Just bad luck, or common?

It seems like every little thing that we think shouldn't take long for the visa process is taking ages. Like getting a reference from the landlord from the old place for renting a new place. Took three weeks, and many phone calls for them to even acknowledge the request.

Bank information, how long is average to expect to have statements mailed once you have requested them? Anyone have any idea?

My husband just moved, and has been waiting for over a week on the school to get kids transferred in. They say the school will be phoning, but when he calls to follow up, they say it's a busy time for them. I am worried when I do finally get my son there it could be a long wait for him to get enrolled and started in school if this is how it goes.

Are we just having bad luck or does this seem typical? 

Hi SillySprite, I just wanted to reassure you that it will all work out!

I can understand about the school because we only have about three more weeks of school left before summer holidays and as I help out in my child's school I can vouch for how busy it is. All I can say is for your other half to do is to keep calling.

And as for the bank statements, are you talking about needing them from the US or the UK? If over here in the UK, about a month ago I went to my local bank to request a bank statement from 2009, they charged me £5 for it and said I should have it in about a week and it took nearly two weeks to get instead. This was with Natwest.

Hope this helps! Good luck with getting it all sorted. 

I second the bank thing.  We just had to do them in the autumn for my ILR and easily got print outs that they stamped at the bank.  It was just a matter of waiting in their little "help and information" queue. I don't think we paid anything.  This was with both Halifax and Lloyds.  

The landlord thing, I don't know.  I think some people are just bad at it.  It should be up to the people requesting it to chase them down.  Can he or you use an alternative reference?  I used one from the States,because I had never rented here in the UK.

Good luck.

ETA: It looks like you've already managed to get the reference so NM about that.  I can tell you it took about a month to get the permission from my inlaw's landlord for us to live there.  I am not sure if it was my father-in-law dragging his feet or the landlords.

Ugh, I find that most things in England seem to take OODLES of working days to sort out.

I literally just sent in my application for Tier 1 PSW visa two days ago. I had planned on sending it in quite a bit earlier, but only just got things sorted out this last week (which turned out to be exactly one month before my student visa expires, which is when they recommend sending it, good thing I was planning on sending it early, otherwise I'd be f*cked!).

I went to Lloyds and asked for 5 months worth of bank statements (I'm paranoid, I wanted to do more than required). This was on June 15th. I thought they were just going to print it right there and then, but no, 7 - 10 working days. UGH!! I finally got my statements, and instead of printing more, like I asked, they printed exactly 90 days worth, and only up until June 7th. I had to call the border agency to make sure this was alright (which apparently it is, as long has it hadn't been more than 30 days ago).

I don't think this is just the visa process, I'm pretty sure its England. I wouldn't be surprised if the next time I ask my boyfriend to make me a cup of tea, he'll respond "7 to 10 working days"....

Ugh, I find that most things in England seem to take OODLES of working days to sort out.

I'm pretty sure its England. I wouldn't be surprised if the next time I ask my boyfriend to make me a cup of tea, he'll respond "7 to 10 working days"....

I had this in the States and Canada too. (Not the cup of tea thing!)

My DH's bank statements took 3 weeks to be mailed to him (and it did cost him something but I can't remember how much).  That was from RBS.

As for the school, it took about 3 weeks from the time we arrived to get DD into school.  They were closed for school holidays when we arrived so it probably took an extra week due to that.  When are you planning to arrive?  School will be over in about 3 weeks so if you arrive after that you'll have 6 weeks (of summer break) to get it sorted before school starts again.  My DH couldn't register DD before we got here because he didn't have an ID for her (passport, birth certificate, etc.) as I had those in my possession for the visa application.

I am with Kelly and over time have come to believe it is an England thing.  England is certainly known for having, on par, much worse customer service than the US.  I think it is a pretty big shock when you move to the UK. 

I have so many examples of something that would be turned on same day in the US (like internet) and it takes 6 weeks in the UK -- plus you have to take a day off of work.   

For my Tier 1 visa, I had to get statements both from the US and the UK.  In the UK, I was missing one statement that never arrived in the post.  I made the request via their helpline and was told 2 weeks.  I waited 2 weeks and nothing.  Called again and they said give in another week.  Called a week later and they then didn't even have my request in the system.  Went into one branch and they wouldn't help with my request.  Went into a 2nd branch and they ordered the statements again (after refusing to stamp and print in there) - for 2 weeks time.  Again, it never arrived.  At this point, I was dangerously near the date I HAD to submit by, so I called again and said, you HAVE to courier this info to me but I was staying overnight for residential training.  THey refused to courier to anywhere but my home address, even though I had passed all the security checks.  So I arranged for my BF to pick it up after work.  When he got it, THEY HAD SENT SOMEONE ELSE's STATEMENTS!!!  So they re-couriered for the next day.  I was then on my last day to submit so I had to pay £500 for a man on a bike to deliver my app.  It took more than 6 weeks, with about 5 requests and 2 courier attempts to get 1 bank statement and I was out £500.

