UK Visa
Hey HB
I understand the frustration. I am moving from the US to the UK and joining an airline there from one here (LAX) but i have an EU passport. A friend from Canada who wants to move can get a 4 year ancestry visa as Canada is Commonwealth but that is not enough ...
Does your wife's visa have ANY form of restriction on it - such as valid initially only for 2 or 4 years? Even though married to you - and I guess you are a British citizen - and it will be extended or endorsed at some future time to be "Given Indefinite Leave To Remain In The UK" ?
The airlines are not interested, sadly, in whatever situation seems to guarantee extention or upgrading of the visa later on. It has to be the "Unlimited/Can Do What You Want" variety before getting the job.
Because of so many alternative lifestyles existing amongst airline folk, they are not at all interested whether she is here with her husband or her lesbian partner or off her own bat on a visa gained some other way, Student, current job, whatever. And they won't hire anyone who might have to leave at short notice because a visa for whatever reason runs out or invalidates. Future indicators are not important to them, it's what she can do now.
The Airlines sometimes consider foreign (Non EU) citizens provided that their visa is indefinite and unrestricted in anyway. The nationality of the passport must also be valid for -every- country that the airline flies to without restriction or limitation. At my assessment in the UK there was a young guy with "Indefinite Leave to Remain" but on an Israeli passport... Israel is a special case I guess BUT his anguish and disappointment would also have been easier for him to cope with had he not applied online and checked the box that said UK/EU.. hoping to explain to the airline on arrival for the assessment. I must say the airline I am going to held wonderfully encouraging and "human" interviews and took the time to explain the situation. I know - for a fact - that one or three of the Biggies would have said NO simply because he said YES to a question he should have said NO to. They would - I am sure - have assumed that he did have the right visa but did not have the ideal passport. I am not saying your wife did this, but these days with the airlines you have to dot every i and cross every t and then go back and be sure....
Something else to consider is that crew assessments and what they are looking for are often impossible to understand. It is a total mystery to me, and I have been in this business for 20 years. Sometimes you need to apply to several airlines because what happens at each one will be unlike the next and nothing to do with the previous. I could write a book on my journey through the recruitment halls, and this book would be thick enough to stun an ox.....
It takes alot of perserverence.
Last edited by 90027; 24th Feb 2008 at 09:39.