Settlement Visa for US husband 2014
4th June - Payment made online for Visa
9th June - Biometric Appointment
17th June - Application received in Sheffield (checked by DHL number)
NEVER HAD ANY CONFIRMATION EMAIL OF RECEIVED PACKAGE
5th July - wrote to both visasheffield and used the contact form on the internet to ask about upgrading to priority.
6th July - Reponse from online contact form to say we can upgrade and instructions.
8th July - Upgraded to priority - email received in response to upgrade to say we will respond to the email sent within 20 days
13th July - Reponse from visasheffield email from the email sent on the 5th of July (not the upgrade email) stating we would certainly get a quicker response and at looking at the queue it would be two weeks.
33 WORKING DAYS IN TOTAL THUS FAR NO EMAILS AT ALL NOT EVEN ONE SENT BACK TO EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF UPGRADE.
26th September expecting our first child....will he be here....I dont know!
Ive heard that if we contact them it sometimes moves the visa back in the queue. Should I try contacting the visasheffield office again im not sure?
Its just frustrating you pay so much money and they cant even acknowledge they have received and are processing.
Update
Sent a couple of emails asking if we had been bumped to priority. Got a meaningless reply from the India helpdesk that didnt confirm and visasheffield never replied.
22nd August - email requesting further documents and stating that a decision would be made by the 1st sept whether we sent the documents or not.
25th August - docs scanned and sent as requested.
No acknowledgement to ssy theyd been received. We are still waiting.
So in total so far our application has been at sheffield for 10 weeks and 7 of those weeks it should of been sat in the priority queue.
We have decided once it has been issued to write a complaint. Its not so much the processing times. Thats understandable. Its the lack of communication. After all we are paying for a service and theres not any service going on!!! Its already cost 1300 why should i pay 2 pounds a minute to talk to an office that isnt at the sheffield centre and therefore cant tell me if my package has been bumped to priority. The only thing they seem to know is if the officer has picked it up or not. Why is there not computerised workflow system for this helpdesk to have detailed information?!?
Then when you read on this forum it seems like its pot luck when you get processed as some people go through quick and others wait longer yet theyve paid for the same service at the same time.
Oh well. Like I say we can only complain after.