New York Consulate (Tier 2, Tier 4, etc.) Applicant Updates

Hi from a newbie all,

The vast majority of recent posts on "Updates from Recent Applicants" deal with Sheffield applications, which is why I create a new thread and hope it is not duplicative!

What are people's recent/current experiences with applying to the New York Consulate? The internet is littered with horror stories, but most appear to be time-pressed tourist/holiday visa applicants.

I submitted my Tier 2 (General) last week with priority service, and have yet to receive the 'Application in Queue' email. I'm wondering how long people have recently had to wait for (a) application opening, and (b) application processing for Tier 2 and similar visas.

I found a very helpful post from @JessLynn about a week back (http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=82258.msg1125665#msg1125665 [nofollow] ). Any other opinions welcome!

I'll update my schedule when (/if!) I ever hear back.

In case anyone is curious as they're about to submit their own applications, I wanted to drop an update. I sent my Tier 2 (General) application to the New York Consulate last week.

--13 August: Biometrics taken, priority service purchased, and application mailed overnight USPS
--14 August: Package received and signed for
--19 August: Application opened and priority service confirmed

They're saying it will be 7 business days to process. More when I know more!

Good luck everyone

Did your company issue you with a Restricted CoS and not an unrestricted CoS for your Tier 2 (General)? The reason being that a few posts have just popped up where their firm applied with the wrong CoS and when UKBA discovered what their sponsor had done a year or two later, their visa was withdrawn.

Not said to scare you, but to make sure everything is correct before you travel as sometimes sponsors get it wrong.

Thanks for checking with me! I'd rather double check than be stuck somewhere in future.

I've got an RCoS this time.

Our (myself, wife, and daughter) applications arrived at the consulate on August 7th. We paid for priority service.

-August 10th: email acknowledging they were opened.
-August 20th: email saying our visas were approved.

We were supposed to fly on August 24th, which did not happen. Still waiting for visas to be printed and documents returned.

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone can offer some insight into Tier 4 processing times. I've submitted my Tier 4 application to the New York consulate, and it has been received and signed for on Friday the 21st of August. I haven't been notified that they have started processing it yet, and I am very anxious as to the timing-- if I will receive it back (hopefully approved) by the end of next month (the latest the 24th-26th). I (stupidly) did not pay for priority service. The website says that the majority are being processed within 15 days, but I'm wondering if anyone has any knowledge. Thank you!

OK, here's the full story for me.

--13 August: Biometrics taken, priority service purchased, and application mailed overnight USPS
--14 August/10am: USPS Priority Express Mail package received and signed for according to online tracking
--19 August/10:30am: Email that application opened and priority service confirmed
--25 August/11am: Email that decision made, put in print queue
--26 August/1pm: Email that visa printed
--27 August/3:48pm: UPS pickup according to online tracking. Scheduled delivery for 28 Aug

There is one thing to note for anyone getting particularly stressed and freaking out about delivery at the end of any given day. Though the pickup is timed at 3:48pm according to the UPS website, the update didn't appear online until about 4:45pm. I need the passport tomorrow, so was refreshing the online tracking repeatedly after 4pm. UPS online pickup tracking is about an hour delayed off of reality.

Thank you for your response!

Your situation seems definitely rushed like mine right now, although you were smart enough to pay for priority processing.

I don't know if I can pay for priority now that its already been mailed in...

Also I noticed on your timeline that they sent you an email that it had been opened and the processing had begun just three business days after they notified you that it had been received--they had signed for mine on the 21st, but I haven't gotten an email saying they've opened it even.

Not sure what to do at this point-- I need to be in the UK sometime between the 22nd-26th of next month.

The opacity is definitely frustrating.

Priority applications are meant to be mailed in with 'PRIORITY SERVICE' scrawled all over the outer envelope to speed opening, so they may get opened sooner. If they opened my envelope in 3 days, and you've just been waiting for 5 working days so far, I wouldn't freak out just yet.

I think their processing times are slow because of the Tier 4 student visa application glut in advance of next month's starts. (If you want to feel really depressed, read the Yelp reviews for the consulate, but I'd suggest you don't if you want to retain some modicum of sanity. http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/british-consulate-general-new-york-2?sort_by=date_desc [nofollow] )

You can buy priority service retrospectively and email in the proof of purchase. There are some instructions on the VFSGlobal website as well as some Yelp reviews with people's experience (both positive and negative) of doing so.

hahah the Yelp reviews are hilarious- "I would never recommend anyone to apply for a UK Visa. Zero star.", my personal favorite.

