Confirmed: Biometrics System Failure

I'm grateful for the detail about the Chicago consulate.  The head of UKBA Customer Services just came off a tour of duty at the Chicago consulate and can relate closely to the situation there.

Echoing Kitson's explanation, UKvisas was dissolved in December 2007 and the Foreign Office doesn't own them any more.  They were incorporated into UKBA as a directorate last March.  Until UKBA gets established and the dust settles, they are operating as a shadow agency under the Home Office.  So it's Jacqui Smith rather than David Milband who should be on the receiving end of your complaint.  Hopefully, he will forward your complaint on to her, but if not, then have a go at Jacqui.

I encourage you to keep your ear to the ground and keep us posted.

But what does this really mean? I applied for my visa online last Saturday. My biometrics appointment is tomorrow and then I have just 2 weeks to send everything in. This will be going to the NY Consulate. I'm so scared now. I wish I hadn't payed and applied now. I can't afford to pay again if they screw something up. I don't want my documents to get lost. I also wanted to be in England by christmas. Help me understand.

I hope this information can be recovered- I had my biometrics on 16-Oct, after submitting my app on 13-Oct. I am going to be monitoring this closely, especially since my paperwork ended up at the Wrigley Building in Chicago this morning.

;(

To moonfaery_87 and daveisnotmyname, as far as things getting lost, it doesn't appear to be what is going on.  What appears is that access to the biometric data is inaccessible the vast majority of the time.  At this point it doesn't appear that anyone will have to have biometric appointments again.

What this really means is that almost all visas that have been submitted over the past week or so are likely on hold or being processed at a snails pace and there is no clear resolution time at this point.

What can you do?  Well, one thing you cannot do is show up at your consulate and start yelling.  The best course of action is to continue to voice here or somewhere that you are being affected by this.  A whole slew of people are watching this now, including UKBA themselves.  Because of the way this was approached it may have been that some mid-level folks were trying to keep this quite and just felt it was teething problems, but now it is getting out of hand.  The ILPA, which is the largest group of people practice immigration law in the UK, are hopping mad at this, in particular because they hadn't been told it was going on.  So be confident that people are working on your side on this one.

If you really feel you need to take action, your UK sponsor can e-mail their local MP http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ and suggest to their MP to make representations on their behalf to the Right Honourable Mrs Jacui Smith or the Right Honourable Mr Phil Woolas about the situation and the problems it is causing you.

If you need to vent your frustration, vent it here.  Taking this out directly on anyone you have contact with at a courier, government contractor or UKBA probablly will only make everyone more frustrated and not resolve anything.

This is all just too much, actually burst into tears when I read all of this, I cant believe this is happening, this whole thing is just stressful enough, being apart from DH and stuff and now this. It just gets worse and worse.  :\\\'(

It's fine to express anxiety, but remember that people are probably monitoring this thread via RSS to track any new developments or to get some background into the situation.  So it might be better to start a different thread if you just want to vent or flip out.

Everybody is affected equally.  There's no indication that spouses have been downgraded in priority. 

Update.  No word yet from Customer Services.  But an interesting development:  The VFS in Novosibirsk has informed an applicant the same thing as the VFS in Yekaterinburg informed two applicants which is the same thing as the email that the BHC Ottawa sent out.

What this really means is that almost all visas that have been submitted over the past week or so are likely on hold or being processed at a snails pace and there is no clear resolution time at this point.

I received an email from my husband's corporate courier liaison saying: They (the consulate) were about 2 weeks behind so I anticipate the visa being completed no later than the end of the month. That's for my paperwork that went in on Friday 10/17.


This doesn't foul up my (personal) travel plans, but should the downtime stretch on, would there be some sort of prioritization by date needed?  Or is it first in-first out?  I know we're instructed not to arrange transportation until one's visa and passport are back in hand, so there's no recourse, but I'm just wondering.

This doesn't foul up my (personal) travel plans, but should the downtime stretch on, would there be some sort of prioritization by date needed?  Or is it first in-first out?  I know we're instructed not to arrange transportation until one's visa and passport are back in hand, so there's no recourse, but I'm just wondering.

They will likely follow their standard procedure, which is first in-first out couriers and then first in-first out others.

Not sure if this helps anyone (other than me, of course), but I JUST received an email saying my visa was issued.

Paperwork went to NY consulate on Friday 10/17 via courier and the email arrived 20 mins ago.

Either they're flowing again or I just got really lucky.  Hopefully, it's the former and folks can breathe a bit more easily.

0phinky - Did you use a courier?

0phinky - Did you use a courier?

Paperwork went to NY consulate on Friday 10/17 via courier and the email arrived 20 mins ago.

I think it may be your luck 0phinky.

I submitted my paperwork to the Chicago consulate via a courier service on Oct. 9th and have had no word and no visa. The courier service just keeps saying the biometrics server is still not working properly, but I received a reply to an email I sent to Worldbridge saying everything was working fine so I don't know what to believe.

For those still waiting, how do you know if it's your application or the biometrics holding up your application? Is the consulate specifying one or the other or is that what your courier is saying?

Update.  The problem has not been fixed.  They are unable at this point to give a prognosis, and I sense there's internal disagreement about publishing an advisory and/or who should do it. 

Note:  They have NOT provided scripts on it so far.  Repeat:  NO SCRIPTS, so don't be a mug and waste your 12 dollars or whatever it is.  Got it?  Again, NO SCRIPTS.

I'm also seeing a trickle of T2's and T1's getting through.  0phinky, please check your entry clearance to see if there's a no-bio endorsement.