Yes! Just this afternoon I received 5 emails from the British Consulate. They all began with the following message:
Your application has been approved and the visa has been issued.
All I can say is “Yes! Thank you God!”
Now, the hard work of finalizing all my current projects, selling most of our belongings, and moving to England begin. It’s gonna be a fast-paced and tough month, but I am sure looking forward to arriving in Durham, and to having my family join me shortly thereafter.
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Darrell J. Rohl BSc (Hons) (Andrews), MA (Dunelm): I'm a PhD candidate in 
Traci and I went to Chicago today, and we now have all five passports with Visas in hand! This was a pretty stressful experience, and it’s such a relief to know that we can actually proceed with out plans.
Hi Darrel,
My husband and I have looked through your website and found alot of helpful information.
I was wondering how long it took to get your application together for your visa and how long it took to get back to you.
My husband will be doing his Masters there in September, and we will be making the move with him. With a 2 year old and a baby!
The information we collected from the website seemed to suggest that the visas altogether will cost close to a thousand dollars! I’m wondering if that’s accurate or we just have it wrong. I didn’t even think Canadians needed a visa! Would it be more complicated if we just arrived there then applied for the visas? I know we’re allowed to stay 6 months without one.
Thanks!
Hi RC. I’m glad the site has been helpful to you. We do hope to provide some clearer guidance on certain areas soon, but haven’t gotten around to it.
For our Visas, after worrying about it for 3 or 4 months, it only took me about a week to put the application together. The online system was very frustrating, and I had to re-start our applications a few times. Be forewarned that you will have to submit 4 separate applications for your family, and that you’ll have to re-enter a lot of the same information on each… it’s quite tedious.
You’re probably right with the cost of Visa applications. We had to spend about $1,500 US for the 5 of us. I wish I could give you more advice, but the whole visa system has been changed since we got ours (though we now need to get ours renewed). The best advice I can give you is to look at http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/info_sheets/applying_home_country.php, be sure you have the financial support you need (loans worked for me), and contact the university’s international office (at Durham, international.office@durham.ac.uk). I really wish I had contacted the international office. They are trained in the Visa application procedures, and can give you a lot of help.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to come over without the student visa. For one, I’m pretty sure the application fees are even higher when you apply from in the UK. This is a good question to ask the international office.