What You Need for UK Standard Visa Application

For anyone of you planning to go to the UK and need a visit visa, here is what you need to know. This information is based on my experience this year, January 2022.  

1. Prepare all required documents

Why is having all the required documents the first step? It's because when you fill out the form, there are some parts which need some information relevant to the required documents. The next question is, what are the required documents? Here are the categories. 

- Accommodation - Permanent/Temporary (I was planning to stay at a hotel, so I mentioned the hotel address. Or, maybe you can put your family/friend's address if you're staying there.)

- Financial Evidence (Actually, there's no specific information or guideline of how many previous months the bank statement must be provided. However, to be safe, I submitted the last six months of my bank statement. And again, to be more convincing, I uploaded my saving statement as well. Oh, I was working and staying in Malaysia at that time and I had saving in my Employees Provident Fund (KWSP).)

- Employment Evidence (For this one, I provided some documents. First, a letter verifying that I'm an employee and currently working at the company where I was working. Second, an acknowledgement from my company that my leave has been approved for the period of my planned visit to the UK. Luckily, my company has an online system to request for both documents. Last, the pay slips of course, of the last six months. Oh, I almost forgot. Since I hold Indonesian passport working in Malaysia and applying the visa there, I needed to show a copy of my active employment pass as a proof of my residence permit in Malaysia.)

- Consent Letters and Proof of Relationship (I was applying for this visa to visit my boyfriend and of course, we needed to prove our relationship. What  my boyfriend  did was to take some screenshots of our chats on WhatsApp chats. Well, not all of them. He took some parts from the first time we started talking in August 2020 until the moment before the visa application. I put all photos together into one PDF file to be submitted.)

- Educational Evidence (Just to make my application more convincing, I attached my master's degree certificate and IELTS result.)

- Sponsor Evidence (Luckily, my boyfriend is excellent in details, so he provided all required documents from him as my sponsor by himself such as an invitation letter, a copy of his passport, his bank statements in last six months, and his pay slips in last six months. My boyfriend created a folder in Google Drive named Siti Visa and put all those documents there for me to access. So, your sponsor better do the same thing.)

- Additional documents/ Others (My boyfriend wanted to make sure that this visa application would be successful, so he tried to provide more evidence of his support during my visit by giving a clear itinerary. Believe me, he wrote every single activity that we're going to to in every single day of my stay starting from my arrival to my departure leaving the UK. In addition to that, he ordered two together rail card and made details of the trip budget. For this, I went to a photo studio for a photograph and tried to get a dummy flight ticket. The funny thing was that I forgot to upload the dummy flight ticket, but still my visa application was approved. So, DUMMY FLIGHT TICKET does NOT GUARANTEE.)

Oh, please bear in mind that all documents must be in English. If any of your document is in any other language, you must have it translated to be submitted along with the original one. Also, you'll be advised to print out a Document Checklist for your own use to make sure that you have submitted all required documents. 

2. Fill out the form accordingly

As I said, it's easier to complete the form once you have all documents, even you can do it in one go. However, another alternative is to do both, filling out the form and preparing for the documents, at the same time. It's your choice. You can find the application here.

3. Booking an appointment

Interestingly, for this UK Standard Visitor Visa, you must have completed the application form before booking an appointment. As soon as you've completed the form, you'll be directed to the appointment page to book here. On this page, you'll offered some services such as courier, SMS, etc. You can find more details here. For me, I didn't take any service offered. It's all up to you though. If you think you need any of the service offered, you better take it. Oh during this appointment, because I uploaded all required documents in the application form, I didn't need to submit any printed documents anymore. All I had with me was my original passport. At the counter, the staff asked me the purpose of my visit and I simply answered "To have a short vacation there." That's all. After that, I waited for biometrics to be taken. Surprisingly, they took my photograph in the room, too. It turned out submitting a PHOTOGRAPH is NOT NECESSARY. 

4. Submit, sit back, and relax

After around 14 working days, you'll be notified by email if your passport is ready for collection. I didn't take any courier service, so I went to the VFS center to collect my passport myself. Oh, in the email, it's not mentioned if the application is approved or rejected. We can only find out once we've open the envelope given by the center. 

By the way, for this application, I hold Indonesian citizenship working and staying in Malaysia at that time, but I'm sure the overall requirements are more or less the same for across citizenships. 

Thank you for reading and all the best.