Emergency Passports (Urgent Travel while FLR(S) Application pending)

Hi all,

I am a postgraduate student (US citizen) here in UK. I recently applied to extend my visa for year (FLR(S). It turns out that Home Office takes anywhere from 4-14 weeks to process my application. I have tried to apply in person but they have no availability for an appointment. It has been 4 weeks now and I URGENTLY need my passport to travel for a prestigious Conference. I recently got invited to a prestigious forum.  My attendance to this forum is extremely important for my postdoctoral career.

I sent three letters to Home Office Border Control explaining my circumstances along with a letter from the Conference chair & all the relevant documents. I made over 20 phone calls of which I only got through 3 times. They aren't helpful at all...It's like talking to an automated machine...

So anyway, my question is what can I do now? I have two weeks.

1) I know I can get an emergency passport and leave the country but how can I get back in without my student visa?
2) Has anyone experienced using an emergency passport to return to UK while Home Office was processing visa application?

Any help is appreciated.
Thank you!!!

I'm probably very wrong, but I think that when you have an emergency passport, thus not having the visa, the only way you can get back in is with a copy of the police report showing it was lost or stolen. Thus,probbaly not be a viable option for you... sorry... maybe someone can prove me wrong though

This may be your only option (from the guidance for your application type).

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/applicationforms/flr/guideflrs1108

If you need your passport to travel urgently and unexpectedly,
call 0870 606 7766 and give the personal
and other details listed above. Your application will be
treated as withdrawn if your passport is returned for
travel abroad before we are able to decide the application.

Edited to add: If you have enough time left on your current visa to attend the conference & return, you possibly could schedule an in person application at one of the PEO's now to be attended immediately upon your return. If your current visa has already expired, you may have no other option then to wait for your application to be processed and possibly miss the conference.

I'm pretty sure if you leave the UK (emergency passport or no) while your application is  being processed, the application will be treated as withdrawn (at least that's what I recall being the conclusion when similar situations have come up here before). If you really need to go to this conference and can get the HO to send your passport back, I suppose you could always re-apply for a new student visa from the US if your previous one has already expired...

Thank you WebyJ.

Unfortunately, my visa expires before the conference. The conference & field work is important for my degree. I need it for my degree!

the conference is not in US but in Europe . I would have been fine if it was in US.

Sorry to hear, looks like the best you can do is just wait it out and hope it comes through beforehand. But considering the other FLR's on here have been waiting up to and in excess of 14 weeks albeit for other types of FLR's you might be waiting quite a bit longer.

I would second what springhaze has said, if you do leave the UK on a second passport while your application is being processed it will be considered withdrawn. But I'm still searching for the exact thread mentioned.

Edited: I found it!

I then called the Home Office to be sure, and you can imagine my surprise to discover that they officially consider any travel, even on a 2nd passport, to be grounds for withdrawal of the visa application.

How annoying.  I hate answering PM's when an identical question has been posted on the board.  Such a waste of time.

As others have said, and as I said in PM, if you are determined to go to the conference then leaving the UK constitutes a withdrawal of the application, and to come back you will have to apply for a student visa in the US.

Vicky

How annoying.  I hate answering PM's when an identical question has been posted on the board.  Such a waste of time.

Also to anybody else, please don't send Vicky and I the same PM.  Just to cut and paste the same text into a PM to two people is tantamount to posting it in the public forum anyway.

the conference is not in US but in Europe . I would have been fine if it was in US.

you've made me curious..why would it be fine if it was in the US? You can't travel into the US from a foreign country without a passport, even if you are a USC. 

I guess then she could have gone the route I suggested, and applied for the student visa.  Unfortunately, this isn't possible from an EU consulate.

Vicky

This is basically what happened to me.  My husband also needed to travel for work.  He sent the same sort of letter, and we had zero response until suddenly our passports turned up with my new visa the day before I was due to speak at the conference in question.  That said, the waiting times then were typically 10 weeks, not 15 or whatever they are now.

So unless you want to go from the conference back to the US and re-apply for a visa from there, the only thing you can do is wait & hope.

(The US embassy will happily sell you an emergency second passport, but as Vicky said, using it before your application is processed will invalidate your application.)

Something extremely similar happened to me and first of all ignore all warnings that leaving the country will automatically withdraw your uk visa application because that is just rubbish. I had sent in my passport to change my student visa status to a tier 1 post-study work visa and after many weeks of waiting it wasn't going to be back in time for me to leave on holiday. I made an appt with the US consulate to apply for an emergency passport, downloaded the application (both of which can be done online via their website: newcomer link: http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/acs/passports/urgent.html [nonactive] ) and brought in proof i had sent my passport to the uk home office, 2 passport photos (they do have a machine downstairs you can use), my filled application and money ($100US). I explained my situation, waited for about an hour and was issued an emergency passport in which I talked with the lady about all my worries of it withdrawing my application and not being able to get back into the country. She said it happens all the time, loads of people have traveled fine with their application still being processed in the uk home office and it will not withdraw my application. She also said I might have a bit of difficulty getting back into the country but to bring every piece of evidence showing that my original passport is with the uk home office.

I left on my holiday, came back and breezed through immigration and the day after I returned my passport with valid visa was sent back to my flat.

It is not 'rubbish', it is Home Office official guidance, and you got lucky.  It is probably the case that they just don't know you left.

Vicky

I made an appt with the US consulate to apply for an emergency passport, [...] 2 passport photos (they do have a machine downstairs you can use)

Do you mean the Belfast consulate?  The Edinburgh consulate does not have a passport machine (unless it's either a very recent addition or an extremely well-kept secret).

Vicky or anyone who knows this - how WOULD anyone know a second passport had been issued?

Vicky or anyone who knows this - how WOULD anyone know a second passport had been issued?

They probably would know when you try to enter the country without a valid visa!
I don't even know how anyone would even try it- you don't know what kind of trouble you would get with immigration.