UK Visa Settlement Processing Time

I believe that would be WebyJ?

No, that would be me. 

It takes a MAXIMUM of 45 minutes for an ECO to make a decision once all the stuff has been recorded in Proviso and the application comes up for consideration.  That's a maximum, and most occur in a few moments.

That shouldn't be taken to mean that everybody gets done on the same day because apps go into a queue; and the queue is not processed in natural order but rather they use a prioritized scheme,  and additionally there's a lot of things that can delay an app before it finally gets considered.  On top of all that are the customer service standards.

The customer service standards are part of *WHAT IS*.  People on both the advocacy side and the policy side are happy about them.  The priority service is a helpful mechanism to expedite a straight-forward application, and those who took the time to research it and exploit it shouldn't be chastized for it. 

To place blame on how long your applications are taking at the feet of those who used the priority system is wrong and you should apologise to those who were lucky enough to know about it and chose to use it because they have NOTHING to do with how long it's taking to process your visa. Period END OF.

In the most respectful way possible, I don't see how this is the case.

As far as I understand it, there are a finite number of applications that can be dealt with in a day by a single officer or a single office.  There is a queue of applications.  People with priority applications are - by the design of the system - given priority in the queue over people who have not.

All other things being equal, it should take the same amount of time to process 1500 regular applications as 1500 priority applications.  The difference is in the order in which they are processed.

Therefore priority doesn't make the whole system faster, it makes one person's application faster.  At the expense of everyone else's applications.

This isn't to place blame on anyone.  It's just to recognize the reality of the situation.

I'm not going to apologize to someone for having an opinion, and I resent being told I should.

EDIT: I should point out that all of this is a vent.  I don't blame anyone.  I'm depressed and frustrated and I miss my wife and it seeps out sometimes.

All – I have been watching this forum daily since we filed our application, so I only thought it fair to register and share our experience.

Application Type: Non-Priority
Visa Office: Chicago

Online application: 26th August
Biometrics at Cincinnati: 30th August
Documents sent: 30th August
Acknowledgment email: 31st August
Visa Approval email: 29th September
Total Working Days: 22

Documents sent (originals):
Passport (Mrs P)
Marriage certificate (Mr & Mrs P)

Documents (copy):
Birth Certificates (Mr & Mrs P)
US Visa L1B (Mr P)
Passport (Mr P)
US Driving Licences (Mr & Mrs P)
2 * Holidays – Flight, Hotel Booking + 3 Photos
Council Tax Statement UK
Mortgage Statement UK
3 pay slips (Mr & Mrs P)
3 bank statements (Mr P)
3 months of ATT phone bills (Mr & Mrs P)
Tax Return UK – P60 (Mr P)
Tax Return US – W2 (Mr & Mrs P)

Relationship timeline:
Mr P moved to US (KY) – April 08
Mr & Mrs P  met – June 08
Mr & Mrs P cohabitated – Aug 09
Mr & Mrs P engaged – Jan 10
Mr P moved back to UK – June 10
Mr & Mrs P married – July 10

Just some additional information. We are actually going to get ‘married’ again in July 2011 with all the bells and whistles. I had to move back for work in June 2010, and initially we were going to wait it out to get married in 2011. But we soon realised UK immigration didn’t like this and Mrs P couldn’t work. She came to visit through June / July / Aug and returned to file for settlement visa. We circumvented the fiancé visa required by UK by getting married in Gibraltar which is much more relaxed – otherwise we would have had to have paid £600+ for the visa and then another £400 for transfer of status after marriage. An alternative would have been to get married in Vegas, but we wanted to do it out of the UK and the US, and it was easier as Mrs P was already in Europe.

We had originally booked Mrs P to come home on 29th September!!! We emailed the UK Visa website on 23rd September to ask if we should rebook the flight. We got the standard template reply and rebooked for the 13th October (for only £100) and crossed our fingers. So now its all ok and quite happy as the £100 fee is cheaper than the priority processing.

