Welcome to Part II of the visa process. In this section I talk about applying online, going for the interview and what happens after you’ve had your application sent off for processing. If you’re after info on what you need to prep for these stages please click here.
Phase III: Apply online
Once you’re ready to apply you do so here.
You need to create an account and then follow the steps for the Tier 5 working holiday visa.
The form is pretty straight-forward but you do need to be ready with certain bits of info and not take too long because it does time out. If it does you have to start that part again.
The form does probe – it’s a government application and they want to know everything about your mother’s uncle’s sister’s daughter’s husband’s pet dog twice removed and what you had for breakfast that day.
But in all honestly if you have nothing to hide it’s fairly straight forward. Answer it as honestly as you can and if you don’t know, you don’t know. Don’t stress if you can’t remember every little detail.
They ask if you have had a passport prior to the one your submitting and if you can submit it too. If you have it, awesome – go ahead and send it in. But if you don’t have it any more don’t stress, “it’s lost” is a perfectly acceptable response and it doesn’t hinder your chances.
What you will need for the online application:
- Your current passport – they ask for the document number, nationality etc.
- A knowledge of your travels from the past 10 years (I think it was 10… maybe 5).
- Information about your parents – nationality, where they were born etc.
- The address for where you will be staying in the UK. If you don’t have one yet make an educated guess – it’s 3 months (or less) away so really you should have a relative idea of hotels, hostels or mate’s places you’ll be staying in for at least the first night.
- Wine – so when you hit that “send application” button you can knock it back and feel a little better about the fact that you just applied to go live in a different country for 2 years.
You’ll then have to book your visa interview and biometrics testing and pay almost $500 for the visa to be processed (yeah, that one stings).
Phase IV: Your Interview and Biometrics Test
The Visa Application Centres are located in each capital city and yes you will have to travel there to submit your application in person. You can find a list of the Visa Application Centres here.
The word “interview” is used in the loosest possible way here. I freaked a little thinking I was actually going to be asked questions and judging on my answers have my application accepted for processing or rejected.
I. Am. An. Idiot.
It’s an “interview” in which you go just to confirm that it’s you and sign the documents to approve everything you’ve submitted is being sent correctly. DUH!
The processing people are lovely. You can’t take your bag into the actual processing office – you need to pop it in a locker they give you and you pick it up as you leave. So pop all your documents in a folder, make sure they are all signed and you just take that in with you.
The staff members can’t tell you whether or not you’ve done something right or wrong – they aren’t allowed to give you any form of advice, so if you are unsure of something it’s best to have it sorted before you get there otherwise all they’ll say to you is to book the appointment for a later date.
They’ll go through everything you have and ensure it’s filled in and signed. They’ll then ask you if you want to have the visa processed as normal or go by priority. It’s an extra $200 if you do and it means you have your visa processed in 5 days instead of it potentially taking a month.
I did my Visa around Christmas time and was offered this option because they told me chances were – due to public holidays – that it would take the full month.
I was tempted. Oh so tempted. The impatient, “I want it now” part of my brain was willing me so strongly to scream “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY” at the lovely visa lady. Which, let’s face it, coming across as a money throwing crazy lady probably wouldn’t have helped me get my visa.
Note to all visa applicants: Be cool.
But honestly, I wasn’t leaving until March – I really didn’t need to find out straight away, I was just being impatient. I hate the waiting game. I wanted to know NOW!
But I resisted. It hurt. But it was worth it.
They will offer it to you. But really, unless your visa needs to start with in that month you’ve applied and you need it approved ASAP, don’t take the priority. Most of the time the processing time is 2 weeks tops – a month is worst-case-scenario for super, super, super busy periods – like Christmas (or so I thought). It’s a waste of $200 you can put towards living in London. Just be patient (and that’s coming from the world’s most impatient person – so you know it’s real).
You’ll also be asked whether you’d rather collect your passport from the Visa office or if you would like it couriered back to your home address. I asked for courier because I didn’t want to have to go pick it up (pick up times are between 12pm and 3pm) but it’s really just personal preference. The decision will be the same regardless.
Once your documents are all signed, you’ve read over some things and handed over your passport (that is a little scary), you watch your future get zipped up in a big see-through bag and tagged for collection.
