Rizzle Move Stage 1: Filled in Rachel's Visa Form!
I have spent a little while today helping Rachel fill out her Visa application form via the UK4Visa website. It was fairly straight-forward, though expensive, process. I wasn't sure what to expect of the UK4Visa website, but I had hoped it would be a full website that would allow us to open a session that we could later return to in order to book a biometric appointment and pay; and more or less that's what it was, but what I didn't expect was that in order to confirm and retain the appointment you'd first have to pay. They spring that on you as a late surprise. But I didn't mind, I have been saving money so the ~£900 that they wanted could be paid for. The bank declined the transaction twice, so I called up to let them know it was okay, and they could remove the block they'd kindly placed on the card in order to protect me from suspicious behaviour. Though we don't plan to submit the visa application until the end of the month, it seemed to us better to start earlier so Rachel could have the choice of dates when it came to booking an appointment to submit her biometric information. I'll be curious to know what these biometric appointments are like, but I'm guessing they'll just take a photograph in various wavelengths of various parts and that'll be it. It's a security thing, and I can see why they might want you to do it once. What confuses me is that Rachel will have to do the same thing here after we get married in January when we do the spouse visa application which will allow Rachel to stay for 2 years. One can assume that's because it's a "blanket rule" that requires every visa application to be accompanied by a separate set of biometric data. But they could be a bit more intelligent, and say that you are required to do it if you've not submitted recently. At any rate, it's a stage in the process that we have completed. The online application has been completed and we're one step closer to Rachel being here with me. And it's encouraging, it's good we've started the process, but it seems like just the beginning and I'm only really interested in the end, when we're together and then perhaps life, in some more meaningful sense, can begin.