Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: rem2007 on November 12, 2019, 11:03:04 am
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...not really Model Boat related but with the current state of affairs with a word a shall not use and having to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain as I approach retirement, I thought some might want to know that the Home Office has out sourced their vetting services to a French company. Spora Steria now provides all services for uploading and vetting interviews for obtaining visas etc. to that end, they charge additional fees for such luxury items as buffet lunches, interpreters, VIP lounges and other services. All proof must now go thru their website for uploading which is a pain and half, just venting as this process costs £2400 for the basic no frills BRP card and if you want an expetited service its £3200. Moved here originally in 2005 on an Ancestry Visa, Granny was from Wisbech on Mum's side and Scotland on Dad's side, what a bother.
If any of you fine folk work for this lot I apologise in advance, but am use to dealing with foreign companies here in the UK such as ATOS as spent years working in the Housing Support field.
As an employed tax payer, married to a British citizen and a home owner it just doesn't feel right to me....any comments or advise appreciated.
Robert
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Do it properly and become a British citizen.
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This is the process of doing it properly. Through the Ancestry route, one must have stayed the full period of a 5 year period of their initial visa, check, and then apply for the Indefinite Leave to Remain Visa, check, and once this obtained one my apply to become a naturalized British citizen. Oh forgot to mention the UK Knowledge test you have to do as well, where they ask you things like what city is home to Tottenham Football Club.
I believe the point I was trying to make was, in the present state of the economy and employment, why are crucial vetting services for immigration being outsourced abroad.
Robert
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where they ask you things like what city is home to Tottenham Football Club.
well thats me kicked out of the country then, I dont follow sport, so dont particularly know or care where they are based, and I was born in this country, dont bother asking me about tv programs either as I dont watch them - newspapers- dont read them, politics- well I might know which idiot is in charge but dont expect me to know any others.
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- well I might know which idiot is in charge
Please tell us then as no one else seems to know, Suspect Putin.. :} :}
In my case as looking at dual Citizenship, but would still have to go to the ceremony !! but don't think I need to do any tests, as been here since 76 and Mother is Uk born and bred as were her parents etc etc.. Have kept putting it off because of the paperwork.
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I believe the point I was trying to make was, in the present state of the economy and employment, why are crucial vetting services for immigration being outsourced abroad.
Robert
Hi Rob
It's very hard to reply without straying into 'forbidden areas', but there has been an increasing trend to outsource (aka privatise) many tasks previously done by public servants. Quite how you can improve and cheapen a service by introducing a profit margin and using untrained staff is not a question I'd like to have to answer. I have noticed, however, that many businesses which once gleefully outsourced their customer services abroad have begun to bring them back into the UK. I suspect the language barrier may have had some bearing on that.
As to "crucial" vetting services I suspect that these are based progressively less on staff judgment and are instead becoming crude box-ticking exercises which can eventually be done by AI. It's all down to the great God money.
Tottenham Hotspurs? Don't they play in Tottenham? 8)
Dave M
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Robert,
Are you sure you have the correct site??
I have just helped my wife to update hers from
Permanent residence to settled status and it doesn’t cost a penny!!
If she wants to get British citizenship then that costs but
We have been advise in holding off applying at the moment as they are changing
Application requirements and it may become free for her as
She has been in the uk paying taxes for 10+ years
And is married to a British citizen
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or who played for Melchester Rovers :-) :-)
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Apart from 1 incident I actually find it harder to leave the UK than getting back in !!
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The "outsourcing" happens a lot these days. Possibly an open competition, so the cheapest bid sometimes automatically wins the work. Councils do it :D . No way around it sometimes with the current rules.
...I wouldn't have a clue about the football club either! I'd have to Google it.
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Hello always like to supply obscure knowledge. I have looked up Tottenham checked on a google map and it is quite near a Sainsburys.
Just thought it might help.
Good luck to all above if you make model boats that's good enough for me.
Roy
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Good luck to all above if you make model boats that's good enough for me.
Roy
thats what i do instead of following sport and watching TV
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The only reason I know where it is, is because our son in law wanted me to buy a genuine shirt from there when we visited the UK some years ago. %%
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or who played for Melchester Rovers :-) :-)
wasn't their top striker ROY - not a footy fan to be honest
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ok2 :-)) :-)
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And it gets weirder.
