Vignette Transwer

My Wife just received her password and documentation back yesterday and I was expecting a good bit of time to enable me to have the funds for her flight, unfortunately has some personal circumstances cause a problem with that so wasn't able to work for a while, just got back into work, however there is no way I could save the amount of money required for her to fly within 30 days.

 I did see however you can pay a fee to transfer it, if it's not used in time but I didn't see if there is a maximum limit on how long you can hold out until renewal, say a month or 2 after it's expired to get a replacement and is this a big hassle?.

Regards,

Gary

Congratulations on getting the visa .

I did see however you can pay a fee to transfer it, if it's not used in time but I didn't see if there is a maximum limit on how long you can hold out until renewal, say a month or 2 after it's expired to get a replacement and is this a big hassle?.

You can pay a fee to transfer it - it's currently £169, but is reducing to £154 from April 6th when the new fees come in.

I believe though that you'll need to wait until after the vignette has expired before you apply for a vignette transfer, and the transfer involved filling out a new application form, I think you may need to do biometrics again, and then it needs to be sent off to New York for processing... which could take a few weeks (or you could pay for priority processing which is £184 at the moment, but going up to £212 on April 6th, but that's even more money)

I'm not sure if you can request a date a certain amount of time ahead, but, to be honest, by the time you actually apply for it and receive it back, a couple of months could well have passed anyway.

Bear in mind though, that the actual visa (the BRP card) will only be valid for 33 months from the date the visa was issued in March, so you'll need to make sure you enter the UK within 3 months of that date (i.e. by June), or the visa will expire before you qualify for the next one.

Rather than applying for a vignette transfer, is there any way you could borrow the money from family or friends for a flight now, or put the flight on a credit card or something, so that she can fly within the 30 days?

It could be much more expensive to fly in the summer anyway, which means even more money you need to save, so you might end up saving yourselves a couple of hundred pounds (or more) in airfare if she flies sooner rather than later. Not to mention, the cost of transferring the vignette, plus using priority processing if you chose to, plus the shipping to and from New York, would probably cover a good chunk of the airfare anyway.

ok, thanks for that information, as for trying to borrow, that is what I am trying to do, but wanting to see what my options are if I was unable to get the funds in time, seems it would be a bit of a nightmare if I can't sort the flight within the 30 days, makes it more difficult being there is a dog involved that has to be flown over at the same time, otherwise it could be much easier and cheaper.

ok, thanks for that information, as for trying to borrow, that is what I am trying to do, but wanting to see what my options are if I was unable to get the funds in time, seems it would be a bit of a nightmare if I can't sort the flight within the 30 days, makes it more difficult being there is a dog involved that has to be flown over at the same time, otherwise it could be much easier and cheaper.

It is much easier if you can fly over within 30 days, because a couple of people have had to apply for a vignette transfer and they've found it to be a frustrating and longwinded process.

But it is an option, though, if she can't fly over within the 30 days.

A couple of other options could be (though not sure if they would work for you):
- she flies over on her own now and finds someone to look after the dog until you can fly the dog over later
or
- she flies over now within the 30 days to pick up her BRP card, then flies back to the US to sort the dog out, and then comes back over with the dog in a couple of months' time (but of course that means paying for an extra flight).

Gary, I can understand why you might not want to, but have you asked her to contribute towards the cost of the flight? Maybe her family could help?

Only contribution she can make on her part would be what she'll get soon from financial aid, she doesn't work and her family is unable to help, it's a good amount but with the amount she'll get it would have covered the dogs flight on United, but with their current reputation and suspension that's not an option so likely going to be even more expensive, so I have to try borrow the money to complete within 30 days, just difficult to manage it all with all these hours and hard to understand things and contacting places that have to do the shipping part for airlines either not answering phones or replying to emails doesn't help

Only contribution she can make on her part would be what she'll get soon from financial aid, she doesn't work and her family is unable to help, it's a good amount but with the amount she'll get it would have covered the dogs flight on United, but with their current reputation and suspension that's not an option so likely going to be even more expensive, so I have to try borrow the money to complete within 30 days, just difficult to manage it all with all these hours and hard to understand things and contacting places that have to do the shipping part for airlines either not answering phones or replying to emails doesn't help

One way of saving a bit of money (and avoiding United) would be to fly the dog in via France.  That would mean it would fly as excess baggage for around $200 instead of the prices you've been quoted to fly into the UK directly where it would have to travel as manifest cargo.
You would still need to figure out how to get to France to meet them with a car (or pay for an alternative but that brings the price right back up again) so it's not the easy option, but it is cheaper. It might at least be worth looking into.

Also, as she has some money coming in later, maybe look into a zero interest credit card to tide you over until it arrives?