Settlement Visa

I spent most of the month of June applying for my settlement visa, which I can apply for during a 28-day window as the 5th anniversary of my arrival in the UK approaches. First I had to take a Life in the UK test. Then fill out a 20-page online application form, which is very stressful. Any error can cost you your visa. You have 3 weeks to leave the country if you don't get a visa. So no pressure. Then take all the required documentation into Belfast to be scanned and sent to the Home Office in Sheffield.

Documentation includes: six original paychecks stamped by employer for me and for David; six bank statements showing deposit of said paychecks in my bank account and David's bank account; six months of statements for each savings account we have (one for David, three for me--two in the U.S., one here); the deed to the house; David's employment contract; p60s for each of us (HM Revenue's annual report of income and taxes); record of taxes paid on the house; six pieces of mail addressed to both David and I at our home address (home insurance, IRS letter, property tax bill); all my passports (I have five); and so on. Nearly 100 pages.

Can I just say June wasn't my favourite month?

Here are notes I cut and pasted from the study guide for the Life in the UK test (which I  passed). I had taken practice tests and failed some of them, so it was not a shoo in. You are given 24 questions out of a database of 1200 and you have to get 18 right. You go to a centre in Belfast and have 45 minutes to take the test, which costs 50 pounds. The Settlement Visa applicaiton costs 2400 pounds.

A selection of my study notes

In the 2011 Census, 59% of people identified themselves as Christian. Much smaller proportions identified themselves as Muslim (4.8%), Hindu (1.5%), Sikh (0.8%), Jewish or Buddhist (both less than 0.5%).

British combat troops left Iraq 2009

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, minor criminal cases are dealt with in a Magistrates’ Court.  Serious offences, Crown Court. If an accused person is aged 10 to 17, the case is normally heard in a Youth Court. The most serious cases will go to the Crown Court.

In Scotland, minor criminal offences go to a Justice of the Peace Court. Serious cases are heard in a Sheriff Court. The most serious cases in Scotland, such as murder, are heard at a High Court with a judge and jury. In Scotland a system called the Children’s Hearings System is used to deal with children and young people who have committed an offence.

Northern Ireland has a system of youth conferencing to consider how a child should be dealt with when they have committed an offence.

WWI: Britain was part of the Allied Powers, which included (amongst others) France, Russia, Japan, Belgium, Serbia – and later, Greece, Italy, Romania and the United States.

Central Powers – mainly Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and later Bulgaria.

Since 1999, hereditary peers have lost the automatic right to attend the House of Lords.

The European Union (EU), originally called the European Economic Community (EEC), was set up by six western European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) who signed the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 1957.

5 ski centres in scotland

Concorde flew in 1969 for first time

David Lean directed Brief Encounter (1945) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

The population of the UK in 1801 was 8 million people.

The population of the UK in 1951 was 50 million people.

St George’s Day, patron of England is celebrated on the 23rd of April.