We are heading to the UK for 3 weeks in June, to visit with friends, do some sightseeing and also to spend some time in Tring and decide whether that's a place we could see ourselves settling when we go over permanently on an ancestral visa, or whether we need to look elsewhere.
As South African passport holders, we had to go through the process of applying for a UK Visitor Visa - a process which can seem quite daunting at first glance, but which turned out to be simple really.
The UK Visitor visa is applied for online. A good place to start in the application process is HERE. The online form asks for pretty much the same information as this form: UK Visitor visa VAF1 I find it easiest to read through the questions first, so that I know what to expect and can gather all the information I need before I sit down to start the online application.
Once you have completed the online form and printed it out, you will make an online payment for your visa (see the fees here), once that is completed, you will be directed to a page where you make an appointment to visit the visa centre nearest you, where you will produce all your supporting documents, which will be scanned into the system and sent for processing along with your passport. You will also have biometrics (fingerprints and a digital photograph) done at this appointment.
TLScontact are the local agents for UK Visas and Immigration, we went to their Durban branch for our visa appointment and found the employees that we dealt with very friendly and helpful.
What supporting documents to produce:
(Please note, these are the documents I used to support our application, your circumstances may differ)
* your current, original passport - it must be valid for your visit, be in good condition and have one page blank on both sides
* If you have had a UK visa before, in a previous passport, send that passport in too
* Information about your visit - eg tours booked, flight details, letter of invitation if visiting family or friends and evidence of your sponsor's status in the UK if that applies to your visit.
* Current employment - letter from employer stating you are taking annual leave, payslips
* Money - proof of how you are funding your holiday. I sent in 3 months bank statements showing sufficient funds
* Home address - documents showing where you live, such as property deeds or mortgage statement or tenancy agreement
* Additional Documents -
- proof of marital status
- documents proving that you have family members remaining in your home country while you travel (basically they want to know that you have a reason to return to your home country)
A couple of things to note regarding supporting documents:
* I think it's easiest to have all your supporting documents in a large envelope (not a flip file like I did!) as you will hand them over to the consultant as loose pages, in one batch
* None of the pages must be stapled together, as they are put through a scanner
Once your application is made and your visa appointment is booked, it's a good idea to register on the TLScontact website, as you will then be able to track the status of your application online. Our application took 2 weeks from the day of our appointment to the day we collected our passports, with the visas in them, at the TLS offices in Durban.
In my opinion a number of factors need to be taken into consideration when choosing a place to live. I think you need to be really honest with yourself about your personal preferences and what you are looking for in your prospective home town.
Some questions you might want to answer:
* Do you want to live in a city or town?
* Do you have a job, and if so where is it located?
* What is your budget for accommodation?
* Do you have family or friends that you would like to live near to?
* Do you need to be within commutable distance to any specific area?
* Are schools important?
* Are transport links important?
* Does weather or climate play a role in your decision?
* What specific amenities are you looking for in your city or town?
* What kind of housing would you like?
* Do you have hobbies or sporting activities you need to consider?
For us it came down to these specific things:
*We don't like living in a city, so we want to settle in either a village or a town.
* It needs to be a relatively easy commute to London as Grant will probably need to spend at least a few days per week in London
* We want to live in a house with a little garden, not a flat, so housing prices need to be within our budget
* We like an attractive, countrified landscape
* We wanted at least a couple of restaurants and somewhere to get a cup of coffee a short drive away
* We are very keen walkers, so there have to be some nice walks nearby
* The extended family is hoping to settle in the same town, so good schools are a priority
* we need some suitable activities in close proximity for the children
* Rox and Jon are church-goers so they need some options for church in the area
* We would like the town to be on a good bus route to some reasonable shops and medical facilities as it's likely I won't have a car
* It would be ideal if there was another city, apart from London, in commuting distance, so that it would open up more job opportunities for Grant and Jonathan.
