The UK Visa Application Process

The UK Visa Application Process When Applying Outside The UK

Should you be applying from outside the UK in your country of residence for a UK Visa, the application process with our full representation service will be as follows:

• You would sign up for our service by paying our professional fee and agreeing to our Terms and Conditions.
• Once done, we would send you our detailed document list, document templates and everything you need to start gathering the required supporting documents.
• Once you have gathered all the documents needed, you would need to provide them to your dedicated UK Visa Expert at First Migration for checking.
• Once we are happy, we have received all the supporting documents we need, we will set up the online application form.
• Once the form has been filled out, we will submit the online application form on your behalf, and use your credit/debit card to pay the government fee, the NHS Surcharge, and the Priority Service fee (if you want a decision in 6-8 weeks rather than 12-14 weeks).
• Once we have completed the online submission process, we will be able to print off the forms you need to submit and book your appointment at the VFS Global or TLS Contact Visa centre in your country of residence.
• Should the visa centre in your country of residence be operated by TLS Contact, we will fully upload all your supporting documents onto their system, so we can guarantee the approval and ensure no mistakes are made that could lead to refusal.
• Should the visa centre you are attending be operated by VFS Global, your supporting documents will be taken to a location in the UK for scanning.
• At this step, all the applicant is required to do is attend the biometric visa centre appointment, have their digital fingerprints and photo taken, and hand them their passport for the visa to be stamped in once the UK Visa application has been approved. The visa centre will forward the applicant’s current passport to the local British Embassy or British High Commission, as they will need the passport to stamp the Entry Clearance Visa paper vignette once the UK Entry Clearance Officer has made a decision.
• After a few days or weeks (depending on the category of visa applied for and the British Embassy/High Commission making the decision), you should receive an email to say that a decision has been made on your application. Please note that this is always the most stressful part of the process for our clients, as the Entry Clearance Officers (ECO’s) email will not confirm the decision, they will simply state that a decision has been made. This means that you will only find out whether the application has been successful when the applicant goes back to the visa centre and collects their passport back. Rest assured that our clients always receive an approval letter back with their passport, and the passport will contain the Entry Clearance Visa.
• All UK Visas that are issued for longer than 6 months must nowadays be issued as a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) Visa ID card. Should your visa issued be for longer than 6-months, the passport will be returned with a 30-day Entry Clearance Visa stamp to allow you to fly to the UK to collect the BRP Visa card from a specific Post Office when you arrive in the UK.
• All you must do now is ensure you arrive in the UK before the Entry Clearance Visa expires (and collect your BRP Visa ID card if your visa is valid for longer than 6-months)!

As we have outlined, the application process for applying within and applying from outside the UK is slightly different.  As we manage each step of the process from preparing, submitting and securing UK Visas daily, letting us help you with this process can give you the peace of mind that securing your UK Visa approval will not be a stressful experience.