New rules from 5 March 2012

1. You need to fill and submit the visa application form online.

2. They have stopped accepting Manually filled applications.

3. Book an appointment to attend visa centre using http://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk/ApplyNow.aspx

4. For special cases ( Premium Lounge, Fast Track or Prime Time facilities ), you can book here - http://www.vfs-uk-in.com/additionalservice.html

5. No one but only YOU have to go for the appointment with :
    
     A. Printout of application form

     B. supporting docs

     C. Printout of email confirmation

For completeinformation see - http://www.vfs-uk-in.com/Book_appointment.html

I have been waiting for a long time to get my mom to the UK and I managed to submit her application a few days ago (05-MAY-2011). I thought of sharing the information required to apply a family visitor visa for UK from India. So here it it. It was my father and mother who actually went to the Kalyani Nagar office in Pune to submit all the documents required for a UK family visitor visa. I didn't have much time to collect the documents required from my side for my mom's visa before I flew to India from the UK. However I think I have managed to provide the important ones. Having said that, I would like to mention that some of those documents are photocopies of the originals and some are photocopies of the scanned documents. We submitted the following documents for my mother's family visitor visa to visit the UK (London).

1. Fund maintenance:

   My last 6 month's UK's personal account's bank statements.
   My last 6 month's UK's business account's bank statements (Since I am selfemployed now).
   My last 6 month's India's NRE account's bank statements.
   My father's last 6 month's India's personal account's bank statements.(Showing his financial support towards her.)

2. Last 6 months salary slips. I have been self employed since a few months hence I requested a letter from my auditor(accountant) and a letter from my agent. I also attached copies of Form 16 and P45 to show my earnings after I got self employed. I also submitted salary slips of my previos contract, before becoming selfemployed.

3. UK address proof:

   My UK house agreement (rented house)
   or/and
   Council tax bill

4. Proof of house in India

   Indian home tax copy. This is to show that my mum will return back to India as she has a house there and that she has not come to the UK for any kind of employment. See a visa refusal example . Also See the list of visitor's visa documents which could have avoided this refusal.

5. Letter from my agency mentioning that I have a contract with them (Same as mentioned above).

6. Letter from my auditor mentioning that I am self employed and that my company's name is XYZ and what were my earnings(Same as mentioned above).
   Forms P45 and P60 to support the earning figures mentioned in the letter.

7. My parents marriage certificate. Since they didn't have one, they provided an affidavit.

8. Full 36 pages photo copy of the passports of my mother, father, myself and my wife.

9. Details and passport copies of the person who will escort my mom. (my wife was going to escort her but that was not possible due to time constraints)

10. Copy of my limited company's certificate.

11. Invitation letter to the British High Commision by me to my mother. Click the link on the left to view the invitation letter.

12. Visa Fees - Rs. 5700

13. UK family visitor application form

I would like to mention some points here. My mother is a housewife and though she has a bank account. We did not show the funds maintained by her as the amount of funds was not significant. Hence we decided to show my Fathers fund maintenance along with mine. To prove the relation between my parents, we provided the marriage certificate (or affidavit). There is no hard and fast rule which mentions the exact amount of funds that need to be maintained by the sponsor (me) or the candidate (mother / father). Some say maintenance of £550 for 1 dependant for 6 months is enough. On the other hand some say you require £3000 maintained for 6 months. But I don’t think there is any hard and fast rule. I maintained around £2000 for 3 months before applying. During the last stages of these 3 months my balance was £4000 and just a few days before applying it was around £8000. However, I think showing around £1500 should be enough as some of my friends were students in the UK when they got their parents here and maintaining high sums of money for for long periods is not very easy for students. Hence I would say £1500 should be enough. Its just my opinion, though. You can find some guidelines here - Guide to fill UK Family visitor form. The proof of a house in India is required to show that my mother will return India after her visit and has not come to the UK with the intension of working here. It has been 5 working days and we have not heard from the home office. However they told us to contact them after 10 days. Click on the following to know the --> Visa processing times.

Even after 10 days I did not hear anything from the Visa people. Hence I emailed them on the address 'Infouk.westin@vfshelpline.com'. I got a reply from them which is here - reply from UK visa Helpdesk.

Latest update on my mother's visa ( 1st June 2011): This morning my mom received a text (SMS) from the VFS helpline saying "Processed application delivered to Blue Dart on 01 Jun 2011 AWB NO.: In transit". Which means a decision is made and I hope it is a success. I think the passport should be delivered by 1 or 2 days. We applied her visa on 5th May 2011 and got an SMS today (01-JUN-2011). So it took about 27 days for VFS to deliver the visa. I might take 2 to 3 days more for the passport to arrive. So I would say it took 1 month for the whole process. This being summer time in the UK, there must have been a lot of applications and hence the delay. I will let you guys know about the end result as soon as I come to know about it.

Update as on 2nd June 2011 -  My mother's passport and all the documents we submitted while applying for her visa have arrived via Bluedart. However there is no one home right now, so my brother or Dad will open the packet and the passport and will let me know if the visa is stamped on the passport or not later in the evening. Fingers crossed !

Update as on 3rd June 2011 -  My brother just called me and told me that my mother got her visa for 6 months :)

My mom will fly to the UK on 16th June 2011. If you have any doubts regarding the above, please comment below and i will comment back with my knowledge about the question. After about a month I applied visitor visa for my Father and he also also joined us. Today is 31-October-2011 and he is here in the UK. He will return back on 19th Nov. My Mother returned to India after about 2 to 2 and half months as she was too sensitive to cold. I postponed her air ticket after she was here and then had to prepone it again as the winter approached. For every change Air India charged about Rs 5000. And for the single change in the dates of the tickets for my Dad for the Muscat Airlines, I was charged around Rs 3000.

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