when ineptitude becomes normal, you get uk.gov

I have to say, 2 times now we've tried to work with the UK visa system to get a visa for Jirawan to come with me to the UK, 1st time we had to cancel due to delays, this time we had to cancel....due to even longer delays...

Its absurd, that they charge a small fortune for a visa, don't make the process even remotely easy, insist on making you drive to Amsterdam to use some cheap shoddy service company who charge you 15 euros to drop an A4 sheet into a 1 second scanner, per sheet mind you..And then insist that you have no right to a prompt service... not that 3 weeks is prompt.

While you wait you have to surrender your passport, which means no travel... normally not a big issue after all we are not the jetsetters we plan to be when we retire, but we do have a trip planned for the end of this month which needs a passport, so you'd think applying in June would have the whole thing sorted.

Nope, no appointments available till August, then wait for the UK dept to process the visa, which after 8, almost 9 weeks was still no closer to being done.. Then a flurry of standard reply emails (which you have to pay to open a dialogue), and every response of, no thats not what I asked, gets a the same standard cut and paste... ffs

We eventually had to request they cancel it, via the same standard cut and paste replies, which eventually had 1 line added that said, they were processing our cancellation..

And the next day, our passport is waiting for us in Amsterdam, in that same shabby service centre... So we have to drive up there this moring, hoping that maybe, just maybe rather than a cancellation, it was in fact the visa... but no.. no visa, no refusal of a visa, just the passport, returned as asked... so they can do some things quick

We're pissed as fuck about this shambolic system.. Ignoring the very clear fact that a spouse should be able to travel freely with their british partner to the UK, that passport sat in a pile for 8 weeks at least. The dept can't provide the service its that simple, they don't even say until you submit how long the delay is likely to be, its supposed to take 3 weeks, but maybe 5, worst case 8... but you only hear once you've submitted it might be 12... we couldn't wait 12, we had to get our passport back so we can travel in 2 weeks...

hundreds of euro's tossed into the wind for nothing, and an unrepentant uk.gov apologising for the "frustrating:" delay but please wait.

tossers, utter utter tossers. Thai's welcome british passport holders into their country, I don't need a visa to go visit Jirawans family, but the UK will drown us in red tape and delays rather than let my wife in to meet my family... I'm seething.

Ahthankyew