UK Home Office, what the hell? (residence permit problems)

The BBQ Pit
1

I am starting to get a suspicion that many of the employees of the UK Home Office are idiots. You know, my wife and I applied in February to extend her residence permit - I’m Italian and don’t need one, but she’s Malaysian and she does. That’s no problem, however, provided I can support her - which I can do, so we anticipated no issues.

No issues, that is, apart from someone over there making a mess out of things! Some time ago we were told on the phone that it is possible to apply for things to be sped up in some cases, as long as we provide proof; as we were invited to a marriage at the end of May, we duly applied and supplied the paperwork required.

Today a letter arrived in the mail, and it contained our passports. I thought that maybe the ordeal was over (as with no passport my wife cannot apply for jobs or prove her identity). But NO! They sent her passport back without the all-important stamp. They misunderstood our request to speed things up for a request to get the passports back as they were - which is also possible, but we would lose our place in the procedural queue (and it takes many months), and would be useless for us anyway, without the actual permit being renewed.

So I called the lads in Croydon, and guess what: their computer system had crashed and could not give me any information. Now I already heard this story, because we got the same excuse very often in the last weeks. If the system was as buggy as that, I doubt they could trust it with such vital information; would you? They might as well do things on paper.

So there. My wife is now in an uncertain state. They screwed up, there’s nothing else to say, and even the person on the phone said it was a mistake; but now? We will have to go through the procedure again, get the papers sorted out again, and I am afraid they won’t give her a permit because my funding runs out on January. At the time of the original application it was going to be a 1-year visa, which was fine for us, but now it will be a much shorter time and I’m worried they could refuse.

That’s not the first time we hear of the Home Office screwing up; but now it touches me personally and all those stories I read about now have a tragic reality. What a bunch of lazy, annoying bastards! :mad: Why are these laws supposed to be like that anyway? She earns as much as me, why go through all this charade? Just to keep the xenophobes happy? :mad: :mad:

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And another thing: I would like to know why we get different information every time we call. It feels like everyone is making out answers out of the top of their heads! It’s ridiculous! I don’t want to bore you with a long list of examples, but what the hell, stick to one bloody point and we will do the best to comply. Arrrgh! :mad:

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I spent hours on the phone with Citizenship/Immigration Canada yesterday trying to get straight answers about something. I feel your pain.

4

You should claim terrorist ties. You’ll get a free council house, all your bills paid plus some pocket money for just being you!

All (bad) jokes aside, I’ve been through the Home Office rigamorale. Best of luck.

5

Sorry to hear about your difficulties. Sorry, but not surprised.
When dealing with government employees, it always seems to me that the total lack of imperative to do their job properly is the root of the problem. It makes no difference to them what happens to you.
As far as government IT procurement goes, it wouldn’t surprise me if their systems were poor; in fact it seems to be more likely than having a decent system in place. Private Eye reports on this ad nauseum. Civil servants require expertise to instigate new IT system, call in consultants, big fat contract signed, system goes tits up, no-one takes the fall, everyone walks away happy.

So much for Mr Blair’s *choice *in public services…

Me? Cynical? You bet.