Any updates from recent applicants?

Oh right. I was under the impression that I would have both the visa in the passport AND and a biometric residence permit. When I applied online, I was given a post office address in Edinburgh and informed that I had to pick up the permit within 10 days of arriving in the UK.

Here's what I'm thinking will happen: I'll get my application paperwork back from Sheffield, including my passport. I was thinking the passport would have a visa in it with a visa start date, and I have to be in the UK within 30 days of that start date. Then, when I get to the UK (Edinburgh), that I ALSO have to have this BRP, which they give you 10 days to collect.

So, is that not right? It's just the BRP, and not a visa sticker? If so, do they just issue a letter stating the start date, and there's actually nothing placed in my passport? How does Border Patrol account for all this? I guess I will find out shortly. I'll report back here as soon as I get my paperwork back.

Just to note that no one will actually get a BRP with their passport when it arrives from Sheffield.

If they are issuing the visas under the new BRP visa roll-out, the BRP will not actually be issued until after you have arrived in the UK.

What you will get is a visa sticker in your passport, valid for only 30 days, and an accompanying letter detailing how, where and when you can pick up your BRP card within 10 days once you have arrived in the UK.

However, as AM Angler discovered when she received her visa a couple of days ago, it was simply issued as a regular 33-month spousal visa sticker, with no accompanying letter and no mention of a BRP... which means that she won't have to enter the UK within 30 days and she won't need to get a BRP. She didn't mention anything about being given a post-office address for picking up the BRP when she applied online though.

So, it will be interesting to see what you are issued with, Matilda76 - whether you just get a normal visa valid for 33 months (meaning they haven't issued is under the new BRP rollout) or whether you get a 30-day vignette in your passport and a letter about a BRP.

Ah, I see - thanks ksand. I'm all anticipation for the next couple days until I get my stuff back. If they go the BRP route, I REALLY hope they paid attention to the intended flight date in my application for the temporary visa. It would be tough for me to get over there before the end of August. I really thought it would take a couple weeks at least to process my application because of the self-employment stuff, even though we paid for priority. We thought we were looking at maybe 2-4 weeks processing time, as opposed to maybe 6-8 weeks for non-priority. Six days was beyond our wildest hopes!


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Just to note that no one will actually get a BRP with their passport when it arrives from Sheffield.

If they are issuing the visas under the new BRP visa roll-out, the BRP will not actually be issued until after you have arrived in the UK.

What you will get is a visa sticker in your passport, valid for only 30 days, and an accompanying letter detailing how, where and when you can pick up your BRP card within 10 days once you have arrived in the UK.

However, as AM Angler discovered when she received her visa a couple of days ago, it was simply issued as a regular 33-month spousal visa sticker, with no accompanying letter and no mention of a BRP... which means that she won't have to enter the UK within 30 days and she won't need to get a BRP. She didn't mention anything about being given a post-office address for picking up the BRP when she applied online though.

So, it will be interesting to see what you are issued with, Matilda76 - whether you just get a normal visa valid for 33 months (meaning they haven't issued is under the new BRP rollout) or whether you get a 30-day vignette in your passport and a letter about a BRP.

thanks so much for the needed info ksand24


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My visa was sent non-priority late May on 28 received in Sheffield and still waiting for a response.


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I really thought it would take a couple weeks at least to process my application because of the self-employment stuff, even though we paid for priority. We thought we were looking at maybe 2-4 weeks processing time, as opposed to maybe 6-8 weeks for non-priority. Six days was beyond our wildest hopes!

The thing is that unless they have to look into previous refused visas/entries or criminal convictions, the actual visa only takes a couple of hours to process, no matter what financial category you are applying under (they just have to go through your documents and tick off whether you have them all and if they meet the requirement).

So, the majority of the processing time is actually the amount of time the application spends sitting in line waiting to be picked up and looked at. As you paid for priority, it looks like they are processing priority applications quickly now, so your application was probably waiting in line for 5 days and processed in 1 day.

I guess the processing times have seemed much longer lately because hardly anyone has been using priority and so we have only really had information on how long non-priority is taking, rather than a mixture of both.

Should be getting my stuff tomorrow from them...I have no clue if it will be a BRP one or not.  They didn't mention anything when I sent it in, however the website says it will have a letter with the 30 day stamp.  The received my stuff on June 2nd and actually picked it up on July 2, so I can only guess.

My materials  are scheduled  to arrive tomorrow  as well. I will be getting a BRP  once I move over, so, assuming  it's  a visa  and not a rejection  letter, I should  have the 30 day entry  window. Will let you all know when it gets here.

Ksand24 you are correct I never had to fill at anything regarding a post office address.
My husband got the 33 mth visa no info on BRP.
Btw 6 days is great we were 4 days and Yes we had heart failure thinking we would get the 30 day visa.....Thank god we got the other we still have a few things to sort here.

Beginning of the 7th week now and crossing fingers to hear something back! Still debating on the purchase of upgrade priority or just let it go. At this point and based on the info given on this forum is the process of a decision is only the matter of 1 day or even hours then I wonder how far in the pile my application is... Hoping for a bday wish for today best gift ever if I get a decision email.


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Beginning of the 7th week now and crossing fingers to hear something back! Still debating on the purchase of upgrade priority or just let it go. At this point and based on the info given on this forum is the process of a decision is only the matter of 1 day or even hours then I wonder how far in the pile my application is... Hoping for a bday wish for today best gift ever if I get a decision email.


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Happy Birthday!  What day did they state yours was received? I think we are on the same timeline. Mine was acknowledged as received on June 1st.
I keep debating it but likely won't upgrade.

