Guide To The Youth Mobility Visa

I know I had a thousand and one questions when applying for this visa, searching forums and blogs for as much information as I can, and it wasn’t all in one place. So I’m going to go through my experience below and what I provided to receive my Youth Mobility Visa (YMS). I applied for by visa in Brisbane. 

First thing you need to do if you’re planning to apply for this visa is do go to the UK Gov Website and see if you are eligible (click here). Once you meet the eligibility requirements you need to see which documents you need to provide with your application, you can find these listed on the same link listed above. I have also listed them below. 

Visa Costs - (Costs as at April 2015)

•  The cost of the application is £225 ($435AUD).

• If you are from Brisbane, Perth or Canberra you will also need to pay a fee of $105 for your biometrics appointment.

• At your biometrics appointment you can also have your passport couriered back to your home address for an addition cost of around $25.

Documents you must provide - (You can find more details about the required documents on the UK Gov Website here)

Bank statement - This is to show that you have the amount of £1890 ($3700AUD) to meet the financial requirement. The bank statement you provide with your application must be dated within 30 days of when you apply for the visa. I have seen on some websites that people have said it needs to be taken to the bank to have them put an official stamp on your statement, but I did not do that and my visa was approved straight away. I think you only need to do this when your bank provides you with a letter with proof of funds rather than a statement. 

Passport sized photos – The best way to get these is go to your local post office, they know the requirements needed for visa applications. The size requirements are also listed here.  I took the 4 photos I got at my post office and took them all to the visa application centre when I had my biometrics done and they cut them out for me, so don’t worry about cutting them. 

Passport – You must have a valid passport for the duration of your visa length. 

HIS Healthcare – You must complete the online IHS Healthcare form and receive a reference number. People from Australia do not need to pay a fee as we are exempt, but you still need to provide reference number. I did not know I had to provide this, and was told at my biometrics appointment to complete when I got home and email to reference number to the email they provided me with.  

Online application

Being from Australia I needed to apply for the visa online, which I found so easy! I really don’t think there is a need to go through an agent and pay them $200 to help with your application, it was that simple. 

To get to the online application you need to go to the Visa 4 UK website (https://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk/). You will need to register. Once registered you can start you application. 

You can choose the date you wish you visa to start; it just has to be within 3 months of applying. When you have completed the application you will be prompted to choose a time for your biometric appointment and pay for your application (and biometrics if needed). You will then print off your application and booking confirmation for your biometrics and sign and date them if needed. 

NB: You do not need to stick your passport photo on your application. 

Lastly you need to get your IHS Healthcare reference number from the following website (https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigration-application/pay). Once you have the reference number, make a note of it on the top of your application.

Now you wait for your Biometric appointment!

Biometrics

When you get to the Visa application centre you will submit your passport, application, and supporting documents and they will be sent off to the visa processing office in Manila for you.

You will then go into another room to have your fingerprints and photo’s taken.

And that’s it… Now you wait!

How Long I waited to get my Visa

So this is the nerve racking part, the waiting. I couldn’t tell you how much I freaked out thinking I had stuffed things up on my application and that I would get denied… but I am actually nuts.

Here is my timeline of how long I waited to get my Youth Mobility Visa from when I applied online, to when I picked it up from the Visa application centre.

14 April 15 – Applied online for Youth Mobility Visa and made Biometrics appointment.

17 April 15 – Attended Biometrics appointment. Application and supporting documents sent to Manila.

22 April 15 – Received and email from the Manila Visa processing office stating that a decision had been made regarding my application and I would be notified when to pick up my documents.  (This is where I freaked out thinking “the email doesn’t say successful, omg it got denied!!!”).

At this point I was meant to get an email from the Visa Application Centre in Brisbane when it had arrived so I could go and collect it, but that email never came. 

After almost 4 weeks since my application was sent off I started to worry. I emailed the UK Visa and Immigrated office for an update, but they were hopeless and couldn’t provide me with any updates as my passport and visa should have been in the Brisbane office. 

I took matters into my own hands and went into the Visa office on 14/05/15 for an update. Lo and behold, my passport was there and they just hadn’t emailed me. They said to me “it has been sitting here for a while, I’m not sure why you didn’t get an email”. Absolutely pathetic.

My advise to you, is to pay the extra $24 to have your documents couriered back to you. It seems to be a much quicker turnaround. 

All in all it took just over 4 weeks to get my Youth Mobility Visa from when I applied online.

Hope this information was helpful to you. If you have any questions please post them below and I will try and help the very best I can. 

Paige x