aussie who wants to apply for tier 5 visa from the united states

Hi,

I'm an aussie who plans on arriving in London in May 2010. I want to apply for the tier 5 (youth mobility scheme) visa. The only problem is that I am planning on stopping off in the United States in November for 6 months (to work the 2009/10 ski season) on my way to London.

My question is: can I apply for the tier 5 visa from within the United States? I have received directly conflicting advice so would love to hear from anyone who has successfully done this. I really do not want to have to fly back to Australia after my time in the US simply to apply for my UK visa.

Any assistance would be much appreciated!

Cheers,

Caitlin.

Hi Caitlin,

I'm not a visa expert but I doubt you'll be able to do it outside your own country. They used to allow this sort of thing with lots of visas, but now the rules seem pretty clear - you've got to do it from home.

There are heaps of people here in London who have switched visas from tier 5 to other visas and they always make them return home to get the paperwork sorted. Pain in the arse, but that's the UK Home Office for you I'm afraid.

good luck

Caitlin,

I'm not an expert either but I think Walter might be right (sort of)...  The UK Border Agency website http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/tier5/youthmobilityscheme/applying/howtoapply/ says you can apply from outside your country of residence as long as the post can take applications for the Youth Mobility Scheme. As the US is not part of the Youth Mobility Scheme I don't think they would accept your application.  There are also other criteria that need to be met to apply from overseas, but I think that might be the most important one.

Hey Caitlin

I'm a NZer and I applied for my UK visa from USA in Jan. To be aloud to apply from anywhere other than your country of residence you have to prove that you have leave to live in USA for atlest 6months (make sure you send the paperwork showing this with your application or it gets set back and you ahve to pay again). If you go to www.ukinusa.com all the info in applying in USA is on there. There are 3 consulates that take the application and it will tell you where to send it depending on which state you are living in. You also have to get your biometrics taken and there are centres that do this all over USA. They will give you the address of your closest one when you complete your online application. I can't remember if it was the same website but I had to print off some appendix (maybe 7) form that I had to fill in by hand and post aswell so make sure you look around for info on doing that. The rest of your application you can do online. You have to pay online when yo apply aswell. If you want any other info then fee free to ask.