on the road.........

Hi ya, we are ready to send away our application to chicago for my wife , my daughter (6 months)) , and her son (3), im a Uk citizen and was born in uk and they are looking to come to live with me.

she is going to send it away tomorrow 26/08/08 by fed ex she has all the info as follows

* our marraige cert
* my wifes birth cert
* our daughters birth cert
* her sons birth cert
* passports for me,mywife,my daughter, and her son

* visa fee print out (stamped)
* my tenency agreement
* passport photos for all 3 of them
* my payslips for the last tax year ( i had contacted woolbridge and they said this would be fine as myy work said they would have to contact them first to get info they need like my wages and time of employment i just wanted somthing else there as a back up)


* letter of support from myself
* photos of me and my wife togther
* personal letters that i sent my wife
* print outs of jobs that my wife has applied for over here
* letter explaining about why i sent in payslips with info on how and who to contact if they need info faxed from my employer


I am hoping to get a acceptance by end of sept so we can have a month to sort out moving and move at end of october.. is this realistic ? how long are they taking just now to process application.

Right now I believe it is taking just at the 20 day mark, unless you pay to use a courier which will take around 2 business days.  Just make sure to mention in the letter when you plan to travel so that they can postdate the Visa nearer to that time.

If you are renting has your wife been added to the lease or is there a letter from the owner/management company saying that they are aware that your wife and two children will be moving in and that it is okay.  I have seen where others had to do this, maybe somebody else can come along to see if this is right??

It is my understanding that if you are applying for a Spousal Visa that a marriage certificate will suffice and that photos/personal letters are not required.  In fact there was a message from Garry on here the other day about not sending personal correspondence or chat logs as they may hand it over to somebody else to read and it may take longer or they may find something 'between' the lines and its best not to include, here is the link for that:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=46439.msg654339#msg654339

I am the US Spouse of my marriage and when I sent off for mine I also included my CV (Resume) and a couple letters from current Supervisors/Managers as reference.

Good Luck!