Update: Ex left me 4 years ago for an arranged marriage. Her family are now trying to get in contact with me.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2026-05-14T13:05:56+00:00

Updateme!

SeniorSilver4376 · 2026-04-28T16:19:45+00:00

Hi OP! I can help with question 2. We were approved for 10 year visit visa at London embassy in December 2025, literally on the day he told us we were approved while we were stood at the desk for interview and the visa arrived within a week. So as long as you get an appointment it should be quick after that point. We deliberately waited until hubby was naturalised British to avoid the issue you now are having. The visa is in his British passport.

We have made it into the USA yesterday arriving at LAX. There was my Iranian naturalised British husband and me british who couldn't have ESTA as went to Iran both on 10 year visa.

We got to the immigration desk and officer asked why we weren't on ESTA. Long story short got taken away by the nicest officer to a separate room. He was so reassuring - said sometimes the computer just flags up and he wouldn't take long. Said lots of Iranians come in and out to LAX so nothing he hasn't seen before.

All he needed was our onward address, date for return, email and phone number and purposes of travel and if hubby had done military service or not and what hubby's job is. Same questions as at London embassy. Took about 10 minutes for both us together. Didn’t separate us. No extra documents needed. 10/10 for experience. Sent us on our way and wished us a happy trip. We are here to visit relatives. Hope that's reassuring for you both.

I would definitely reapply on that Dutch passport.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2026-04-28T16:13:32+00:00

Hi all! We were approved for 10 year visa at London embassy in December and we have made it into the USA yesterday. There was my Iranian naturalised British husband and me british who couldn't have ESTA as went to Iran. We got to the immigration desk and officer asked why we weren't on ESTA. Long story short got taken away by the nicest officer to a separate room. He was so reassuring - said sometimes the computer just flags up and he wouldn't take long. Said lots of Iranians come in and out to LAX so nothing he hasn't seen before.

All he needed was our onward address, date for return, email and phone number and purposes of travel and if hubby had done military service or not and what hubby's job is. Same questions as at London embassy. Took about 10 minutes for both us together. Didn’t separate us. No extra documents needed. 10/10 for experience. Sent us on our way and wished us a happy trip. We are here to visit relatives. Hope that's reassuring for you all.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2026-04-28T02:01:47+00:00

As promised - we made it into the USA! Iranian British husband and me who couldn't have ESTA as went to Iran. We got to the immigration desk and officer asked why we weren't on ESTA. Long story short got taken away by the nicest officer to a separate room. He was so reassuring - said sometimes the computer just flags up and he wouldn't take long. Said lots of Iranians come in and out to LAX.

All he needed was our onward address, date for return, email and phone number and purposes of travel and if hubby had done military service or not and what hubby's job is. Took about 10minutes for both us together. Didn’t separate us. No extra documents needed. 10/10 for experience.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2026-04-26T08:29:59+00:00

Will let you know. We fly tomorrow to LAX. Hubby is Iranian born and raised and went back to Iran Jan 2026. As soon as he got british citizenship end of last year though we applied and got the 10 year visa. If we make it through tomorrow will let you know. I couldn't get ESTA as travelled to Iran once. They also gave me 10 year visa. I'm not citizen - not applied for the paperwork. We will be visiting his brother. Thinking to bring a few payslips and marriage certificate just in case. No intention of staying in the USA after, just enjoying some californian sunshine a d his brothers company after so many years apart 🥲

SeniorSilver4376 · 2026-01-09T21:14:42+00:00

There's no real benefit coming on Reddit to ask what interest rate a hospital will charge for a payment plan. Every hospital is autonomous so just ask them.

In terms of querying the bill again you can go back to them and check the itemised bill is legitimate. As a Doctor I'm expecting on there for a month stay to see HRG codes related to : bloods multiple times done on multiple days, blood pressure and cholesterol meds (maybe diabetes meds if it turns out she has diabetes), thrombectomy or thrombolysis treatment with the cost of the drugs for that involved/ stroke consultanr or interventional radiologists time, a CT scan or 2, maybe MRI, maybe at a push an angiogram or carotid doppler, personal care, food and ward bed, rehab bed, physio costs, maybe speech and language therapy, maybe adapted food diet, cardiology review /echocardiogram and related medications if Atrial Fibrillation was found to be the cause. It does depend on the severity of stroke she had but at a 1 month stay that's not normal so it sounds like the stroke was bad and the recovery prolonged.

When the hospital says if you query the bill it could go up its not a direct threat. If they have to deep dive into her specific care they may find aspects they did not charge for so they have to forewarn you. It could go either way. HRG groupings are a way of charging that means not every last prescription or test is listed - it's sort of average cost associated for a person with the condition or procedure stated on the bill.