I've done some ancestral research over the last couple of years, and I've discovered that I'm fully one-eighth Irish. Can I apply for an Irish passport? The answer's 'No'.
My wife, born in Belfast, NI, and yet with no ancestral connections to 'the south' for at least a hundred and fifty years? 'Yes'.
So she, in the post-word-that-cannot-be-named world, can zoom through customs as an EU citizen, while me, with my totally 100% Irish leg, cannot. %%
(It's mad, I tell you)
Andy
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Back to the serious bit for a second....
Robert, unless you are applying for FULL UK CITIZENSHIP you are being taken for a mug!
https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families (https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families)
according to the above website,
application for full settled status...
Fees
It’s free to apply to the scheme
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Robert,
Are you sure you have the correct site??
I have just helped my wife to update hers from
Permanent residence to settled status and it doesn’t cost a penny!!
If she wants to get British citizenship then that costs but
We have been advise in holding off applying at the moment as they are changing
Application requirements and it may become free for her as
She has been in the uk paying taxes for 10+ years
And is married to a British citizen
yes quite sure, perhaps her conditions were different, mine was under the ancestry visa, but yes quite sure.
https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/product/set-o (https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/product/set-o)
through this one,
robert
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Back to the serious bit for a second....
Robert, unless you are applying for FULL UK CITIZENSHIP you are being taken for a mug!
https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families (https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families)
according to the above website,
application for full settled status...
Fees
It’s free to apply to the scheme
...not a mug mate, that applies to EU, EEC citizens, I, m Canuch thru and thru. welcome to the Great White North Eh, Rush, bears wolves, that sort of thing and most of my uncles and cousins on grand dad's side were in Dances with Wolves. I'm sure.
Robert
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I appreciate all your comments and humor and will plough on through this process, but will find it real funny when we fly back from visiting our grand daughter in January to be told you can't come back to work at your contracted post and live in the home you own, ah well worse could happen. {-) {-)
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I'm English, the wife is British as she too hails from NI - conlig to be more precise, so apparently my sons are entitled to apply for Rep Ireland status as well - good as they both need to leave home {-)
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Robert,
If you are sure. :-))
There has been websites my wife’s friend nearly got
Stung by claiming to do all the work and taking thousands for doing nothing
Hence why I was questioning the costs
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Looks like yor case is the proverbial tip of the ice berg, Rob https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/17/government-exploits-migrants-for-profit-by-outsourcing-visa-services-to-private-firms (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/17/government-exploits-migrants-for-profit-by-outsourcing-visa-services-to-private-firms)
DaveM
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Hi Dave,
...been awhile, yes I'm afraid so, but I have been told in the past that although the visa may expire, you are still permitted to work and live here whilst the decision process is going through. Should be hilarious flying back from Cancun in January with the wife after a holiday with my son and his family from Canada, sorry you can't come back in to work and pay taxes, oh dear what shall I do, who'll feed the dogs after the daughter goes home from dog sitting for us. Should have done it yonks ago before they contracted services out.
Will let you know how I get on, have my appt on the 27th in Cardiff...blimey, getting close.
Robert
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Well apparently I don;t have to do the British knowledge test as I come from Canada and speak the hanglish, good thing I'm not from Le Belle Provence. {-) {-)
all set for Wednesday in Cardiff for mug shot and prints...wish me luck.
Robert
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Hi all has anyone ever given a specimen for DNA? Ok so not the Police, but for a genealagy check/comparison for a relative assembling a family tree. My ancestors previously came from Northern Spain, not sure how far back though.
I shall be returning from Oz in mid February so interested to see if anything has happened or not happened again.
adios
Roy
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I am Dutch, lived here for 33 years and paid a huge amount of taxes all though my stay here. Am married to a lovely English rose, own my bungalow and look forward to my state pension. I applied for my "settled" status 3 months ago and have not heard a thing. I told my wife to start packing??????? ok2
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I believe EU resettlement is free as mentioned in a link above...I've always to retire to Belize but too far from the kids she says.
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Frankly this situation is appalling. I would say more but politics is a no-no on Mayhem - perhaps as well...
DaveM