They’ll then send you back to wait for your biometrics test. This part of the waiting is fun – or at least it was for me. Depending on how many people are in front of you, you get to sit there for a bit and listen to all the other people’s applications which was quite interesting.
Or maybe I’m just too curious… hmm.
The biometrics test is very fast and painless. The process pretty much goes like this:
- Go into a room (… once you figure out how to open the door. Don’t ask. Unless you want to know how to make an ass of yourself in front of a room full of people in approx. 0.25 seconds. *face-palm*).
- Get fingers and thumbs scanned.
- Get photo taken.
- Thank the lord you actually decided to put a bit of effort into your appearance that day.
- Leave.
- Feel dazed, happy, scared and excited as hell that your visa is on it’s way to being processed!
The whole process takes around 45 mins but can take as long as an hour. They ask for you to get there 15 minutes before your appointment and it really just depends on how busy they are as to how long it all takes.
Phase V: Being notified of your Visa’s decision.
Once it was sent I completely put my mind off it. In my head I had a whole month to wait and although the waiting was shit I probably wasn’t going to start worrying until it got closer to that month deadline.
That was until 7 days (literally it was pretty much a week to the day) that I got an email from The Visa Hub.
I’d been told I’d receive an email when the visa had been processed but I thought it would tell me if it had been accepted or rejected. Instead it was extremely ambiguous.
Here is my visa email wording:
Subject: OFFICIAL: UK Visa Application: UKVI-Manila Visa Hub
Your decision will be despatched shortly. Passports can normally be collected from the Visa Application Centre after 3 working days unless you have been advised it will be returned by courier or have paid an additional courier fee.
My first reaction was “What the fuck does that mean?…”
Followed by:
“Is ‘despatched’ even a word?…”
“Holy shit that was SO fast…”
“Thank god I didn’t pay that exta $200.”
“Should I tell people? I wanna tell people. Let’s tell people!”
“…wait…”
“Why did they use the word ‘decision’?”
So, I Googled it.
I regret everything.
Dear future Visa applicants. DO NOT GOOGLE “VISA APPLICATION EMAIL WORDING”.
Worst. Mistake. EVER.
Let me put everyone’s mind at ease right now, so you don’t ever have to go through what I did. What I worked out, after about 2 hours of frantic searching, continuous heart palpitations and a trip to the bathroom to almost vom because I was so nervous, is that up until about October 2014 the acceptance letter read:“Your Visa will be despatched shortly.”
If you didn’t receive that wording, but rather the wording I received, chances are you had not been successful. As you can imagine, my shit was well and truly lost.
But they’ve since changed this. I don’t know why – maybe privacy rules or maybe they aren’t allowed to give an automated yes or no just in case a yes is sent to someone that’s actually meant to be a no (awks), but anyway whatever the case they’ve now changed it and everyone gets this response.
I don’t know if this means your visa has been accepted every time. It did for me. Essentially, you don’t know until you get your visa back and the page is stuck in there all pretty.
I received another email about 2 days later from VFS saying my visa was on it’s way to my house and a day after I got home to a plastic parcel addressed to me.
My dad opened it for me because I left it sitting there for a good hour and he couldn’t stand the suspense anymore.
And to get me back for being such a pansy, he hid my passport from me as he opened it and started looking through it page by page. He then told me there was nothing in there.
I was -3 seconds from tears before he shoved the visa in my face, laughing at his “clever joke” (such a dad). I promptly screamed in delight, grabbed my passport off him and wacked him with it. Repeatedly.
It’s the most horrible photo (they used the one from the biometrics test and I look like I’ve been punched in the face. Seriously.) But it’s the most beautiful piece of paper I have ever owned. The afternoon I got it, I just kept opening my passport and staring at. I may or may not still do that every now and then.
I was so excited, and I still am. This is one of the most important things to have happened to me and I’m so proud to have gotten so far. I still have a bit to go before I reach where I really want to be – which is living and working in London and travelling as much as I can. But I’m almost there.
So anyway, I hope this helped anyone looking at applying or anyone in the middle of the application process. It’s an adventure – embrace the emotional whirlwind – you won’t regret it.
Best of luck!
-L xx
Lozz in London 