IT Upgrade--possible visa processing delays

Just a heads up.

https://www.visainfoservices.com/Pages/Content.aspx?tag=Welcome_Page

"03 August 2009: Possible delays to visa processing in the US. Due to a major IT upgrade at the UK Border Agency at the British Consulate-General, Chicago, visa applications processed between Friday 21 August and Friday 28 August 2009 will be subject to delays. The visa application centres will remain open and will continue to accept applications in the usual way but we will not be able to issue visas during much of this period. Applicants who are planning to travel to the UK in August are strongly recommended to apply well in advance of the above disruption to normal service."

Does anyone have any guess as to what may happen with this? Just my luck, this is the week in which I'd be submitting my visa!   :\\\'( I am using a courier, does anyone think that will even matter or perhaps I just have to continue to practice my patience skills!

This outage is planned and was all explained here last May/June.

It has been on the plate for a long time and everyone liked these dates because it is the low point in their schedule.  Everyone is on board with it.

Even though it will disrupt a few, most will benefit and if you read the threads about when the biometric servers crashed, you'll be thankful for avoiding that sort of nightmare.

Thanks Garry! I did not see any threads about this so I will search for them now. So when you say "most will benefit" what do you mean by that? Do you mean that you think there is a possibility the processing time of my visa may not be affected? I know there are no guarantees for anything.

IM in the same boat. My stuff is going in at the same time this happening too. I didn't know about it til recently. am hoping it doesn't cause too much of a delay.

Most will benefit = the changes will improve the integrity of the system and additionally there will be a marked improvement in the end user experience.

Does this outage affect all three consulates in the US, or just the one in Chicago? I submitted a Tier 2 application to the New York consulate and would love to know whether this will affect visa processing there. Thanks!

Probably just Chicago. Elsewhere should be fine.