Yes precisely, the opacity, the vagueness when dealing with a deadline is the worst. You're correct with the surge of Tier 4 visas for sure. I should probably consider retrospectively buying the priority soon if this timeline continues how its going, and considering yours took about 2 weeks with it? I have a bit under a month but who knows what'll happen.

As of my application opening on Aug 19, they were saying priority applications are dealt with in 7 days of opening, and non-priority take 14.

I'm no expert, but from lots of internet trawling (and trolling), people seem to say that these time frames are opening to decision, not necessarily including additional printing queue and shipping time.

If true, they seem to have decided to use a metric that is meaningless to the outside world. And also if true, a 14 day processing could be 3 weeks. You'd be cutting it close to say the least.

I'd say you have to balance off the $192 priority fee against the potential that the fee could make zero difference if they don't apply it properly against the cost of the ulcer you may develop and repeatedly refreshing your email and wondering what if you had.

I don't envy you to be faced with this choice--best of luck!

A few things to note:

1) The processing times given on the UKVI website are 1-2 months out of date and are only updated once a month... with the previous month's statistics, so they've just updated the June stats to the July stats.

2) Which means that the processing times up on the site currently are for applications decided between July 1st and July 31st 2015. The processing times for decisions made in August won't be on the site until the end of September.

3) Processing times are given in WORKING days. So, 7 days means 1.5 weeks, 14 days means 3 weeks etc.

From the UKVI website, in July 2015:

Tier 4 visas
11% of applications were processed in 5 working days (1 week)
31% in 10 working days (2 weeks)
97% in 15 working days (3 weeks)

So, that means that the majority of applications were processed in 2 to 3 weeks. However, the processing times currently, in August, may quite different to those times - they could be faster, could be much slower.

For settlement applications processed in Sheffield, back in June/July, the website said the majority were being processed in 15 working days, but those were the figures from May 2015, before the rush and were not reflective of the actual processing times for those months.

In actual fact, the processing times during July were:
- 65% of applications processed in 15 working days
- 74% in 30 working days
giving an average non-priority processing time of about 2 months rather than the 3 weeks given on the website.

Hi!

July 18: non priority application shipped into New York

July 21: visa opened by ukvi

July 28: purchased retrospective priority processing

July 31: visa approved email

August 4: visa mailed to me!


I think retrospective priority was the best purchase. I don't know how long it would take without priority!

But they kept me very well up to date on what was going on and it was a smooth and happy process.

Hahahah "have decided to use a metric meaningless to the outside world" baha. That seems to be pretty accurate.

Basically, here's the update:

Just two days ago (31st) I finally received the automatic email that my application has been opened.

I was relieved but still seriously considering retrospective priority processing, however immediately after I get a lovely email stating that I still needed to pay the IHS payment-- I had started my application online before they integrated that into the system..... obviously I have probably a fully-formed ulcer now.

The email was as follows:

"Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) payment needed

On the 5th of July, we integrated the IHS payment solution into the online application process. Unfortunately, you may have started your online visa application before this date and did not make the required IHS payment separately before the facility was integrated. This means that you cannot now make your IHS payment and the application you have submitted has been deferred.

What you need to do next


In order to make your IHS payment, you must now:

• submit a fresh application via newcomer link: http://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk [nonactive] and make the IHS payment as part of that process.
• pay your visa fees (including any User Pay fees) again. These will be refunded.
• make an appointment to submit your biometrics at the Visa Application Centre but will not need to attend this appointment.
• Once you have completed this process please send an email to UKVINewYork.Correspondence@fco.gov.uk containing your name, the two GWF references (old and new) and the IHS reference number so that we can process your application and refund the duplicate payments.

Please note that if the new application and payment is not made within 5 working days from today then your application will be refused.  If this is the only reason for refusing your application, you will have to make a new visa application and any new visa fees will not be refunded.

Kind Regards,

UK Visas & Immigration New York"

I had begun my application before the 5th of July and it wasn't even an option on the website the entire time, so I had completely blanked and somehow assumed it was still included? I don't know.

SO... I immediately did everything the email said, spending another $515 to submit a fresh online application, paying the IHS fee, emailed that address twice stating the needed information, with the second email politely asking for any form of response to just acknowledge that the email and information had been received and that the processing of the application is continuing.

No response as of yet, keeping the faith sort of, but with all of the extra money I've just spent I'm apprehensive to throw another $192 at this to get priority processing. Getting increasingly desperate but we'll see.