Immigrating to the UK

I was under the impression that I need to have flight tickets booked prior to application for an ancestry visa. Some Googling indicates that a flight itinerary can be used instead of a ticket.

But now I'm not so sure. Looking through the documents required on the UK Gov website I haven't seen any mention of tickets or itineraries.


Does anyone know what the requirements are in this area? Obviously would prefer not to have to booka ticket lose the money to an application rejection. But also don't want to be rejected because I was supposed to have a ticket or itinerary ready.
 
I was under the impression that I need to have flight tickets booked prior to application for an ancestry visa. Some Googling indicates that a flight itinerary can be used instead of a ticket.

But now I'm not so sure. Looking through the documents required on the UK Gov website I haven't seen any mention of tickets or itineraries.


Does anyone know what the requirements are in this area? Obviously would prefer not to have to booka ticket lose the money to an application rejection. But also don't want to be rejected because I was supposed to have a ticket or itinerary ready.
Do not book tickets until you have your visa.

Pre booked tickets is a thing for visitor visas not settlement visas.
 
For those wondering about costs, I have recently applied for a spousal visa (bio on 7 August 2023 ) and am waiting for a decision.

Because my partner and I are not married and because we are using cash savings from a few different accounts, I decided to use an agent. Here is what I am in for in ZAR (so far):

1691749502980.png

It has been stressful and expensive getting to this point.

Good luck to everyone that is on a similar journey.
 
For those wondering about costs, I have recently applied for a spousal visa (bio on 7 August 2023 ) and am waiting for a decision.

Because my partner and I are not married and because we are using cash savings from a few different accounts, I decided to use an agent. Here is what I am in for in ZAR (so far):

View attachment 1570640

It has been stressful and expensive getting to this point.

Good luck to everyone that is on a similar journey.
Breytenbachs are doing all the work around your partnership right? Ensuring it counts as a "marriage/accepted civil partnership" in UK terms?
 
Breytenbachs are doing all the work around your partnership right? Ensuring it counts as a "marriage/accepted civil partnership" in UK terms?

Yup. We had to provide proof that our relationship is "genuine" and that we have been living together for the last two years.

I sent them photos, whatsapp chat histories, letters from friends and family and plane tickets we booked together. Our agent was satisfied that was enough to prove our relationship was genuine.
 
Yes - if you don't have an address it's a problem.
They might accept the hotel address.
They accept international addresses for history - and they send a PIN in the mail to activate the account, which validates the current postal address.

Lloyds also just came through :thumbsup::thumbsup: Delivered to the hotel so that's at least good to know for future reference
 
Do not book tickets until you have your visa.

Pre booked tickets is a thing for visitor visas not settlement visas.

Not even then. I stop doing that back in 2016. Last three visas I have not included tickets or hotel accommodation.
 
For those wondering about costs, I have recently applied for a spousal visa (bio on 7 August 2023 ) and am waiting for a decision.

Because my partner and I are not married and because we are using cash savings from a few different accounts, I decided to use an agent. Here is what I am in for in ZAR (so far):

View attachment 1570640

It has been stressful and expensive getting to this point.

Good luck to everyone that is on a similar journey.

Thanks for sharing.

I too will be applying for a spousal. Since my partner and I are married and we will be using her (future) UK employment to meet financial requirement, it's a straight forward application, so will DIY it and not use an agent.
 
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For those wondering about costs, I have recently applied for a spousal visa (bio on 7 August 2023 ) and am waiting for a decision.

Because my partner and I are not married and because we are using cash savings from a few different accounts, I decided to use an agent. Here is what I am in for in ZAR (so far):

View attachment 1570640

It has been stressful and expensive getting to this point.

Good luck to everyone that is on a similar journey.
Holy crap it's gotten expensive! 17k in just breytenbachs fees :crying:
 
It's a lot. And the reason why I am not going to use them or any agent.

Just make sure you go through everything with a fine tooth comb. You screw up your app, you lose what you paid for the visa fee, and have to start all over again.
 
Just applied for my spousal visa on the 3rd of August also went through a lawyer if your application is straight forward don't waste your time with a lawyer. when I had to print the documents I was not impressed got charged so much for something you could just ask someone who went through the process to guide you.
 
If you do enough research and proper planning it's very easy to do the appliction yourself.

Just make sure you go through everything with a fine tooth comb. You screw up your app, you lose what you paid for the visa fee, and have to start all over again.

I'm going start gathering all the "evidence" I can now. The one thing I am worried about is proving we live together. Not sure if that's still a requirement if we are married with kids. Wife doesn't have much in her name that comes to the house - but she's on the title deed, so that should be good enough.

I also don't think I need to prove the relationship more than the marriage certificate - unlike an unmarried couple where there'd be a lot more documents.
 
Just applied for my spousal visa on the 3rd of August also went through a lawyer if your application is straight forward don't waste your time with a lawyer. when I had to print the documents I was not impressed got charged so much for something you could just ask someone who went through the process to guide you.

I saw this when I applied for my son's Certificate of Sponsorship. Agents wanted 10k for the application and UK Home office wanted 9k for the visa. I ended up just doing it myself and saved 10k - the info the agents gave me where incorrect - saying I had to have funds in the account and send bank statements with the application, which is ridiculous for a application of CoE - you're either British or you're not - and financial standing has nothing to do with that. So it put me off using agents.
 
I'm going start gathering all the "evidence" I can now. The one thing I am worried about is proving we live together. Not sure if that's still a requirement if we are married with kids. Wife doesn't have much in her name that comes to the house - but she's on the title deed, so that should be good enough.

I also don't think I need to prove the relationship more than the marriage certificate - unlike an unmarried couple where there'd be a lot more documents.
Title deed and marriage cert should ok.

A few photos of you together will also enforce it. If you have any invitations to weddings or such like with both your names on that will help as well.

They just want to see that you are not in a fake marriage just to get the visa.

Unless your case is complicated using a lawyer or one of these services is a waste of time. With enough research you will know more than the lawyer.

A goldmine of info here - helped me get through my application with any questions I had.

 
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