What does your FLR look like?

I have cause to be a bit concerned about my visa. I have an FLR that's just a stamp in my passport. There's a ref number written in at the top and then the words, "Leave to remain in the United Kingdom . . . "  At the bottom it has the date which is two years from the time I applied and then a Home Office stamp. Is this similar to everyone else's visa?

I don't really doubt that something is wrong, but a recruitment agent I talked to recently said this doesn't look like the ones she's seen before.

Well, my spouse visa has my picture on it.....and a big ivory bit with a bunch of different info (like spouse of....., no access to public funds etc.)  It does say when i have to leave by....

then they stamped it with the date.  a normal immigration stamp.

Takes up a page in my passport

I have cause to be a bit concerned about my visa. I have an FLR that's just a stamp in my passport. There's a ref number written in at the top and then the words, "Leave to remain in the United Kingdom . . . "  At the bottom it has the date which is two years from the time I applied and then a Home Office stamp. Is this similar to everyone else's visa?

I don't really doubt that something is wrong, but a recruitment agent I talked to recently said this doesn't look like the ones she's seen before.

That's it

DON'T EVER believe what recruitment agencies say -- half(maybe more than half!) they are talking out of their a$$e$!

 

Can I ask when you obtained your visa?

Ok, I'm calming down a little bit now. Thanks DUC.

DUC does have a point.

i got mine at the Embassy in NYC

I entered on a Fiancee Visa (very pretty colourful sticker taking up a whole page in my passport).

I got my FLR at Croydon and it's an icky hard-to-read black ink stamp that sounds pretty much like exactly what you have, twisted (& DUC).

Because your ability to work is based on marriage/settlement, rather than on a work-specific type visa, some employers are unfamiliar with the fact that that exact stamp means you're legal to work.

Cheers, guys. I wouldn't trust the Home Office to scrape moss off a tree so when this woman told me this didn't look like the spousal visas she'd seen before my heart skipped about four beats in a row. Sounds like it's fine, though.

Thanks again, everyone. I do believe you've just saved the NSH hundreds of thousands of pounds in treating a heart attack victim.

~Michelle

I got mine in the first days of October, 2004 in Croydon and it's just an ugly black stamp....

That's it. You'll alright. When I came in 5 years ago, the stamp was a big massive thing, took an entire page with all sorts of text. The following year I came back from the States, and the IO at Brum airport said, oh, we've changed the stamp and re-did it. The new stamp isn't much larger than any other stamp, entirely innocuous looking. You're golden.

I don't really doubt that something is wrong, but a recruitment agent I talked to recently said this doesn't look like the ones she's seen before.

They are still switching over to the new format, like Amiloo got.  It's likely the recruitment agent was accustomed to seeing a spouse or dependent of someone on a work permit - or else they didn't know what they were talking about. 

Last year I started sending out letters like this - on full stationery and what-not - for spouses coming in from Eastern Europe:


Dear Ms Finewood:

I have examined your passport and the visa(s) therein, and I can confirm that you are entitled to work in the UK. The appropriate authority is Section 8 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1966 as amended on 4 May 2004, and the stamp in your passport bears this out.

Briefly, you entered the UK in March 2004 as a Russian national fully documented as the spouse of a British citizen, and you are on a migration path leading to full British citizenship in 2007. Accordingly, you may take employment of any type including directorships and self-employment. You will need a National Insurance Number when you begin working.

Please show this letter to your prospective employer and ask them to contact me if they need further information on your status in the UK. Of course they may contact the Home Office directly at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, Lunar House, 40 Wellesley Road, Croydon CR9 2BY; telephone 0870 606 7766.


Of course it's daft to have to do this, but when they show it, it's like a silver bullet.  I would not expect that Americans need them, but certainly if it helps, just let me know...