Any updates from recent applicants?

SilverBrooke,
Here's hoping you don't have to couch surf  and I don't get thrown out of my store before I liquidate it  since I can't renew my lease,  because at 6 weeks into the waiting, I won't try to  upgrade. It just seems like upgrading takes a week or two to find and acknowledge that it is now priority and overall it doesn't seem to improve things  much.  I just really hope I get that 33 month vignette since I applied before the cutoff and I can take a couple months to sort things out if needed. I don't need to go right away, lol just need to know!

I purchased  it through the company  that does the courier service. Then I emailed the priority  slip to the Sheffield office with the subject line "Upgrade to Priority  Visa service" and the VAF  number from the email where they acknowledged  the receipt  of our applications. There weren't  any instructions  to do that, I am just grasping at very expensive  straws.

Don't know if it made a difference  but I just got an email today asking for more missing  documents   (that I swear weren't  asked for anywhere!).

When did you send the application in and when did you get the email saying they received it? My Wife's flight is booked for the 23rd July and she got the acknowledgement 12th June. We're preparing to push the flight back.

When did you send the application in and when did you get the email saying they received it? My Wife's flight is booked for the 23rd July and she got the acknowledgement 12th June. We're preparing to push the flight back.

We sent in late June, and got the acknowledgement  yesterday.

We sent in late June, and got the acknowledgement  yesterday.

Okay so upgrading to Priority worked then, it looks like?

I purchased  it through the company  that does the courier service. Then I emailed the priority  slip to the Sheffield office with the subject line "Upgrade to Priority  Visa service" and the VAF  number from the email where they acknowledged  the receipt  of our applications. There weren't  any instructions  to do that, I am just grasping at very expensive  straws.

Don't know if it made a difference  but I just got an email today asking for more missing  documents   (that I swear weren't  asked for anywhere!).

There is no company that provides the courier service - VFS Global is just a website where you can purchase services offered by UKVI.

The courier service is nothing more than fixed-price, pre-paid UPS shipping (instead of just doing it yourself with UPS).

Settlement Priority processing is nothing more than a UKVI employee in Sheffield picking up your application from one pile and moving it to a different pile that will be looked at first.

It used to be that UKVI would not allow you to purchase priority processing after you had mailed the application, but they will allow you to do it now - just follow the instructions on the VFS Global site and email Sheffield with the requested details.


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I purchased  it through the company  that does the courier service. Then I emailed the priority  slip to the Sheffield office with the subject line "Upgrade to Priority  Visa service" and the VAF  number from the email where they acknowledged  the receipt  of our applications. There weren't  any instructions  to do that, I am just grasping at very expensive  straws.

Don't know if it made a difference  but I just got an email today asking for more missing  documents   (that I swear weren't  asked for anywhere!).

There is no company that provides the courier service - VFS Global is just a website where you can purchase services offered by UKVI.

The courier service is nothing more than fixed-price, pre-paid UPS shipping (instead of just doing it yourself with UPS).

Settlement Priority processing is nothing more than a UKVI employee in Sheffield picking up your application from one pile and moving it to a different pile that will be looked at first.

It used to be that UKVI would not allow you to purchase priority processing after you had mailed the application, but they will allow you to do it now - just follow the instructions on the VFS Global site and email Sheffield with the requested details.


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There is no company that provides the courier service - VFS Global is just a website where you can purchase services offered by UKVI.

The courier service is nothing more than fixed-price, pre-paid UPS shipping (instead of just doing it yourself with UPS).

Settlement Priority processing is nothing more than a UKVI employee in Sheffield picking up your application from one pile and moving it to a different pile that will be looked at first.

It used to be that UKVI would not allow you to purchase priority processing after you had mailed the application, but they will allow you to do it now - just follow the instructions on the VFS Global site and email Sheffield with the requested details.


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I called them last week and I was told that when the application has already been submitted you cannot upgrade?

I called them last week and I was told that when the application has already been submitted you cannot upgrade?

That's probably because they don't know the rules in the first place and don't really know what they are talking about - the call centre is known for giving bad advice (this is the second time this week they have given incorrect advice to someone on the forum).


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  because at 6 weeks into the waiting, I won't try to  upgrade. It just seems like upgrading takes a week or two to find and acknowledge that it is now priority and overall it doesn't seem to improve things  much.  I just really hope I get that 33 month vignette since I applied before the cutoff and I can take a couple months to sort things out if needed. I don't need to go right away, lol just need to know!

We're in the same boat.  After 6 weeks I'm not sure the upgrade to priority is worth it - on the other hand if this drags into August we'll be paying about $500 for my wife to continue her health insurance. 

I think it's disgraceful that the UKVI waiting time website is so misleading, but there's not much we can do about it now.

Here's hoping we all hear back in the next few weeks.

The problem with the waiting times is that they are past processing times and only release them once per month - so they have to wait until the end of the month, gather the data up and then publish the processing times for that month. So in. June they published the May times and in July they will publish the June times..


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There is no company that provides the courier service - VFS Global is just a website where you can purchase services offered by UKVI.

Yes, thank you, I knew I had the wrong phrase but couldn't think of how they actually worked together!

Okay so upgrading to Priority worked then, it looks like?

I hadn't had my coffee yet, so here's the timeline and hopefully it's more clear:

-Late June: Mailed 3 non-priority applications to Sheffield. One as wife of a citizen, and two dependent children. We meet the financial qualifications through cash savings.

-Late June: FedEx shows it's been signed for

-July 7: Email acknowledging each application and one asking for a return slip that is not FedEx. Go to VFS Global, purchase a return carrier for each application (they only requested it regarding my application, but VFS says you need to purchase one return per application, so I just did all three) and email it to Sheffield with the VAF number as they requested. Then I went on these forums, saw people had been waiting since May, freaked out, went back to VFS Global, purchased priority upgrades for all three.

-July 8: Wake up to an email from Sheffield requesting birth certificates for both children (I could not find anything saying we should include it the first time and thought that was strange. Glad they followed up instead of just rejecting us right away!!)

Will keep you all updated to see if the late upgrade to priority makes a difference. Though I've also read that cash savings can go quicker because there's less to verify. We also included my husband's job offer letter sowing he's to start in September, and we included with the priority upgrade that I'd really like the kids to be there at the start of the school year, so some pity might be involved as well. Or, it could still take 12 weeks and there's nothing to be done. At least this way I feel like I've done all I can.

The problem with the waiting times is that they are past processing times and only release them once per month - so they have to wait until the end of the month, gather the data up and then publish the processing times for that month. So in. June they published the May times and in July they will publish the June times..


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Well I've just bought the Priority upgrade and emailed the UKVI address with the .pdf receipt, not sure if that's right or not?

Hopefully this will go through.

Well I've just bought the Priority upgrade and emailed the UKVI address with the .pdf receipt, not sure if that's right or not?

Hopefully this will go through.

Good luck! Hope we both get our visas quickly!

Between us all, UKVI is getting quite the windfall from priority fees. Sent mine in with priority processing two days ago. Best of luck to us all!


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