What’s it’s really like to apply for a visa at BLS Edinburgh

Ever wondered what will actually happen at your Non-Lucrative Visa Application appointment? An Upsticks client very kindly sent us this comprehensive report of what it’s like to apply for your Non-lucrative visa at the BLS Processing Centre in Edinburgh.

“We arrived in Edinburgh with plenty of time for our 1 p.m. appointment and parked in the Aldi car park. The BLS office is easy to find, only a 2-minute walk from Aldi.

There’s a buzzer entry to the office on the first floor, and it’s well sign posted – we checked in at reception and took a seat. 

We only waited 10 minutes or so to be seen and once invited over to a cubicle, the Officer took our signed checklist and went over our documents. All told it took about 40 minutes, including a couple of interruptions from other agents asking our guy questions – it appears he was the main man. He was very thorough and very polite, a good experience tbh. 

We had paper clipped passport photos to the application form, which he took and attached to the forms with Pritt stick. He didn’t mention digital photos, although I could hear the people in the  next door cubicle being offered these

He asked if we had pre-paid envelopes for returning passports, which we didn’t, assuming this wasn’t done now. He referred us to their courier service. 

He only wanted copies of the photo pages of the passports and handed the rest back to us. 

He asked if we had photocopies of our driver’s licence (we used them for proof of address in the UK), ACRO, and marriage certificate. We didn’t, so he went and took photocopies. I had an electricity bill and other documents for our house in Spain, but he was happy just to take the electricity bill. 

He photocopied the marriage certificate and translation and handed the originals back to us. 

Counted the bank statements (I think to check there was 12 months worth) and the cost of booking the appointment online was taken from the total bill. 

Because the appointment took longer than we thought, we went over the time allowed in Aldi car park by a few minutes. Today, we received the penalty notice from ParkingEye. I’ll be giving them a suitable reply to their request for money”.