Courier Service?

Can someone explain what a courier service is/where I would find one?  I'm in Memphis, Tennessee.  This is for a spousal visa.  And is there some reason it's better than just shipping everything overnight via UPS or FedEx?  From what I've seen, a courier is quite expensive-- what makes it worth the extra money?

Thanks.

They can expedite your visa, I used one because I could not stand the thought of waiting up to 20 days to find out. I dropped my application off at the courier on Wednesday morning and received a call on Thursday afternoon that mine was approved. Definitely worth the $50 to me. 

But how do you find a courier?  I don't live anywhere near where I'd be mailing my application.  Why would it take up to 20 days if I just overnighted it?

But how do you find a courier?  I don't live anywhere near where I'd be mailing my application.  Why would it take up to 20 days if I just overnighted it?

There used to be lists of couriers registered with the consulate on the embassy (britainusa) web site, but people have reported that those lists are now not there anymore for some reason.  There's been a lot of discussion here about couriers lately, though, so I'm sure you could find some names for your consulate simply by searching this board.

If you sent it in yourself, your app gets put into a queue- the consulates are very busy right now so your application probably won't even get looked at for a little while after it is received because they're looking at the other applications that came in before yours.  If you use a courier, you effectively move your application up to the head of the line which is why it will only take a couple of days max if your app is straightforward.

If you are from TN then you go through Chicago. Just google 'courier Chicago visa' something like that and you should find some.

I used Expert Visa Services and it worked for me. They are not the most customer friendly people but they only charged me $50 and I received 2 day service. 

Are you sure it's Chicago?  This says Atlanta: http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/us/missions.html

Are you sure it's Chicago?  This says Atlanta: http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/us/missions.html

Only three British consulates in the US deal with visas- NYC, Chicago and LA.  If you live in TN, as yankeebruto says you'll be applying to the Chicago office- see http://www.britainusa.com for more info.

Are you sure it's Chicago?  This says Atlanta: http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/us/missions.html

There are only 3 consulates in the US that process visas: New York, LA and Chicago. The other consulates (i.e. Atlanta) do not deal with visa applications. Each state is assigned to one of those 3 consulates - I can't remember which site the list of them is on, but if others are saying Chicago, then I'd guess that's the right one for TN.

Edited to add: X-posted with springhaze

oh, and the list of couriers seems to have migrated to the worldbridge site.  for Chicago, see here- https://www.visainfoservices.com/Pages/Content.aspx?tag=Independent_visa_services--Chicago_area.txt

Ahh, thanks for the info everyone!