I do feel for all of those caught in the New York Traffic jam – there has to be some benefits to living in the Midwest The priority process seems to be a bit of a joke and I can understand the anger of some people here. Firstly I think the price doesn’t make it a fair streamed process, I’m sure if people knew about it, 80% of people would take it – and secondly the information on it is horrible to find. My honest thoughts are the price should be higher, but it should be clearly advertised – this means people who really need it can have it, but you don’t end up pushing all the non-priorities to the back of the queue (line!)

One last though to anybody who has been waiting 40 days +. Suggest you check out the waiting times to file for a US green card which we may do at some point later down the line. That’s a 100 days plus.. so the UK visa system isn’t so bad!

Best wishes to all
Mr P

Congratulations! Thank you for sharing that, even if it is not NY it is always good to see non-priority applications being done quickly : ) Also good you did not have to endure too long of a wait, gives me a little more hope we could still see something this week!

About chastising people, this was not the case. We were just expressing our frustrations with how applications are being dealt with (just surprised to see how a new application got approved at NY). But that is their system and we just have to deal with it and hope for a quick turnaround. It is just quite hard to take when your life is in someone else's hands.

BMP, I'd like to offer you my most sincere congratulations.  It's good to see someone is getting through the process, and all the best for the future.

I think that we all just need to gather round a large table, each with a bottle of our favorite spirit, and start poundin down a few.  Let's all relax people.  The fact of the matter is, I have been using (and probably, over-using) Uk-yankee.com for advice, assistance, and reassurance more or less that everything is going to be okay.  Raise your hand if you're in the same boat as me! [everyone else's hands are probably reachin for the sky right about now].  Quite frankly, we visa applicants have come here to get advice from those who actually know what they're talking about and not those who may think they know what they're talking about.  

People DONT come here to be told off for having to wait, and they definitely do NOT come here to have someone poke holes in their applications when really, sw1085, you are no different than any of us NON-gurus.  You [or your partner] were an applicant.  and now you're a visa-holder.  You are in no way qualified to give advice on any issues.  Show some compassion.  These people who have not paid for priority have gone months without seeing the person they love the most, and it sucks.

Regarding the whole dispute about priority applicants pushing the others back, I agree with WebyJ; if you were lucky enough to know about it, then the $300USD is worth it.  I am planning on ordering everything tomorrow after my biometrics appointment at 2PM, and am I going to regret it?  Of course not.  

Seriously though guys and girls, why can't we all just get along.  A lot of the people on this site are without their husbands, wives, fiancées or fiancés, and that sucks.  UK-Yankee offers us the support group we need to come together and talk about our frustrations and helps us get through what is NOT an easy process.  

Just be happy everybody, and for those of you waiting, be confident that you will hear soon.  I'll be on the same boat as you starting tomorrow.

Hi there, I just wanted to reassure some of you. No one has been pushed aside because of priority service. We used the service and we are on day 27. Everybody is in the same boat, we all just want our lives to be able to begin with the people we love x

All – I have been watching this forum daily since we filed our application, so I only thought it fair to register and share our experience.
...
Visa Approval email: 29th September

Congratulations Mr & Mrs P!

It's a choice that either you made or had unfortunately missed knowing about the service, we all know it's so very hard to be apart from our spouses/fiance(e)s but spewing venom about those who used the service just because you didn't (for whatever reason) is wrong and it needs to stop now.

Non-priority applications mean just that. They will take as long as they will take. By not using the priority method you basically say to the Consulate: I'm aware of the Customer Service standards of up to 24 weeks for processing and I am prepared to wait that long.

It's fine to be upset about how long it's taking, but until you've hit the processing time quoted in your receipt of application emails you will not get any result from a complaints email.

Well said.  Using a priority service does generally mean a faster application turn around so you could potentially be waiting a few months if you didn't go that route.  Thoughts and prayers go out to all those waiting for any kind of visa application.  It isn't easy being separated from your loved ones. *fingers crossed for all*

Hi! I just wanted to send out my support to all of you who are still waiting. I got my visa approval a few weeks ago (after 44 business days in LA) and I checked this site thinking a bunch of you old timers (Nickiboo, Dukespecial, Mrs Colgan, Kathryn) would have your visas by now. Sad to see that's not the case yet. My heart goes out to you all, I know how hard the wait is.

