We'll Be Visiting The Queen!

I am sooo excited! We're finally going to visit the Queen in December... perhaps not really the queen but the queen's castle and her subjects. Hehe! Of course, we will be visiting my brother-in-law and his family because that is the main purpose of our visit in London. And I am just happy! I remember going to Munich for our UK VISA application last Friday, November 13th and last Sunday, November 22nd, our passports with the UK Visa arrived in the mail. That was quick! It's only valid for six months though because I didn't know that I can apply for a longer term like 1 or 2 years. So much for my excitement. Well, we can always go back to Munich to apply again. And next time, I'll know better.

So now I'm busy again preparing our itinerary. There are lots to see in Great Britain I know... There's the Stone Henge, the Eye, Big Ben and London Bridge, Bath, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, etc. With only two weeks to spare, I know we should make the most out of it. Any suggestions and travel advice?

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Off To Munich for our UK Visa Application

So last Friday the 13th was the day. We drove for 2 and a half hours to Munich and arrived at around eleven. We were too early for our appointment, which is at 12:45 so we decided to have brunch first. The navigation brought us to McDonalds, the nearest fast food we could find. We took our time eating... We ordered the Bacon Burger meal and it was not bad, the patty was juicy and the burger itself was not bland. Nope, not bad at all. We realized we didn't have enough cash and so we searched for an ATM. We are not used to carrying cash anymore as most transactions here can be paid with debit cards. Blame it on the debit cards.

Then we headed back to the Application center and arrived just in time. We were then ushered into the Application Center and submitted our documents. Although we had three different appointment times, we went in together. Hubby was first and the application officer got all our supporting documents: travel itinerary, invitation letter from relative and copy of his permission to stay in the UK, copy of our marriage contract, bank statement, hubby's letter of employment, copy of his payslips. I made three copies each thinking that they will need a copy for each of us. The officer only took one copy. The rest was given back to me. So much for all the trouble that I went through printing and copying them. After checking all the documents, the officer then took hubby's biometrics. He had his fingers scanned and had his photo taken. The same process went for me. Samantha is still exempt from the biometrics since she is still very young.

We also paid €30 each for the courier services. €15 for sending the documents to the British consulate in Düsseldorf and another €15 for returning the documents back to us. The document envelopes and the return envelopes that I prepared were also not used, as the agency provided them. Well, I just thought to myself, at least I had everything prepared, just in case.

We were finished with our application at around 1:30 PM. It took less then an hour for the three of us. Not bad. Now, all we need to do is sit back and track our application online. We just hope that things will go well and that by December, we can go visit the queen, my brother in law and his family, and the London Bridge.

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Applying for a UK VISA

Sometimes, it is difficult to travel when you are a Filipino because you have to get a VISA to enter other countries. And the processing takes time, money and effort. The process can sometimes be tedious too. And while we have a Schengen Visa and can travel to most European countries, we still need to get a UK Visa because UK is not a member country of the Schengen Agreement.

I have started processing our application last July because we initially planned to go in August. That was postponed due to unavoidable circumstances and we had to move our appointment date at a later time, which is on Friday, November 13th. We plan to spend the Christmas Holidays with my brother-in-law and his family in London. The application is done and paid for ONLINE, which is quite an easy task. Once you have completed the online application, you will receive an email confirmation and will then be asked to make your appointment online to submit your application. But the process doesn't end there because you still have to go to the VISA Application Center either in Munich, Berlin or Dusseldorf to submit your documents and have your biometrics taken. These things we will do on Friday at the Application Center in Munich.

Generally, the following are the required documents:

All applicants

• A valid travel document or passport
• One passport sized colour photograph. This must not be more than 6 months old. (They are very strict when it comes to photographs and the following should be followed:
• Colour
• Passport style and size (45mm high x 35mm wide)
• A recent and true likeness, showing full face, with no hat, helmet or sunglasses, although you can wear everyday glasses
• Original - that is not digitally or optically altered (for example it must not be ‘photoshopped’ or ‘touched-up’)
• Taken against an off-white, cream or light grey background so that your features are clearly distinguishable against the background
• Printed on low-gloss, plain-white photo-quality paper (with no watermarks or embossing)
Photographs that do not conform to these standards will be rejected and may cause a delay in processing your application.

• The appropriate fee
• If you are not a national of the country in which you are applying, evidence of your permission to be in that country e.g. a residence permit, visa, green card
• Evidence to support the information you have given (see below for more details)
• Previous passport(s)
• Evidence of how your trip is to be funded

Personal Details section

• Unless single, please provide evidence of your marital status e.g. marriage or civil partnership certificate, divorce certificate, death certificate
• You may be asked to present written notification from the child’s parent or legal guardian that they consent to the child’s visit (including evidence from your legal guardian to support their claim to be your legal guardian)
• The official record of any conviction(s), detailing the crime(s) you were convicted of and the sentence(s) you received

Finances and employment

• Evidence of your current employment/self employment/occupation/work/studies/other means of support
• Evidence of your total monthly income from all sources of employment or occupation after tax
• Evidence of any income from other sources e.g. friends, family, savings, property etc

Family visitor

• Evidence of the family member(s) in the UK that you intend to visit. This could be a copy of their bio data page (the page containing their photograph) from their UK passport or EEA passport/ID card; or if they are not a UK/EEA national, evidence of their permission to stay in the United Kingdom e.g. copy of letter granting leave to remain from the Home Office, copy of stamps/visas in their passport(s) along with a copy of their bio data page (the page containing their photograph) from their passport, etc.
• Letter from family member/sponsor, supporting the visit

All these documents I have to finalize and prepare so that things will go smoothly on Friday. Our biometrics (fingerscans and photograph) will also be taken on Friday. After that, we will send our documents to the Full Service VAC in Düsseldorf. I have to make sure that a return envelope and a fee of €15 is included with our application so that our documents will be returned to us via courier. Quite confusing eh? I, myself, am confused. I guess we will be able to sort this all out come Friday. I guess we can always ask the officials. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

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