Scotland, my spousal experience was pretty straightforward (with hindesight, at the time I was fuming!). I was already living here so flew back to MB for the wedding. Got the last of the paperwork in order (like hubbies certified copy of his passport). I thought I wouldn't have to get a new passport myself (as the bloomin' people from the UK visa helpline said I wouldn't have to!...they gave me a lot of bad advice and charge +$2 a minute to do it!), but then discovered that I would have to apply for the spousal visa in my maiden name, so that it matched the passport, except I wanted to change my name. My complication also was that my passport expired one year into my spousal visa, meaning lots of complications getting a new passport and visa one year in. So decided to bite the bullet and apply for a new passport after we'd received our marriage certificate. Had to order a rush marriage certificate, which I think was $25 instead of it just arriving in the post eventually. I needed the marriage cert so I could get a new drivers licence in my married name, so had to wait for that before applying for a new passport. That was also the time when suddenly everyone needed passports to get into the States, so I was really wondering when mine would arrive. Couldn't bring myself to pay for a rush passport, not with the price of the visa bearing down on us too (think is was $1200 that summer). The passport took two weeks or so, so dropped the application in the post the second I got it. The big wait period of my ordeal was just for the stinking passport, it turned out, as I posted the application on a Monday, they emailed to say they had it on Tuesday, and Wednesday I got the email to say it was on its way back to me! I couldn't, COULD NOT, believe it! All I'd read as well was that it took weeks (back then I think they were quoting three or four). That was faster than my working holidaymaker visa, which I'd used to get here initially.

Now for the last complication...beware of this in the application. There is a question "When do you want your visa to be valid from?" Good question. Thing is you can't type any words into this box, otherwise I would have said "whenever you approve it!". So we figured, since it "will take weeks to process", we randomly chose a day about a month away. So when I got my passport on something like the 28th of the month, having had my eye on a cheap flight back over on the 2nd, I opened it to see the visa was only valid from the 20th the NEXT month, obviously, which was the day we'd written in. I was gutted. In the end, I flew over anyway as I just wanted to get back and there's no reason they can't let you in. I just had to leave the country, physically leave, there's no longer an office where I could go to just get it stamped (ie: activated). And don't go to Ireland and hope to get a stamp when you come back (again, as the frickin helpline people told me, so on their advice we went ahead and booked a holiday there for the weekend of the 20th). There's an agreement between the UK and Ireland so you don't go through customs. So...we took our holiday to Dublin, but I had to book yet another flight to Brussels, sat in the airport for 2 hours, then got on a plane to Glasgow...just so I could go through customs and get my visa stamped.

Now I'm up for my ILTR this summer...more paperwork, more money, and now my turn for this biometric stuff. As for my spousal visa, we did not include any letters begging for a speedy process, not even loads of wedding photos or our own emails or letters from folk saying they knew we were legit. Just sent what they asked. I had a letter from a UK employer saying they would hire me once I was legal, which I think was a plus, and my hubby made a decent wage and he owned our flat, which probably also looked good. I can't think of any more amazing reasons why it was approved so fast.

Hope this has been helpful!

Hi lainey,

thank you SO MUCH for your detailed reply. This has been really helpful and answered a number of questions I had that do not seem to be on any immigration website. There are so many factors to include I can't believe it! But the good news of your fast visa approval is really encouraging. Ok, so correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the process I foresee...

1. Get married in Winnipeg
2. Get rush marriage certificate
3. Change names on important docs (driver's license, health card etc.)
4. Apply for new passport in new name
5. Make online visa application
6. Go for biometric info (I DO need husband's passport or notarized copy?)
7. Submit full application requesting a visa-validity date before my booked flight
8. Wait and worry

I'm glad things worked out well for you. How do you like Scotland compared to Winnipeg?

Thanks again and I'm sure I'll be in touch with more questions.