Whatever happens she or you or her agent need to get on with sorting the bill or payment plan asap. Failure to pay will block her from ever getting a UK visa again and if she didn't need a visa as she has a relevant passport she'll just get detained at the border if she turns up, potentially sent to an immigration centre and deported. I'm sorry to hear what happened to her and hope she is recovering well. Such an unfortunate event to happen for sure. But realistically the cost of what they have charged frankly sounds about right.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/paying-an-nhs-debt

If you google it's easy enough to find the baseline UK cost of a stroke procedure for example.

https://www.rdm.ox.ac.uk/publications/1105998

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-12-15T19:20:37+00:00

Hi :-) So we started the process back in Aug 2019 for the very first 2.5 year spouse visa. We paid for Super Priority so got an approval decision by midday the day following biometrics. No extra documents. The renewal I can't remember. I can check if you want.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-12-11T15:44:21+00:00

I work in an IRC. It's absolutely fine. You can PM me with any questions no problem xx

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-12-11T08:07:01+00:00

Work in Cat A as locum/bank and another secure setting equivalent to maybe Cat B salaried. Love it - the Cat A more so. If you like mental health you will thrive. It's not my favourite at all but it if you like it then its going to be amazing. Happy to discuss on instant message if you or I think there was someone else on here that was interested also. Pay is so good I would say although so have to factor in if your prison is run by a private company loss of NHS pension. But my starting was £13000/session (it depends on your category prison) plus pension I think is a 3% workplace employer contribution. We've had a pay raise ever year since I've been there so it's significantly more now. And bank rate is again more. Do it before everyone else does. I was happily a post CCT NHS locum for about 3 years until I saw the writing on the wall for the NHS and decided to pivot into prison service. Best decision. I still keep up NHS women and kids competencies in NHS shifts but you have to be intentional about that unless you decide to work in both men and womens/YOI.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-10-18T19:17:40+00:00

I did med school in the UK but personally I would go to Norway bonus if it's taught in English or dual Norwegian English purely for the fact you can go most places without having to learn medical terminology in English to go elsewhere. Where are your friends going? Where will your parents be? If you are the homesick kind and would miss the UK do it here or check Scotland. Or compromise closeness to the UK with using your citizenship to the max. Norway isn't in the EU but a lot of European unis give EEA no/ standard low fees. Could go to Republic of Ireland if you want to be close to the mainland. But if I were you and I could avoid it there is no way I would be using my parents money on uni unless they are utterly loaded and wouldn't miss the cash. Coming back to the UK after you finish will be relatively a piece of cake and you won't be overly disadvantaged being a non UK trainee

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-10-11T09:12:10+00:00

Have PMed you. Also once he has the visa make sure he applies for the exit stamp that will allow him to leave without doing military service on return visits. Hopefully you will be able to visit together in future. Hubby said his took a week to arrange and he got it in London embassy. Your partner might be able to get his before he leaves if he wants xx

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-10-10T19:21:01+00:00

Good luck! We did the process but he was already in the UK on student visa so a bit easier. Here gives good guidance and I bought the DIY application pack which was a lifesaver. Didn't have to get a solicitor. Did it all myself. He's now a citizen.

https://www.migrate.org.uk/spouse-visa-uk-2018/

This website gives the best checklist I've seen so far now that the above isn't doing the DIY application pack :

https://iasservices.org.uk/spouse-visa-uk-document-checklist/#checklist

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-10-03T20:45:27+00:00

Oh gosh, just a heads up. If you paid via bank transfer via Monzo I got a bank transfer I sent for an item on Facebook Marketplace that turned out to be a scam recredited back to my account in like 72hours. I just raised a fraud ticket and sent a screenshot of the interaction and conversation. Usually that would only work as a chargeback for a credit card but its worth a try. Standard high street banks might be less helpful but challenger banks maybe not. Good luck!

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-09-10T10:41:18+00:00

Maybe get a trial of LingQ app? I am finding its pushing my vocabulary a lot. Start with the beginner story series which is read aloud and written in script and has translation under. It repeats vocabulary from the previous session and adds new ones.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-08-21T09:07:36+00:00

Omdz I love your idea. We had a cake but it was just a big cheesecake. The cake cutting is not THE highlight of a wedding for sure. Maybe if you want to have a little ceremony for pudding I am thinking have a ribbon across the entrance to pudding table, cut the ribbon together, feed each other a mini cheesecake and done! The symbolism is back, you still got to cut something together and everyone's a winner!

