Urgent: Why does pg 4 of Spouse Visa App form say visa issuing office is in NY?

Hi Everyone,

My Wife and I finally applied for a Spouse visa so she can move from the USA to live with me in the UK.

The online application went fine, I paid the $1530 fee plus the IHS surcharge and priority processing charge - all went through ok.

Now that my Wife has printed off the online application, page 4 says that the visa is for Settlement and the type is Wife, but it says that the issuing office is in New York? I thought it should be Sheffield (which is where we will be sending the documents regardless!)?

Has anyone else's form said this, and do you think it will cause any problems?

Just as I thought things were beginning to come under control! 

New York is the official administration hub for visa applications made in the US and until about 2 years ago spousal visas were processed in New York too.

It could say NYC because of the administration hub location, or it may just be a mistake on the form - I know last year, there were a few issues with the online applications/biometrics sheets telling people to mail their documents to NYC, which caused some problems with applicants sending their applications to the wrong place.

If you were to mail your application to NYC, they would just mail it back to you and tell you to send it to Sheffield instead.

As long as you mail your application to Sheffield, you won't have a problem.

Hi ksand24,

Thank you for another very helpful response.

I had thought that it would be fine to still mail everything to Sheffield, and that it was likely to be an error on the form from the Visa4UK side. However my Wife has been having a panic since she noticed the reference to NY!

Thanks for helping me allay her fears that we had somehow messed it up again!

No problem .

Just assure her it's definitely Sheffield and that she must NOT send anything to NYC - it will just be a waste of money and will end up delaying her application even more.

Last February, we had someone here on the forum who applied online end of January and mailed her application early Feb. At the time, spousal visas were being processed within a week and so if she had mailed it to Sheffield, she would have got the visa before the end of February.

However, the online application/biometrics confirmation (incorrectly) told her to mail the documents to NYC, which she did. It took them a month to return them back to her, by which time, the processing times in Sheffield had increased to more than a month. By the time her application arrived there, the processing times were at 2 months and counting. So, the visa she should have received in February 2014 was finally issued in May 2014... that one small mistake caused a processing delay of 3 months!

Wow, how frustrating!

Don't worry, we will definitely mail the documents to Sheffield!

Thanks again ksand24