I have received my ATAS clearance certificate but my DOB mentioned on it is wrong. My DOB is 29/05/1987 where as the accpetance letter reflects as 29/05/2009.
I want to know whether the ATAS commission will make the necessary changes or do I have to re-apply?

hi kashyap
I suggest you email the ATAS staff quickly and see what they say.

satchi

Hi Satchi,
      I have already emailed them three days ago but still have not received any reply from them. At this stage I do not even know whether they would be rectifying the mistake or no.
    Hence anybody who came across such kind of experience please let me know what had been done by you to get the clearance certificate.

Regards,
Kashyap

hi kashyap
you know, I dont even remember if my DOB was on my ATAS cert! it feels like such a long time ago.

Have you thought about calling up your UK visa processing center hotline and speaking to one of their officers about this?

if you have waited 3 days since emailing ATAS and nothings happened, how about calling them up directly instead.

I hope you get the help you need soon.
satchi

Hie Satchi,
Yes I did call up on the Visa help line number here yesterday and they said we can not say in this case (ie with 29/05/2009) your application will be accepted or rejected.
I have got only one option remaining is that visiting the counselet personnally and enquiring which I feel is not gonna be of any use as they do not entertaing any queries here, but still I shall give it a chance. Would be going there in a couple of hrs.
Well I do not think ATAS has got any helpline number to enquire all you have is this email address where you have to mail them. Ohh which reminds me my mail which I sent three days ago got bounced last night.
I cant figure out whats happening and whats gonna happen. :-(


Regards,
Kashyap

hi kashyap
I thought that now UK visa applications are run by a center (VFS), then you can ask them instead of having to go all the way to the Consulate. I think if you have other documents that can prove that you are the named person on the ATAS cert, it should go ok. Have you also tried to submit another application and see what happens?
satchi

hi again
did you try this link to ATAS
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/what-we-do/services-we-deliver/atas/atas-contact-us

I really feel for you because I have been through worse visa problems. I applied for a student visa from Spain and they did not even recognise the financial verification letter from the European Commission!!! They wanted me to show that I had at least 30,000 euros in my bank account. They did not say upfront the amount needed to be shown in my bank but obviously this was the estimate. I said that I didnt have that kind of money, that's why I won a scholarship. This gave me a lot of stress and delayed my visa.

At that time my family tried to help finding me someone who had this kind of money who woud say that they would "sponsor" me, we just needed a letter and bank statements (!!!) of course I would not spend people's money because I already had a full scholarship. But friends (who had this money) started avoiding us, not answering our phone calls for help and not speaking to us. It was a very horrible experience. People also started avoiding me (my so-called rich friends) because they were afraid I was going to ask them to lend me money.

Finally someone did help me. I did not use a single cent of his money. I finally got the visa, obviously delayed.

In UK they are more sensible, if you have a scholarship financial verification, they take that and don't ask for your own bank account.

I hope you get this resolved, I really do. I wish you well.
satchi

hi again
Yes I have made a request on the web link u provided two days back. I have also received my query number but still have not received any mail from their side.
Belive me I can feel how u must have felt when ure so called rich friends started avoiding u. I can understand n I feel for you for the problems u had to face that time.
Thank you satchi for your help and sharing with me your experiances.

Yes what I meant by tellin you that I would be visiting the counsulate is that I would be visiting VFS. I know I can provide a proofS to show my actualy DOB but am just now wanting to give them any chance to reject my application. Also lets think logically, my ATAS certificate reflects my DOB as 29/05/2009. Can a person born in 2009 ever do his master's course?? He wont be even speaking by now. Hence in my case my Passport would be sufficient to as my proof but as I said I do not want to risk my application.
Am a lot scared at the moment as I got barely any time in hand.
yes to avoid any further delay I have even re-applied for my ATAS clearance obv with my true DOB and also checking all my details minutely to which I have also received the auto-generated confirmation of my application being accepted.
now only what I can do is simply wait and watch.

Regards,
Kashyap

P.S. what are you doin at the moment?? I mean you are a student or done with your studies?

hi kashyap
you have done everything within your power, yes you are right you just have to wait and see.
I am in year 2 phd. I like this forum, sometimes people write a lot of rants, in reading more and more rants it can make people (who are reading them!) even more depressed! But the plus points of this forum is that (rants aside) very often I read good advice from well-meaning members.

Try not to worry about time (about delay). You will be ok (up)
So now we just wait for your good news :-)
satchi

Hi Satchi,
Yes, I have done everythin within my power.
May I know in what are you doin your Phd and from which University?
I am worried as I do not want to delay my studies further, I was intending to join in september 09 but somehow I couldn't so now I am really wanting to join, cant afford to delay my joining to sept 10.
Thank you for ur luck and I shall def let you know what happens about my application.

hi kashyap
i am in the midst of running another app, i will pm u later :-)
satchi

hey Satchi,
Guess what??
I got my ATAS certificate corrected. I feel so relaxed now that finally am in a condition to apply for my Visas.
I guess ur wishes worked. ;-)
Well thats all to conclude this thread. Bye cya tc,all the luck for ur Phd ahead, keep in touch.

Hey Kashyap,
Can you tell when did u apply for ATAS certificate and when u got it ? I applied on 14th Dec, got acknowledgment on 16th but still waiting for the clearance certificate.

Hie Murali,
        I had applied on 31st of Dec and got it on 31st.
      Please do not calculate the days my application took to execute and evaluate your application.
        First of all tell me for which intake are you planning? I mean when is your course start date? If its Janurary than I would request you to email them and request them to process it asap, n if the start date is somewhere after mid feb than wait for a week more.
      No matter they write "it takes about 10working days to process your application" (which from 2010 is 20days) it never comes before 30days in usual cases. Also in your case christmas and new year break have come in between so it might take a little more than a month as well as the ATAS commission was shut completely from 26th Dec till 4th Jan.
        I hope this all solves your doubt. Let me tell you this all I am telling you from my own experience, it is not necessary that it has to be this way only.

Regards,
Kashyap

Hey, finally I got my ATAS clearance certificate on 8th Jan :). I will be joining Univ of Edinburgh for PhD around Feb 1st week.