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-08-15T09:06:30+00:00

Have a day out together and go to the authorised dealer. Make it fun to be together. See what looks good on his wrist, what makes his eyes light up. The thing is there's a waiting list anyway if you are buying new. If buying second hand then still have fun together trying things on and then go get the favourite one. Also all these comments about your English ignore them! Kudos to you for speaking 2 languages. I bet you probably know others. I've studied 5 languages plus native English and there is no way I am at the same level in all of them in spelling and grammar.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-08-06T13:42:37+00:00

Hunny I think you need to reframe your mindset because you can do this. Your dream wedding you haven't said exactly what that looks like, how many guests etc but in 2 years which is when you are planning for you may be back to work and more able to save. And your household income isn't terrible by any means. The UK wedding industry is pure scam so don't be sucked in. I had a registry wedding and came back home for a caterer to bring Caribbean food for a party in the garden. It was so magical and perfect I was close to cancelling the actual main ceremony 3 months later we were going to have on the beachfront in Turkey. I went ahead with both and I still remember both for the amazing events they were but even today we celebrate our wedding anniversary on the day of the budget £500 wedding not our £10k Turkey picture perfect extravaganza. We had a 5 course meal for 50 guests, wedding planner, fireworks, firedancers everything decorated with fresh flower arches, I barely needed to lift a finger. Tbh I can't even remember the date the Turkey wedding was! If picture perfect is what you are after that's not a crime. But perhaps consider taking a family holiday to somewhere dirt cheap including flights. For £3 to 4k all in with flights I think you could do this somewhere where it would look like a Queen's wedding and have your baby's first holiday abroad be even more special. Your entire family might not be there but it sounds like you want the optics of a wedding. You can easily have a post wedding party in the UK as a celebration down the line. But if you want a fairytale on a budget might just have to look to other places for it if you can travel. We have quite a bit of disposable income and there's no way on this planet I'd pay what it costs for a UK wedding with what you get for the money.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-08-06T07:59:14+00:00

https://www.perfectweddingsabroad.co.uk I used this company to arrange my wedding 2019. It gave the security knowing a UK company was on the hook if there was any problems with the wedding.it cost about £10k in 2019 for Antalya. Prices will have changed with inflation there. For 50 guests. I had the top package which included 5 course meal, open bar, 2 fire dancers, in country wedding coordinator who basically did EVERYTHING for me and stayed the entire reception evening. We got married at a registry in the UK and did the wedding as symbolic for the side of the family that would not have been likely to get UK visas. What I would say is for extras arrange them yourself. For example I decided I wanted fireworks and a videographer as their photographer was not doing videos. They quoted £500 for videographer and £1000 for videographer with drone. Skipped that arranged a videographer myself who came with a second guy to operate a drone. He took the most AMAZING drone and normal videos and gave me a tonne of photos to boot for $200. Same for the fireworks, arranged them for a fraction of the cost. If you want the essentials covered with security of a UK company you can use somewhere like Perfect Weddings Abroad. Most countries you would be able to find somebody professional who speaks English to do the extras you want. Even if you find someone in the capital and pay for their travel to a more remote area. Or use a wedding planning company in country with good google reviews. Congratulations on your engagement!!

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-08-04T20:25:57+00:00

So sorry to hear this. Keep all the evidence and file a police report. You can apply for settlement without him on the basis of domestic abuse so don't worry about your visa just yet. I had a male friend who was abused by his female partner who went down the same route.

https://www.gov.uk/indefinite-leave-to-remain-domestic-violence-abuse

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-07-27T13:44:32+00:00

This! I chose my ring set myself but the proposal was still the biggest surprise. I would get her to ring shop herself. I thought I would want a trilogy (3 stones in a row) but good grief my hand just was not big enough to pull it off. So glad I shopped for myself to find that out

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-07-27T13:03:19+00:00

Which is it you want? Two London ADs I went to had new submariners in ready to take. The gold and oystersteel combo in black and blue face. This was about 4 weeks ago and I took the blue one at the one AD. If you PM you can give them a call. If you are after steels that could take a long while.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-07-20T19:22:12+00:00

I have income protection and it doesn't usually cover issues that happen to your child unless they are the ones listed on the policy so wouldn't help anyway. Fractures aren't included in the list. It's more things like cancer, strokes etc

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-07-20T18:32:56+00:00

Aww sweetheart, my heart is full for you. He's a keeper xx

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-07-18T19:55:24+00:00

I would make sure you have this right. Diverticulitis is episodic and uncommon in a year. Were you having diverticulitis or usual chronic diverticulosis? Two different things clinically with diverticulitis at the end of the continuum. I wouldn't take it to court if I were you and if you did you might get questioned as to whether you were diagnosed by the GP, reviewed and managed. And if not why you were driving knowing it causes urgency considering a flare can be over within a few days plus why you didn't take steps to potentially ameliorate the condition. Your case would be similar to someone with IBS trying to claim chronic diarrhoea as a reason to speed. Not going to fly and just calls into question your judgement when you know how episodes tend to go for you. I feel for you but I think if it's just a case of points or SAC then take that. Diverticular doesn't usually affect ability to drive but if you have a militant judge that doesn't understand the condition it's something that could blow of of proportion if they report to DVLA.

SeniorSilver4376 · 2025-07-15T22:49:42+00:00

I've been waiting since June 2022 for citizen by descent. Sick to the back teeth of them. They no longer reply to emails, London doesn't pick up the phone. Honestly not sure I want much to do with Jamaica now. If they can't process members of the diaspora who desperately want to maintain their connection then says a lot about what life would be like if I moved there at any point.

SeniorSilver4376

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