As for the heated discussion about priority, I completely agree with Lamuella. I also felt bitterness towards priority applications. I never said anything here because I never blamed the applicant, but I do believe that the system is flawed. I think that is clear by the amount of people on here who missed priority and gladly would have paid for it.

I don't think anyone is attacking people who paid for priority. It is extremely frustrating and heart wrenching to watch others get processed in a matter of days, while you're on week 8 or 9 with absolutely no news. I completely understand the need to vent here.

And to say that those of us who missed priority did not do enough research is ridiculous. I spent months researching and putting together my application, only for the priority option to silently pop up a week before I completed my application. It is not well advertised, it is hidden in some corner of the Worldbridge website, not even on the UKBA website, and until the priority service is clearly available as an option when you pay for the visa, people are going to carry on complaining because it is unfair.

You have no right to jump on anyone that uses the priority service and received their visa ahead of your application being processed.

I have every right to feel frustrated and express that.

To assume your applications are straightforward is a bit rich since you don't know what makes an application 'not straightforward'. Any irregularities such as you used punctuations in your name on your application or they had to correct your name when you did you biometrics, whether or not additional checks need to be carried out. You don't know this and won't know it unless it brings up something that needs to be looked at.

But it's okay when someone else tells us matter-of-factly that there must be a problem, that's the only explanation, without having any idea what our applications were like.
 

To place blame on how long your applications are taking at the feet of those who used the priority system is wrong and you should apologise to those who were lucky enough to know about it and chose to use it because they have NOTHING to do with how long it's taking to process your visa. Period END OF.

I'm not apologizing. They're lucky, and I don't blame them, and I'm glad they can be with their loved ones, I wouldn't wish this uncertainty and separation on anyone; but I'm not apologizing for my frustration at the UKBA for greatly exceeding the standards for priority when the non-priority are seeming to reach the back end of their standards....


....with the exception of Mr and Mrs P; congratulations!!

No, that would be me.

The customer service standards are part of *WHAT IS*.  People on both the advocacy side and the policy side are happy about them.  The priority service is a helpful mechanism to expedite a straight-forward application, and those who took the time to research it and exploit it shouldn't be chastized for it. 

Ah, sorry. Thanks.

I'm not chastizing anyone who's used it. They paid for a service, and that's it. Beyond that they too have no control over when within that set of standards their application actually gets looked at. I've pretty clearly - I think, anyway - laid out where my frustrations are, and it's not with the applicants.

hello lovely people - with to my surprise the same problem as me! ahhh it is just a relief to see I am not alone.

my American fiance is in America and we have done a uk fiance visa, did the biometrics etc. got confirmation from LA embassy they received visa application....but that was 50 business  days ago

on the email we got it said that we are only allowed to enquire about progress of visa after 50 business days - so we waited patiently and finally it came to the 50th day and we called the number they provided - but it was a separate company and the lady said she could not help us and that it may take 3 months from application date.

i miss my fiance any suggestions/ideas/reassurance?

she is eager to get to me here in england so we can marry

on the visa application it asked for us to put our plane flight date on the front of the envelope, and as the lawyer who helped us get all documents we needed said it usually takes under 6 weeks we booked a ticket - but now that date has long gone and we have rebooked her flight twice - at cost

Hi ancsell

Best thing to do is email the complaints email for your respective Consulate and request an update directly from them. Be as polite and understanding in your email as you can be and hopefully it will produce results.

You can find the appropriate email for your Consulate in this thread: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=57518.0

Hope you hear something soon.

i miss my fiance any suggestions/ideas/reassurance?

After they have EXCEEDED the published customer service standards and you're attempting to get status without success, it's ok to open a line of communication with your constituency office.