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It is not uncommon for the Filipina applicant and her British partner (spouse, fiancée or same-sex partner) to assume that the documents they presently have in their possession are sufficient enough to warrant a favorable result from the Entry Clearance Officer (ECO) that will decide their application.
By the way, in Manila, a recent order has been issued which took effect a few months ago ordering the applicants from the Philippines to personally send the packet of supporting documents to the UKVI Sheffield office.
Before this order to send the documents at the Sheffield Office, it was the Entry Clearance Officers (ECOs) based here at the UK Embassy in Manila who decided whether to grant or refuse a visa application.
With the recent order, however, the applicant needs to send the supporting documents to the Sheffield office (whether by scanning at the VFS UK Philippines, or by private courier), where the ECOs based in Sheffield will decide on the fate of the application (this will be the subject of another article).
Now back to the main issue. As ECO-Friendly was saying, in gathering the supporting documents for the UK Visa application, since the only basis of the Filipina applicant for the UK Spouse Visa, UK Fiancée Visa or UK Visit Visa is the list provided by the UK government website, then they will only obtain and collect the documents enumerated in this list.
The list of evidence provided in the website is not that comprehensive and so if the applicant for the UK Spouse Visa, UK Fiancée Visa, any other UK Settlement Visa or UK Visit Visa follows, complies and gather these documents, they feel assured and confident that the application is more than sufficient to merit an approval.
But this is not the case. The Filipina applicants and their British partners should read the notice above the list which states that: “This checklist is for you to identify which documents you are submitting with your application. It is not a list of documents which you must provide but rather an indication of the types of documents that are commonly submitted.”
The Philippine applicant for the UK Spouse Visa, UK Fiancée Visa, or any other UK Settlement Visa, as well as a UK Visit Visa should realize that the batch of supporting documents which each applicant should collect and gather is generally on a case to case and personalized basis.
ECO-Friendly would like to reiterate that each applicant generally has a specific personal detail and circumstance which is distinct and different from the other applicants and therefore what would be applicable (a particular set of documents) for one Filipina applicant may generally be not applicable to another Filipina applicant.
It is therefore very essential for the applicant to initially study and make a thorough research on what supporting documents are relevant to her, and not just accept the list in the UK website or adopt the list of supporting documents of another applicant which may be completely different from hers.
Of course there are the basic legal documents that are generally applicable to everyone like the passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc…. These are the main documents that each and every applicant for the UK Spouse Visa and UK Fiancée Visa or UK Visit Visa must attach with the application.
For a more detailed information on how to prevent the dreaded refusal letter, please contact ECO-Friendly or click the ECO-Friendly contact box below this article.
Next: MORE TOPICS ON HOW TO AVOID REFUSALS AND WHAT TO DO IF AND WHEN THE APPLICATION IS REFUSED