Looking at all of these factors, a couple of towns fitted the bill. Royal Tunbridge Wells (we were thinking of settling in one of the villages nearby), Twyford, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Saffron Walden and Tring were the ones that stood out for us. We have done a lot of research on all of these towns and Roxy, Grant and I will be going to the UK soon to have a proper look at a couple of them.
Although we haven't gone public with our decision to emigrate just yet, we have told our family and a few close friends. A couple of people have asked me why we have taken this decision and I find it a rather difficult question to answer. There are the obvious, standard responses: crime, safety, security, the political turmoil here... but it also goes deeper than that; so I thought it would be an interesting exercise to list the reasons that I feel have contributed to our decision.
* personal safety. This is possibly the biggest factor in our decision to emigrate. For me personally, there was a particular incident that confirmed for me that emigration was a necessity - a house 2 roads away from us was invaded at midday by 6 armed gunmen. The police responded, a high-speed car chase and gun battle ensued and 5 of the 6 gunmen were killed on Fields Hill shortly after 1pm. My entire family drive up and down Fields Hill, so the thought of them potentially getting caught up in a gun battle was too awful to contemplate. And then the prospect of finding 6 armed gunmen at my door.... That was my personal turning-point.
* our daughter and her family are emigrating and we are a family with very strong bonds, we feel a deep desire to be close to our grandchildren as they grow up. We firmly believe in and embrace the concept of the extended family. Since we truly believe that there is no future in this country for our children and especially our grandchildren, it seems logical to move to the country and hopefully the town where they will be living.
* Education is a biggie. Our younger daughter, Paula, has just finished her Varsity degree, and although I feel she got a good education, the strikes, which often turned violent, that happened every year on campus made the entire 4 years of her degree quite stressful and we heaved a huge sigh of relief when her last day on campus arrived. Class sizes are increasing and the cost of education is rising. I also feel that the curriculum in our schools is not of a particularly high standard and seems to be changed willy-nilly by the powers that be. So as a grandparent, I'd be happier if my grandchildren had a brighter educational future.
* Job security - this is a huge concern for us. Grant is 50 years old, he is white and male and those factors are big red flags for future retrenchment. If he was retrenched the chances of finding another job would be very slim indeed. For our children too, BEE means that they are last in line for any employment opportunities.
*Racism - I honestly don't feel welcome in the country of my birth anymore. Roughly 90% of my family arrived here with the 1820 settlers, the other 10 percent were Dutch/French/German settlers who arrived in the 1600s and I am also very proud to count amongst my ancestors a well-known black slave-woman (Groot Katrijn) and also Krotoa, (a Khoi-khoi woman) so my ancestors have been here for many generations, but I feel like an "invader" as though I am an unwelcome visitor. I feel hated. Without getting into the political minefield that exists in this country surrounding race, let me just say that I can totally see why that feeling towards white people exists, I understand it, but as a "white" person from a family that supported Nelson Mandela long before it was a popular thing to do, it makes me sad and it leaves me feeling that the only option is to leave. I can't face spending the rest of my life apologising for my existence.
Political turmoil and economic uncertainty - For a number of years it has felt to me as though South Africa is on the brink of political mayhem and economic disaster. We're getting closer to retirement age and the feeling that at any moment all hell could break loose is not a good one!
Pension and retirement - we feel that if we are going to emigrate, the time is now (the time was probably 20 years ago, to be honest!), so that we can start paying into the UK pension fund and work towards some sort of retirement plan, even though it is very late in the day to have woken up to this fact!
England - we actually love England, even though it's frequently wet and generally rather chilly. We love the pubs, the green grass, the ancient buildings, the monarchy, the sense of history, the traditions, the villages, London, all of it really.
Europe - this may seem a rather light-weight factor in the grand scheme of things, but we LOVE Europe, so being closer to so many amazing holiday destinations is a big, BIG plus. Whether we'll have the money to actually visit any of these destinations is of course another matter entirely....
