Advisory on couriers

Please take note:  if a given courier needs to see air tickets prior to submitting your application, please send me a pm, or let somebody know.  This is BANG out of line and we need to start getting aggressive about it.  The Communications Officer at VSD has confirmed to me that the courier will be spanked if I complain to the courier and they don't straighten up. 

There are no entry clearance applications in the entire VSD programme that require the applicant to purchase tickets beforehand, with the sole exception of urgent T5 Creative.  And *CERTAINLY* not for visitor or settlement. 

Secondarily, I am reliably (quite reliably in fact) informed that courier services are starting to advertise a premium service which includes a consultation with an "immigration expert".  They claim to be doing this under the aegis of VSD as an "officially authorised commercial partner".  At the moment, this is taking place in the countries with awkward consulates, so North America has not been hit with this yet. 

This is exploitation and a sham.  I can't be surfing the net all day, so if you encounter a courier offering such a service in North America, please PM me.  I hope this infection does not reach North America. 

Are any of the US couriers asking for tickets? Specifically ones based in Chicago? I'm meeting with them next week.

Also, can you expand on the other point about consultations? Are you saying that couriers should not provide any service other than delivery of documents? What prevents one of them from utilising their knowledge of the way the visa process works?

Cheers

Mark

To your first question:  Facilitators and couriers are NOT supposed to be requiring air tickets, or even evidence of travel but some are doing this, and it's visible on their sites.  This practice runs contradictory to long standing Foreign Office policy.  If you notice that a courier is doing this, please alert me so I can lodge a complaint and follow up with VSD.

Second question:  Facilitators and couriers are absolutely NOT to engage in activities that would be regulated were they based in the UK.  Among these things are [1] which type of visa a person should apply for; [2] what supporting documents the applicant should provide; [3] how to fill out the application form; [4] provide immigration advice; [5] influence the decision of the ECO.  Among the things they are permitted to do are [1] tell an applicant how to apply; [2] tell an applicant when their application is ready to pick up; and so on.   If this is not clear, your contact point would be Andrew Brodie in the VSD Information Services Team.  He's one of yours, and is prepared to explain what they can and cannot do.

The reasoning behind this is that the Parliament believes these activities should be regulated, but has no control on what happens beyond our borders.  More to the point, Facilitators and couriers operate with privileged access to the consulate, and this makes people believe they are official.  On a practical level, when they are wrong, they create needless tragedies.  Even if it's only 1% of the time, it's not worth it.  And besides, VSD *says* they are not supposed to do it.

So if you see a facilitator or courier doing this, let me know.  Confidentiality assured.   

Also, can you expand on the other point about consultations? Are you saying that couriers should not provide any service other than delivery of documents? What prevents one of them from utilising their knowledge of the way the visa process works?

JEP is the most notable, though it was a courier to NYC: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=48267.0

Here are a couple other examples of couriers over stepping their bounds:
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=42669.0
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=49241.0

I suspect we see just a sliver of the stuff that actually goes on.  I realise a lot of them feel empowered but it can get really dicey.  Checking documents are there are one thing, but these are cases where they did more then that.  The travel one is quite funny, because it is so contrary to what the proper advice is.