Happy Birthday!  What day did they state yours was received? I think we are on the same timeline. Mine was acknowledged as received on June 1st.
I keep debating it but likely won't upgrade.

Thank you!! My acknowledgement email was received in May 28th so test we are around the same time limit. I am just undecided at this point with everyone's else getting their visas my husband in the UK wants to do the upgrade I feel is a waste as we have to afford the cost of flight and extra luggage. I am just ready to go been apart for over a month and we just got married. Just not a fair situation...


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Thank you!! My acknowledgement email was received in May 28th so test we are around the same time limit. I am just undecided at this point with everyone's else getting their visas my husband in the UK wants to do the upgrade I feel is a waste as we have to afford the cost of flight and extra luggage. I am just ready to go been apart for over a month and we just got married. Just not a fair situation...


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It is, it's so hard. I have counted out 12 weeks and told myself that there's an end in sight, it can't last forever.  My situation is different as we have been married a long time. We did do the waiting while apart  many years ago when we applied for him to come to the US and it was agonizing. Now, I could do with a little vacation from him haha.
 I do remember how hard that was and am sorry for you and the others who are apart.
 We didn't plan to move until september anyway but had hoped we would have had a definite answer by now as we need to wrap up over a decade of living here, liquidate our business and sell our house. I am ready, I just thought we'd have a bit more time to be making moves towards the move with an answer in hand vs making those moves and hoping it comes through.   Hang in there, we aren't upgrading here yet

If you've made it to this forum then you have done more research than I did when I assumed I could apply for the settlement visa while in the UK. I am happily married to a british citizen, who is currently living in England and missing me. The UK website says you can apply from within the UK and I had a prior student visa so assumed I could pay for the one day processing premium service on-site because their website is a beta version and had a lot of duplicate information requested over and over. It is not straight forward and it looked like there could be lots of places that it could be interpreted different ways. The safer bet seemed to apply in person.

When I got to the border they blew up into full scale investigation and suspected me of trying to illegally immigrate from america.  I have a masters degree in business and I've worked in corporate america for years in NYC and LA. I'm educated. I was held at customs for 5 hours and was offered crackers or tea. It was very surreal and I felt like bridget jones when she was held in thailand. The detention cell had a shower and that is what probably scared me the most. How long would they hold me here? They told me that if they had come to America we would have treated them the same way and this was all normal. I was tired from jetlag and just wanted to go home but they have endless processes and checklists and protocol that they have to follow. They have to search your things, take your fingerprints, take your photo. All seemed grossly unnecessary and it would have ALL been avoided if their website had been more clear?!!!!!!!

They granted me a temporary release for 4 days in the UK and then I had to go back to the US to wait for my visa application to be processed. I  assumed the processing times were accurate and that I would be cleared pretty quickly. The application was received 5/20/15 and I'm still waiting. Their website says not to pay for priority if you have been denied access to their country before because it wont help you. I had quit my job so I've been unemployed with no income for the entire time. This has been a huge burden to me and again if someone would vet their website to be more clear maybe this could have been avoided??

If you've made it to this forum then you have done more research than I did when I assumed I could apply for the visa while in the UK. Their website says you can apply from within the UK and I had a prior student visa so assumed I could pay for the one day processing premium service on-site because their website is a beta version and had a lot of duplicate information requested over and over. It is not straight forward and it looked like there could be lots of places that it could be interpreted different ways. The safer bet seemed to apply in person. When I got to the border they blew up into full scale investigation and suspected me of trying to illegally immigrate from america.  I have a masters degree in business and I've worked in corporate america for years in NYC and LA. I'm educated. I was held at customs for 5 hours and was offered crackers or tea. It was very surreal and I felt like bridget jones when she was held in thailand. The detention cell had a shower and that is what probably scared me the most. How long would they hold me here? They told me that if they had come to America we would have treated them the same way and this was all normal. I was tired from jetlag and just wanted to go home but they have endless processes and checklists and protocol that they have to follow. They have to search your things, take your fingerprints, take your photo. All seemed grossly unnecessary and it would have ALL been avoided if their website had been more clear?!!!!!!!

They granted me a temporary release for 4 days in the UK and then I had to go back to the US to wait for my visa application to be processed. I  assumed the processing times were accurate and that I would be cleared pretty quickly. The application was received 5/20/15 and I'm still waiting. Their website says not to pay for priority if you have been denied access to their country before because it wont help you. I had quit my job so I've been unemployed with no income for the entire time. This has been a huge burden to me and again if someone would vet their website to be more clear maybe this could have been avoided??

Yes, the government website is a bit obtuse. Have you tried looking at the US version of this? It's not good either. You aren't the only person who has thought it was really easy to move to/settle in the UK. I've had to let a friend and an internet acquaintance or two down easy about the likelihood of moving here. You either have to be married/engaged to a Brit who meets the criteria, be a millionaire or famous person, or be in a profession on the Shortage Occupation list (which changes every April). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/423800/shortage_occupation_list_april_2015.pdf

When reading each page of the Visa descriptions, under eligibility for 'remain in the UK with family' it states straight from the website: https://www.gov.uk/remain-in-uk-family/eligibility

"You can apply to extend or switch in any of these routes if you’re eligible, except if you have permission to be in the UK:

- as a visitor
- for less than 6 months – unless you got your visa to get married or become civil partners or - you got your visa to wait for the outcome of a family court or divorce
on temporary admission or release (you don’t have a visa) – unless you apply in a 10-year route"

It clearly states you aren't eligible to apply for this visa because even though you are in the UK... you are there as a visitor.

*emphasis in bold is my addition
(edited to state the above.)