Visa update

Well, we got the notice from the UK Border Agency today turning down Sunny’s Visa application.

They turned us down for two reasons, the first is they said we didn’t prove our relationship was genuine and ongoing, and the second was that we didn’t meet the financial requirements.

The first part was entirely our fault. We’d just sent our wedding certificate thinking that would be enough, but apparently it wasn’t.

The second part was a bit of a puzzler and I think they missed a few papers. The refusal specifically states that we don’t have a lot of cash in the bank and that I am unemployed with ‘no prospective employment in the UK’.

The reason this is a puzzler is because I actually have a job waiting for me in the UK, and had sent them the offer letter…which we didn’t get back with the rest of our documents, so I’m assuming it went awry somewhere.

Well, anyway, we have the appeal form that came with the notice and will be sending it back later this week. I’ve also contacted my prospective employer in the UK, informed him of the delay, and he’s sending me another letter to say he’s aware of the delay and he’s holding the position open for me.

Well, the good news is that it appears all this is fixable. This week, we’ll be gathering up as many pictures of the two of us together as we can find, sending copies of envelopes, ID’s and anything that shows we live at the same address, like our jointly filed tax return… as well as typing up affidavits and getting anyone who knows us to sign them stating they know we are a real couple.

We’ll also be sending our financial details again, along with my job offer letter and hope they look closer this time. The job pays £18,000 a year, plus 2.5% of commissions (That’s roughly $28500 per year), and I’ll be starting immediately after I arrive…so we should be able to support ourselves (and meet the financial requirements) on that along.

We’ll be living with my parents when we get to England, and they’ve signed a statement saying they’ll give us house room and financial support for as long as necessary, but it looks like all that info was only skimmed the first time. I sent them three months worth of mine and my parent’s bank statements, and it looks like they just looked at the bottom line on both.

Anyway, now I get to spend the next week or so switching between “I know what went wrong and this is easily fixable” to “OMGOMGOMG” sheer fucking panic every fifteen minutes.

I guess, I’ll also send them a scan of my greencard as well. If they have any idea of the number of hoops I had to jump through to get that, they’ll know we’re legit.

Anyway, keep those fingers crossed and keep sending those happy thoughts.