[bradfm]

Couple of questions about the "Countries resided / visited" page of the application (partner, offshore) that I haven't been able to find answers to:

1. I've been on many cruises, where in most cases the ship calls at a port in a country during the day then heads out to sea. Often just one day (no night) in a country, sometimes several consecutive days of ports in the same country. Should they be listed as a "visit" to the country? (I have hundreds of port days, for over 50 countries). What about the days in international waters, such as on a transatlantic cruise? I don't see any option for "no country" or "transit" but maybe I missed it.

I'm considering leaving cruises off the "countries visited" form and having a covering pdf spreadsheet listing for all the details of the gaps (sometimes for months) that result. Or is it better to list every day visit. Still can't show sea days. No port days in any country cumulatively changes it to a country where I've spent over 12 months.

2. Is the time at a seasonal home I own, where I just have a visitor/tourist visa entry each time, considered a place I reside, or a place I visit? (I'm retired, split time between three countries). The visits accumulate to a lot more than 12 months over the years.

If it's a good idea to list every single visit to a county, even if just for a few hours by cruise ship, is there a limit to the number of entries under "resided" or "visited"? Combined I'd have a few hundred entries for travel in the past ten years, maybe under a hundred if I omit the cruises.

Thanks!

 

[omahonrm]

I had a similar issue as I was cabin crew for 4 years so often just stopping over in places. I found it really hard to find out the correct answer for what I should do.

In the end, I entered any personal holidays and trips that were to single destinations on the actually application and the created an excel sheet with as many trips that I did as crew that I could remember or track and uploaded that as an attachment afterwards. You could probably do something similar and maybe just give an estimated date of the cruise - length of the cruise and ports visited ?

With regards to the holiday home, i think you would probably have to put in the different time frames in countries lived in - I think its mainly important because they want a background check form countries where you spent more than 12 months in total.

I'm not sure if any of this is helpful and it definitely isnt information given to me by a lawyer, but I have just submitted mine and that is how I have done it.

 

[Oliver Brown]

Depends on the application you making. travel visa? or police clearance certificate? Mostly, this refer the record on your passport, like customs stamp and e-passport record. If the ship just park outside the port and you didn't enter the boundary, then it doesn't count.

 

[bradfm]

Thanks for the replies. Again this is for a Partner visa, offshore application, not a tourist visa.

I don't think a passport stamp is relevant nowadays as many countries no longer stamp, and most don't stamp for cruise visits.

I'm going to list simply the main changes of country by date, leave gaps for the ships or very short trips, and attach a full document listing everything, even ship port days. Has anybody done anything similar and found it to be a problem?

There are just three countries where I've spent more than 12 months in total in the past 10 years, the ships and short trips don't change that, so there's no change to the list of countries needing police clearance (which is a key purpose of the travel history).

I'm still interested to hear if there's a limit on the number of entries in the travel history, there's still going to be a lot! Thanks.

 

[STyler]

Thanks for the replies. Again this is for a Partner visa, offshore application, not a tourist visa.

I'm still interested to hear if there's a limit on the number of entries in the travel history, there's still going to be a lot! Thanks.

Hi, I have had trouble entering extensive travel histories in visa applications. I would recommend listing 10 in the application, then attach a list to the application with the rest of your travel history. Also, if you are lodging a partner visa (309) then you will need to complete a form 80 with all travel history for the last 10 years. There are only 5 lines on the form 80 at the question about travel, so you will have to add all travel on the last page, or attach a separate page anyway.

 

[CPMaverick]

I had over 90 trips and entered them all in the online form, no issues. This was a citizenship application. If the online form for your visa is not the same, then you can ignore my advice, but it seems better to do it as they want instead of attaching documents.

I did not include transit days. My visit to a country starts on the day I entered it, and ends on the day I left. I sometimes had gaps which were travel days (after all you always lose a day going from US-AU) but the gaps didn't cause me any issues.

 

[BritNic]

We have lived in 5 different countries over the past 10 years and travelled extensively for holidays and work during that time. I have a couple of questions

1) I travelled from Switzerland to visit My husband in Germany during 2011-2013 and have no idea about how many times or the dates. I also travelled between the UK Switzerland and France for work and have no idea when. Each trip was for a few days.

How accurate does the declaration need to be?

We moved from Gibraltar to Spain just before our PR visa was issued. We therefore did not have background checks from Spain. Is this an issue?

We also visited 15 countries on vacation during the past 10 years and I cannot be certain on dates.

Please could anyone provide advice?

 

[wrussell]

In future keep records of EVERYTHING. If you are in doubt about dates, inform immigration that the dates you quoted are 'to the best of recollection'. This is not a considered professional opinion.