On the other hand, I called my US bank and they printed and stamped my statements while I was on the phone.  I then asked for them to just regular mail it to me (as I had time) and they instead paid to overnight it to me.  The teller put a lovely note in that she thought is sounded really important and she didn't want something bad to happen.  They didn't charge me for it.

PS  Natwest had to pay me the £500 I was out for their incompetance but I had to spend 2-3 months and countless phone calls to escalate it.  Eventually I contacted the ombudsman and only Natwest then actually listened to my complaint.  Once I faxed over the account of events and documentation of the deadlines I had, they made a decision straight away but it was huge undertaking.

It took me months to get an official letter from my student loan provider in the US. I kept requesting them over the phone and they kept emailing a PDF of the letter to me. Obviously, a printed version wouldn't have been official. I ended up contacting the company's lawyers who managed to get the letter to me within three days, at my own expense of overnight FedEx shipping. And in the end, my printed version of the letter looked more official than their version: no letterhead, no watermark, poor paper quality and smudged ink. Luckily, the company was large enough that the Border Agency was used to their pathetic excuse of a letter so it was accepted.

When I opened my bank account in the UK, I decided to go with paper statements, just to make life easier for my next visa application!

When I applied for Tier 1, I was able to get a letter from my local RBS branch confirming my balance over 3 months for the maintenance requirement, and they signed and stamped it according to my instructions, and I had it the next day from when I asked for it. I really think a lot depends on the people at a particular branch.

Thanks for all of your replies. It seems hit or miss on the bank you use from what I can gather from your answers, but does seem to take a lot longer than here. I requested bank statements and had them mailed to me that day, so received within two days here in the states. I wish my husband would have ordered his ahead of time, we weren't sure he needed them since it will be my income and finances that will be used to show the maintenance requirement. I asked him to print them online and drive to a branch office to get them stamped/signed. Fingers crossed he will just do that so we can get them done. Not even sure if he does or doesn't need them but better safe than sorry I guess.

Getting internet set up after his move has taken forever. Fingers crossed it will be done tomorrow but still no home phone, as the charges for putting in the line seem insane. Those type of things do seem easier to me here in the states, you call the phone company you want and they take over your line, done no huge fee to switch. But I'm not sure how it goes there, maybe it is easier than all of this and we are just having problems. Having no internet there has slowed everything up it seems. Always waiting.

I don't know when I will ever get there with my son. That all depends on how long it takes my husband to get the paperwork I need sent to me. Just sitting here waiting, and looking at the calendar thinking it's not looking good. I was hoping to get my son there by mid August, so he would have a few weeks to settle in before school starts back up in September. I don't think that is going to happen at this rate.

I realized too we don't have anything in writing from the new landlords saying we have permission for my son and I to move in. They gave the verbal ok, but nothing in writing and nothing in the tenancy agreement. I have asked my husband to request a letter from them, but wonder how long that will take now and how bad I really need it.

Just tired of waiting and always waiting on "one more thing". Which always turns into three more things. Thank you all again for your replies and well wishes. I really appreciate it. 

If there is already an active line, it's also free here. You only have to pay if they have to install a new line or reconnect a disconnected line. Don't know how that works in the US.

If there is already an active line, it's also free here. You only have to pay if they have to install a new line or reconnect a disconnected line. Don't know how that works in the US.

Unfortunately there is not an active line. Here I think if they install a brand new phone line, in a house where there has not been one, then you pay a fee. Otherwise there may be a small activation fee, which in my experience, the phone company waived that when just moving your phone number to a new address.

It is all pretty common it seems. We had to get the bank statements from the UK sent to the States. It took my husband calling and threaten to switch banks before they would agree to ship out his statements the same day to his parents house. When they arrived two days later, we had his sister send them 2 day courier to our hotel in Vegas. They ended up taking a week to arrive in Vegas, by which time we were gone. Luckily, we had made good friends with the UPS in our hotel, so he called us and overnighted the documents free of charge as a wedding present. But anyway you slice it, even expedited the bank statements took almost 2 weeks to get!

and don't get me started on BT & the internet. It took us 10 weeks and 7.25 hours on the phone to get the internet. And we had ordered the BT line 2 weeks before we moved in!