VISA APPLICATION

Ok, finally the day has come.

I can rest from now at least - imagine all the stress and worries can go away for some time from now.

Today, we (Adam, Eden, Ann & I) went to the VFS - Bristish High Commission office for our visa application. We only were allowed to submit today because the 3 months ruling applied for student applicants. My course starts on 1st Oct.

Why such a stress to apply - let me share my 'stress' with you
1. You need to get 40 points to be eligible for application.

2. 30 points from your VISA Letter issuing from the university - this is no issue as UWE had been very helpful and promptly supplied what I need.

3. 10 points for financial evidence - I was told I was lucky as there is now straight forward amount to show to the office, unlike previously they left it discretionary and they normally use this to reject the applicants. However, because I am bring the whole family with me, so I need about RM1XX,XXX.00 to prove that I can maintain the family for a year - yes for a year- I understand previously they wanted proof for the whole duration of your study, so if that is the case, I can say bye bye to my family because that will need about half million. And that means I am a nearly a millionaire - will i still need to study in UK at my age if that is the case !!

But there is still stress for us to get the $$$, luckily with our all-wise treasurer HA Hong we can squeeze to the last drop of blood to get that figure. I almost went to sell my sperm and blood that time - just kidding :-P

4. Changing rules - it was so annoying that the British High Comm keep changing application rules - until you do not know what exactly they want. For example, the finance part has driven us crazy, at one hand they said we need to maintain the amount for at least 28days, but near July they cancel such rule.

We had bad experience with it on the dot of our application process. We went to the office early at 9am, and I am the second person submitting the application. And then the officer told me the UK has just passed down a new rule effective on 1 July that they need all BM documents be translated into English and I have children's birth certs and marriage cert to do so. We argued how come there was no grace period given for people applying on 1st July. At the end, we still have to follow the rule and spent about 3 hours to get an interpreter to get the documents done and resubmitted them in the afternoon.

So, all the documents are now sent in and they took our finger prints and photo - nearly like making a criminal record :-P
We just have to wait for the notice to collect our passport and documents back in 5 working day the earliest and 15 days the latest.

I think we are lucky to deal with UK, I am sure Oz office will be even stricter and worse experience considering their well-known strict custom control and etc

Am I right? Berrys?? :-P