After using a courier in Los Angeles and getting my fiance visa the next day, I felt so much gratitude for her.  I mistakenly felt she had gone the extra mile for me.  It is such a stressful time when going through all the steps necessary to be with the person you love.  I have heard several others on this board mention the same courier that I had used.  Garry, I told you in a PM of my experience with her, but felt I should also speak up on the open forum. 
I had not found this site when I submitted my app and so didn't really know any better. During my initial call to her, she advised me that I needed proof of travel.  A roundtrip reservation.  After calling the airlines, I found that they will only hold the reservation for two days.  I called her to ask her advice and was told to reserve the tickets, print out the reservation and then cancel it.  I could then show that I had indeed made travel arrangements.  What I did instead was to go ahead and buy roundtrip tickets.  She assured me that I would definately have time to get my visa before the travel date (which was only a week away) I now know that no one should buy their tickets ahead of time and was in fact very fortunate that I didn't loose money on those tickets.
 I thought it was wonderful that she took the time to look through all my paperwork.  She even took several items out and handed them back telling me they weren't needed.  She wrote notes on several of my documents and re arranged the order they were presented.  I was impressed and relieved because I thought surely I would have been denied had I presented it wrong.  I was super impressed when she pointed out to me that I had submitted the wrong online app.  I needed the fiance visa but had submitted the spousal form.  Imagine my gratitude when she wrote across the printed form that it should be the fiance visa form instead of me having to pay again and re file as she said they would make me do. She told me the next day after I received the call from the consulate that my visa had been issued that she had spoke to them on my behalf.  She said that she explained the wrong form being submitted and assured them that I was a good candidate for immigration as I simply wanted to come marry my fiance. (Isn't that what most of you here want?)
I was also relieved when we discussed my work.  After explaining to her that I will be doing computer work for US based videographers and get paid from the US, she said that they would not disallow me doing that. In fact she said that if I were getting paid from the US than it wouldnt even be considered working in the UK.
Little did I know that if I had not found this site when I did, and proceeded to work, I would be in serious trouble. 
In fact, after reading here, I began to realize that a lot of what she said and did was completely over stepping her bounds. I then began to feel foolish.  Foolish for feeling so grateful to her for helping me to get my visa.  My app was pretty straight forward and I now know that I would have received it anyway.  I was at a pretty vulnerable point in my life then though and grasping at whatever straws I could find to help my in my move to the UK.
Too many times, OPs find this site AFTER dealing with couriers such as I did.  Only by speaking up can anything be done to change it. 
I could have easily lost my airline tickets.  More importantly, I could be facing a 10 year ban had I came here and worked as she said I could.  Please don't take everything a courier tells you as gospel.  They are simply COURIERS

Did anybody else have something like this?

Or any other thing closely allied to that type of experience? 

I used the same courier as Lisapower, she did go through my docs, but to my knowledge she didn't remove anything, and advised me to add some more financial details (a budget and my husband's latest pay stub, which he hadn't yet received when he gave me his docs).  On the day that they reviewed my app, she called to tell me that I needed to fax the ECO a letter stating the date that I planned to travel.  I said that I hadn't bought tickets yet, and she assured me that I didn't need tickets, I just needed to state in writing what day I wanted to leave.  I did that, and my visa was issued a few hours later, with the date I had faxed them as the first day of validity.  As my experience was pretty recent--last week--I hope this means that she's not still telling settlement visa applicants that they need to make flight reservations before they apply, but of course I don't know that for sure, I only know what she told me. 

Update.

We're going to need more narratives and personal experiences from people who have had difficulties with advice and other misbehaviour from couriers.

ILPA was going to represent on this on 9 Dec, but for some reason they got it crossed-wired with something else and didn't even bring it up.  It's one of the rare times they have missed the point completely.  Had I known they were going to make a dog's breakfast out of it, I would have put it in with the other UKY stuff.  They said it was global and not just an American thing, and therefore they wanted to do it, then they botched it.  Oh well...  Water over the dam.

If you have instructed a courier who tried to get you to purchase air tickets in advance of your application; or if they meddled with your bundle of evidence, or if they told you some 'expert' advice which was flat-out wrong, please PM me.  I will take it to VSD in January.  Promise.

Keep those cards and letters coming folks.

Here are a couple other examples of couriers over stepping their bounds:
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=42669.0
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=49241.0

Garry i wanted to make comment on the International passport and Visa couriers in  LA . We went to them as well (in mid July) and were rather jostled around by them. I didn't think much of it then but i remember her asking me if i wanted to remove something ( i think it was about Payslips, i had a big stack of them, i said no). Also as much as they helped, I think they did more Damage, they never told me when my visa was approved (the consulate never emailed me either for that matter) I had to call them and ask them again if their was any news after i was told it would take 6-8 weeks. Apparently it was approved the day i was told that it would take that long. I kept getting different answers to the same question. I agree that they should be looked into. I know id never refer anyone to them.