Any updates from recent applicants?

Visa received at 10 am, flying to UK @ 4:30 pm.  Thank you all for posting, it's been a big help navigating this process.    Good luck to everyone waiting, I know the feeling.

Not to sound like an idiot... But what is an MP, and how does one contact them?

We  got our email today!!!!   

Now the wait until Monday when Fedex  delivers.....

As I am a bit of a geek around this stuff I decided to trawl through previous posts to get an understanding of timelines for priority applications.

The average processing time for the decision email I found was 21 days, here is the data below...

Thank you, JEMGE! This is very helpful; eases my mind a bit. =)

Visa received at 10 am, flying to UK @ 4:30 pm.  Thank you all for posting, it's been a big help navigating this process.    Good luck to everyone waiting, I know the feeling.

Congrats!! I wish I could take off the same day I receive my visa! But I will need to tie things up at work before I go. Bleh.

Not to sound like an idiot... But what is an MP, and how does one contact them?

Don't worry, you don't sound like an idiot! There are so many acronyms out there, it takes time to learn them. "DH" and "DW" confused me for the longest time!

MP stands for Member of Parliament! Someone in the UK can write to their local MP if there is some concern that something isn't going right with their family member/spouse's visa application. I would think that would be a sort of last resort or emergency type action to take, though.


It's been a week since FedEx delivered my application to Sheffield, and still no email... I know that this isn't really unusual, but I am still anxious nonetheless.

Great work - thanks .

One question though: did you separate out the priority from the non-priority applications?

The average processing times will be different depending on whether you paid for priority or not. Lately, it's been taking 2-3 months on average for non-priority applications and 2-3 weeks for priority.

Yes, it was focused on priority applications with the average for the whole period being around 3 weeks...

I applied May 20th and it is now September, I upgraded to Priority over a month ago, and aside from an email weeks ago alerting me I was now priority I have had no correspondence on my visa.  I have now spent almost 6 month of my newly married life away from my husband. 

I am beside myself at this process.  It feels royally unfair. 

Everyday that passes without an email i feel more and more like giving up, and fridays are the worst knowing that I have no hope for the next two days.

Hello Everyone
Just wondering what time of the day does the UKVI usually send out decision emails or is it just random? To the person who wrote up the time averages, this is wonderful.  Thank you for the effort. 

Trina

USA
Priority Spouse Application 
Application at Sheffield - August 13
Decision:  Not yet
Visa: Not yet

It's been a week since FedEx delivered my application to Sheffield, and still no email... I know that this isn't really unusual, but I am still anxious nonetheless.

It's been about a week and half since mine arrived at Sheffield and I have not received any 'application received' email either. There are a couple others on here that have not received emails either, and they got there pretty much same day as mine. Not sure what is going on, but I assume they must be running behind. The lack of communication makes me very anxious as well, but at least we aren't the only ones who haven't received an email. I know the UKVI is very busy this time of year, but for as much as each of us have paid to do this, the lack of communication is appalling!
I hope we hear something soon!
 

After  my stressed post earlier my husband and I decided to call the paid hotline, and after cumulatively an hour and a half ordeal, having been hung up on all three times immediately after paying for the call i feel UTTERLY EXASPERATED. 

Does anyone care that we have lives to live? I am utterly shocked and speechless at the lack of comms that have come with this process. 

After  my stressed post earlier my husband and I decided to call the paid hotline, and after cumulatively an hour and a half ordeal, having been hung up on all three times immediately after paying for the call i feel UTTERLY EXASPERATED. 

Does anyone care that we have lives to live? I am utterly shocked and speechless at the lack of comms that have come with this process. 

Yeah, the helpline is a waste of time and money and even if you hadn't been hung up on, they wouldn't have been able to give you any accurate information about your application anyway (I don't believe they have access to individual application details).

You'd probably be better off having your husband contact his local MP and seeing if he can contact UKVI in Sheffield on your behalf - several people have had their applications processed quickly after getting their MP involved, especially when they'd been waiting a long time.

Yeah, the helpline is a waste of time and money and even if you hadn't been hung up on, they wouldn't have been able to give you any accurate information about your application anyway (I don't believe they have access to individual application details).

You'd probably be better off having your husband contact his local MP and seeing if he can contact UKVI in Sheffield on your behalf - several people have had their applications processed quickly after getting their MP involved, especially when they'd been waiting a long time.

How does he go about contacting his "MP"

How does he go about contacting his "MP"

See here for information on how to find and contact your local MP (Member of Parliament):
http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-your-mp/contacting-your-mp/

He probably won't be able to get hold of anyone until Monday now though as it's after 6 pm here.

How does he go about contacting his "MP"

Are those sarcastic inverted commas "?"

Maybe you could use your visa-waiting time learning about the government of the country you plan to live in?

I'm not sure there is necessarily any link between contacting the MPs and getting a visa (people don't usually involve MPs until they have been waiting a long time anyway, so it could be correlation rather than causation) but it doesn't hurt to try.

I'd suggest leaving off the inverted commas in your letter, though. Dear "MP" might not present the best first impression  .

How does he go about contacting his "MP"

Renee, I'm one of the people who recently had luck after my husband contacted his MP. I highly recommend using writetothem.com to do this, as those stats are tracked and it reflects on their performance (whereas simply emailing doesn't). We used that site to contact the MP (plus followed up with a phone call and left a voicemail). We contacted the MP on Friday afternoon UK time, they immediately contacted Sheffield, and by Monday morning my husband finally got a reply from UKVI saying my visa had been approved.

You may not be quite so lucky with the timing, as it really depends on how busy your husband's MP is with immigration matters, but it's worth a shot. Make sure you include the application number, your passport number, DOB, as well as your British partner's info, and a narrative of your circumstances WRT to the visa timeline.

It's been a week since FedEx delivered my application to Sheffield, and still no email... I know that this isn't really unusual, but I am still anxious nonetheless.

It's been about a week and half since mine arrived at Sheffield and I have not received any 'application received' email either.

Same timelines and no e-mail yet.   
I have a feeling that I'll get the decision made e-mail only. 

After  my stressed post earlier my husband and I decided to call the paid hotline, and after cumulatively an hour and a half ordeal, having been hung up on all three times immediately after paying for the call i feel UTTERLY EXASPERATED. 

Does anyone care that we have lives to live? I am utterly shocked and speechless at the lack of comms that have come with this process. 

Renee, I am so sorry that you have had to wait so long!  I know how annoying it is to be separated from your husband- we've had to wait out the six months just to meet the income requirement.  Was your application pretty straight forward?  I would say that it's worth contacting your husband's MP, if only to bring to someone's attention that your application is in limbo.  Here's to hoping that you hear something soon.

We  got our email today!!!!   

Now the wait until Monday when Fedex  delivers.....

Belated congratulations, Becca!