UK Visa Settlement Processing Time

I see, thank you for the information.  So the best thing to do now would probably be to hunker down for a 6 month wait while he can get his payslips and letters from employers and then apply again?

And I will look into the visitor visa.  Thanks again for your help.

Another quick question - if anyone knows anything about this that'd be great.  My husband came with me to the states in May of 2011, so his green card is still valid until next month.  Could he simply travel back to the states soon so we could apply for the removal of conditions on his 2 year greencard, or has my trying to move to England potentially messed this up too?  All the research I've been doing seems to show that this would work.  Thanks in advance.

Hi All,

Apologies if this has been addressed earlier, but I am desperate for a quick response hence I don't have time to read trough all previous posts.

I am applying for settlement for my kids who are both under 5 and US citizens. I completed the online form and got an email asking me to mail all supporting docs with the print-out to New York. My documents were signed for at the NY hub on the 30th of May. However, upon going over the UKBA website (US) I see a note saying settlement applications are to be sent to Sheffield, and a return envelope included for docs to be mailed back from Sheffield.

I emailed Worldbridge and even called them last week, and got an email from them on the 12th of June asking for the tracking number and details of the person who signed for the docs at the NY hub. I responded with the info, hoping to ear from UKBA directly within 48hrs as claimed, but nothing till now. Should I have sent the docs to Sheffield? The return envelope I included was from NY to Maryland, not from Sheffield. I am yet to hear from Sheffield so I don't even know where the docs are atm. Do I call Sheffield, or send them an international return envelope? ANY help will be appreciated.

If the application told you to send it to NYC, then I believe you were correct to send it to NYC, and it should be forwarded to Sheffield.

They have only recently started telling people to send to Sheffield and only people who have applied online in the last 2-3 weeks have been told to send their visas to Sheffield... I believe there's a contingency plan in place for those who have still sent their docs to NYC.

Did you pay for settlement priority processing when you mailed the documents? If not, it's only been 11 working days so far and it may well have taken several days for the documents to reach Sheffield, and then they will have opened the priority applications ahead of yours as well, so your application may still be waiting to be opened.

Also, they don't always send emails - it may be that the visas/documents just arrive on your doorstep one morning without you knowing they're coming.

Thanks for the prompt response. No I didn't pay for priority service. My concern actually is the fact that the return envelope I sent is from NYC, not Sheffield. So I am not sure if I need to send another one to Sheffield.

I got an email from Worldbridge yesterday saying that the NYC hub would be responsible for transferring the documents to Sheffield. Nothing more. Fingers crossed.

Hi All

So I got tired of the suspense and decided to call up Sheffield to know if they have even received my application at all. It's been 19 working days and I haven't received any confirmation of receipt of my documents. I was told to send an email to the address where I got confirmation of completion of application and let them know. Anyone else having this issue?

I am an American and my partner is British. We meet in school and had been living together for 2 years or more. I came to the US to apply for and Unmarried Settlement Visa with the UK. I did a lot of research on what's needed and thought  I would share that along with my processing times. I hope this helps some people out. It was extremely stressful and I hope my experience can help someone, just remember its stressful but if you have all this and meet the requirements you should be good.


May 30th Made online application and book Biometrics while in the UK (I could of waited till back in the US but didn't want to)
June 12th come home to US to Biometric appointment
June 12th paid for Priority Settlement and sent application to New York
June 21st contacted World Bridges because I had no confirmation email yet
(they sent an email on my behalf to Sheffield, this was the first time I found out it was sent to UK to be processed)
June 24th receive a confirmation email the Sheffield was processing it
June 26th received and e-mail that they made a decision and were sending it back to me. Didn't say what decision though, stressful.
July 1st Received my package with the Visa in it!!

Here is what I sent...
1.Both of your passports (or notarised copy of the British passport plus original birth certificate if born in the UK)
2. Evidence of living tog for 2 yrs – official documents and/or other letters linking you both to the same address for 2 years
3. Any divorce/death certificates from previous relationships, original
4. Evidence of accommodation – lease/mortgage statement, original
5. Evidence of income/financial support – 6 or 12 months payslips on company letterhead or stamped and signed by HR, 6 or 12 months original bank statements (or online statements stamped on every page), letter from employer stating start date, salary arrangement including basic plus commission, income for the past year, and if position is permanent/fixed-term contract/agency (if only 6 months pay take the total divide by 6 and then multiply by 12 and that the answer for income)
6. Letter of support from sponsor – Nature of relationship and "we plan on living together permanently"
7.Evidence of relationship – add evidence of the intimate nature of your relationship such as photos, cards to each other, e-mails to each other, etc.
8. One full set of copies
9. Application form – newcomer link: http://www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk [nonactive]
10. Appendix 2 - attached
11. One passport photo of you – no hats or glasses, neutral expression, plain light background.

