Courier Experience :(

I wish I would have found this thread (see below for someone with a similar situation) BEFORE I started freaking out (just a little) about the status of our fiance visa application. I just wanted to make it aware that the SAME thing is happening to our application with ExpertVisa in Chicago. To explain further, they are extremely flaky.  They will "pretend" to know what is going on: We sent in our application on March 6th and do not know the outcome. With this, ExpertVisa said that the application was deferred in the morning and then referred on the same afternoon...yet I have had NO contact from the consulate stating either of the two. They will say "call back at 11 am" yet they will say "we don't know anything about visas until 3 pm". I asked the courier to explain referred/deferred and they got a little uncomfortable.  Our application is not straight forward as we are having to deal with claiming two benefits (that he is "entitled" to claim) and a disability that does not enable him to fly--which is why we don't have a choice but for me to apply to live in the UK. Besides that, we have a pretty clean and solid application. We have substantial savings, both employed, own accommodation, no convictions, etc, etc.  I almost wish I didn't go with that courier service now....... I just wanted to make this aware to someone who is considering couriers in Chicago and my personal experience with ExpertVisas thus far.

Someone with a similar situation: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=47483.msg671028#msg671028

Inaccurate or misleading information is never quite as harmful as it is in an immigration matter.  We know couriers in the US are in serious regression with respect to the information they provide, and we're working on it.

It's an organizational problem within VSD itself and takes a while to sort out.

In the meantime, people should not be relying upon couriers to give advice or status information.  They are to facilitate transport only.

I don't think this reflects badly upon Expert visa services. As Garry said, it's not their job to tell you what's going on with your application. They did 50% of their job by delivering the application to the consulate and it's now out of their hands. If they ask at the consulate what is going on, all they will get is "It's deferred", and if they keep doing it they'll start to p off the staff there. Can you imagine if everyone who had an application deferred popped in twice a day to ask about it? And in Chicago, the couriers are in between 9 and 10 and then again between 3 and 4, so those are the times when they would have any updates.

You're not going to like this bit, but the Customer Service Target (or whatever they're calling them this week) for settlements is 50 working days. Until you've waited that long you can't really complain, but taking your frustrations out on the courier is a bit fruitless.

the Customer Service Target (or whatever they're calling them this week) for settlements is 50 working days.

The 'formal' term is 'Public Service Agreement' or PSA.  It's a contract between the government and Parliament.

Ironically, the PSA is not very public, certainly not about a service, and in reality, not even an agreement.  But I suppose it makes them feel good to use those words.

I haven't looked at the statistics recently, but I assume North America is delivering outstanding performance on the PSA.

Well, don't rely on the published statistics to judge.

I was going to use PSA but I think they're calling them something else on the BSC at the moment.

As for delivering, yes, most are exceeding the targets, but as UKBA launch new schemes with massively increased processing times yet fail to increase resources at post, expect the 50 day cushion posts have for settlements to absorb most of the blows.

Thanks for the replies! I now understand the role of the courier--which I would think that some people would have a misconception concerning this. The point is, I would rather be left in the dark not knowing what it going on than be fed information that has no worth. I have no problem waiting for the visa--yes, it's hard but I am certainly not going to complain as people from other countries go through a great deal more. I would hope that couriers could simply say "they are backed up" or "busy" rather than random statuses that sometimes do not even add up. However, I realize that it is not even the courier's job to give status updates, either.  Thanks again for the information and the responses.  Now, I am going to sit back, relax, and wait!

Given the experience that a number of members of this board have had when using couriers when making their visa applications, and at the request of Garry and Kitson, I have made a presentation to two members of the ARIA committee regarding the concerns we have relating to such couriers. Kitson kindly prepared the Powerpoint presentation, but it made sense for me to make the presentation, given my geographical proximity to the two committee members concerned, and to save either Kitson or Garry needing to make a trip from London to Birmingham.

The presentation, to the Secretary of ARIA, and one of his committee colleagues, went well. They both now fully understand the problems that the current system in the US is causing, particularly as regards the wrong advice sometimes being given by the courier companies.

They now intend to speak to ARIA colleagues, after which it is possible that representations may be made by ARIA to UKBA etc suggesting changes to the current unsatisfactory system.

Thanks John.  I have to follow up with some other folks down here in London and do the presentation with them as well.  I will update others here as well when that is done.