Also I had a massive mix up back in March and the UK Boarder patrol thought I had over stayed on one of my previous visas and almost deported me, but I got it all straightened up and was ok. I wrote all that out in my application and still was fine.

Basically I recommend Priority Service with WorldBridges because they can help some and it did pay off in the end. Sending it the Sheffield I think helped as well.

2. Evidence of living tog for 2 yrs – official documents and/or other letters linking you both to the same address for 2 years

Just to be clear to others applying for settlement visas, the evidence of living together in a "relationship akin to marriage" for two years is for the unmarried partner application ONLY, not for the spousal or fiance(e) visas.

Hi all,

I thought I would share my settlement application experience here.

18 Oct 2013 - Submitted Spousal Visa Application online
21 Oct 2013 - Biometrics, Paid for Priority Service, Mailed packet to Sheffield
24 Oct 2013 - Package delivered via FedEx
28 Oct 2013 - Visa being processed email, request for courier account number

A few more notes on my experience:

Although WorldBridge said to send my documents to NY, I sent then directly to Sheffield and my receipt email confirms that the Priority Service is recognized.

I sent my documents from USPS, and the fastest service they had was the FedEx Global Express which cost me $85. It did not arrive in the guaranteed amount of time (1-3 days) so I need to get a refund (although they are impossible to contact without being disconnected)

When I was at USPS, I asked to prepay for my return shipping and it was a bit of a nightmare. They said they could only do Priority Mail and the woman just slapped some $5 stamps on the envelope I provided for return shipping and charged me over $30. I didn't have high confidence in this but I just wanted to get my packet in the mail ASAP.

This return shipping method was not sufficient as UKBA sent me this email today:
------------

Dear Applicant,

Further to our recent e-mail confirming the receipt of your application, we have been unable to locate your prepaid envelope or International courier account number with the documents you submitted. Unfortunately, we are unable to despatch documents back to the USA unless a prepaid envelope is provided or a courier customer account number is supplied.

I can inform you that a courier account can be created free of charge online or in most cases over the phone, and is used as a payment method instead of using a credit card number (which we cannot use by itself unfortunately).  If this can be provided, there will be no further issues in despatching your documents

We are unable to return your documents once your application has been processed without your courier account number.
We would therefore be grateful if you send us your account number as soon as possible quoting your reference no xxxxx.

Please send your response to the following e-mail address:
VisaSheffield@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Sheffield Visa Section

-----------

I have since created an account on FedEx and provided them my account number. I would advise anyone shipping documents to go directly to FedEx instead of USPS. Anyone else have similar experiences with return shipping?

USPS is not a mail carrier from the UK, so we could have told you that wouldn't work.  Sorry you had to deal with the hassle.  FedEx definitely seems to be easiest, though some have had success with UPS.

And you were correct to send to Sheffield as it is a settlement visa.  Only non-settlement visas go to NY (which should be what your WorldBridge confirmation specified).

Congrats on your visa!!  I moved here from Denver.   

Thanks KFdancer - I am glad I sent my stuff straight to Sheffield. My email purchase confirmation from WorldBridge says to send everything to New York. They must confuse a lot of people.

Fingers crossed it all goes through quickly!

Hie guys

I applied for a Tier 4 General visa for UK. I am a Zimbabwean student studying in the US and will be studying abroad in UK in the spring.

After a week and half, I received an email from the consulate saying  that they have processed my application and decided that my application was an exceptional case so it would require further processing. Does anyone has experience with this at all. I had paid for priority service.

help guys. my head is cracking.

JCee

Hello!

Does anyone have any experience or know about the processing times for fiancé settlement visa when you apply in person in Europe? I am currently living in Prague and applying on Thursday. I keep seeing decisions in NY being made in less than a month, so why do you think the processing times listed on UKBA put it as much as 60-120 days here?

Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
K

In case this is helpful to anyone else out there, I wanted to post the timeline for my settlement (spouse) visa (I paid for expedited processing):

January 15, 2014--Applied online
Jan. 21--Biometric appointment
Jan. 22--Sent all the necessary materials by FedEx to Sheffield (ignored WorldBridge's instructions to send to NY)
Jan. 24--Materials received at Sheffield. They emailed confirming receipt.
Jan. 30--Visa received via FedEx! 

One more note: they didn't send an email telling me what their decision was, so I was a little nervous when I opened the FedEx package!