Any updates from recent applicants?

Claudia - see post # 1483 on this thread.   I just heard back from VFS global today that our priority upgrade has been accepted by Sheffield.   Best of luck.

Hi everyone!

Thought I'd post my timeline because this forum is always so very helpful and comforting!!!

A bit about us... I applied last year (May 2014) to join my British partner and was refused due to not meeting the financial requirement...from there I applied and was granted a UK FAMILY VISIT VISA and spent about 4 months in total in the UK on that visa. Now we meet the financial requirement and have decided to go for it again...hoping this time will be a YES!

Those of you who are waiting for your non-priority applications, last year mine took 15 weeks to receive an answer from the date of their confirmation email.  Not sure if that helps in anyway...but just to give you a timeline from my experience last summer.

Here's my timeline: 

2015 Spouse Settlement Visa SHEFFIELD
online application: June 19
biometrics: June 24
arrived in Sheffield: July 1
confirmation email of receipt: July 7
UPGRADE TO PRIORITY: July 9
DECISION MADE EMAIL: TODAY!! July 14
UPS delivery this Thursday July 16!!!! FINGERS CROSSED 
 
Wishing you all luck and that you all receive a speedy YES!!!

Claudia - see post # 1483 on this thread.   I just heard back from VFS global today that our priority upgrade has been accepted by Sheffield.   Best of luck.

sdt99 thanks so much for the help! Glad your request for priority was accepted. Doing my upgrade tonight.
Crossing fingers this will help me


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We just got the "Decision has been made" email.   Hoping it's a good decision !   It will be a very nervous few days.  Good luck Claudia.   

Off to the hospice today to visit my dad - I'm not sure I could take a visa rejection on top of everything else at the moment.

We just got the "Decision has been made" email.   Hoping it's a good decision !   It will be a very nervous few days.  Good luck Claudia.   

Off to the hospice today to visit my dad - I'm not sure I could take a visa rejection on top of everything else at the moment.

Thats great news I am sure it would a positive decision. Totally understand I just paid the priority this morning sent the pdf file with copy of paid VFS global receipt to the Sheffield home office email. Just got an automatic reply from them so now the waiting game continues.
Good luck with everything wish you well!


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UStoUK, congrats! I got the "decision has been made" email this past Sunday. I'm hoping to get my paperwork (and thus know what that decision is) today. It's been an anxious few days for me and my husband, made even more surreal that he has just started a job up in Shetland and we're trying to get used to that, too.


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KFdancer  told me quick "Decision is made" response is good.  So you just upgraded to Priority and got a quick response....
I know it's going to be positive......sending good vibes!!!!

Good luck to everyone - I hope we all get our visas.

Matilda, Shetland sounds really interesting (if a bit dark and damp).   If you spend a winter there I expect you'll get some good shows from the Aurora Borealis, plus on the way to/from the mainland you might be able to visit Skara Brae, a 5000 year old fishing village - a place I'd love to visit.   The Scottish highlands and the islands off the west coast are one of my favourite places in the UK.

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/propertyresults/propertyoverview.htm?PropID=PL_244

Sdt99, I'm looking forward to visiting Shetland! We won't live there; hubby is in oil & gas and works a rotation, so we'll stay based in Edinburgh.

Skara Brae is actually in Orkney, which I visited almost three years ago. I highly recommend it! Skara Brae was indeed fascinating, and we also saw the Ring of Brodgar, Skaill House, Maeshowe, Tomb of the Eagles, and Yesnaby (sea stacks, woohoo!). We wanted to visit Hoy but ran out of time.


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Sdt- glad to hear it's on the way and that you can see your father.  Best of luck.

To those granted, congratulations and to those waiting for the imminent return of your visa best of luck!

We just had a significant change in circumstances that pushed us to join the upgrade club so we expect to hear soon.

My husband initially didn't want to upgrade, but he changed his mind. He agreed to it on the condition that we wait a week and if I don't get a decision made email/any other info from UKVI (I know I won't- I tried convincing him of that but he wants to make absolutely sure we won't get anything before having to pay the huge priority fee), then we'll proceed with the upgrade.

I wonder what people who aren't on forums do...seems like we all are in the upgrade club!

Now it is on to Rainier movers and selling my car and getting rid of phone and internet and all that jazz....

I feel like everyone IS joining the upgrade club except for me.  Congrats to those who are hearing back with good news...

My fiancé is saying that we should wait another week or two before making a decison whether to upgrade. But now it seems as though I'll hear back by the new year Or at least that's how I am feeling.

It's a very poorly thought out service.   I agree with others that the upgrade service should be a special case for extenuating circumstances.   It appears that during the busier months the upgrade is more or less a compulsory cost unless you can wait 10-12 weeks for the visa.

It puts applicants in a very difficult situation.    Selling a home, moving children, pets, belongings takes months to plan, and applicants are forced to do this BEFORE they know if they will get a visa (though as ksand points out it's relatively unlikely you'll be denied).

I wouldn't mind a 12+ week wait if the Visa did not start until you enter the country, and if you had 3-6 months to enter.   That way you could apply for the visa, and once it's in hand you could start to dismantle your life in the US and plan for life in the UK.  IMO that would be a much better way to do it for everyone.  UKVI could take their time and applicants wouldn't be left in limbo.

We've been couch surfing with relatives for 3 weeks since selling our house, with all of our possessions mid-Atlantic, and our cat in the UK with my parents not knowing if/when my wife's visa would come through.   Our daughter has no school to attend in the US in September: she will get a place in a Cambridgeshire school, but we didn't know if my wife will be there at the start of school.  It is an intensely stressful situation.

It took about 2 years for my green card application in the US,  but I was living there with my wife (adjustment of status from H1B) and I had permission to work while I waited.   The only awkwardness was requiring advance permission to travel.

Well, I got the visa! It's a 30-day visa, good between August 23 and September 22. So, biometric residence permit for me then. I have to pick it up from a post office in Edinburgh within 10 days of arriving.

I'll probably travel over on September 3, to coincide with my husband's work rotation. Can't believe I've finally got it! Now to start wrapping things up . . . I've got to give notice, offload my car, start cleaning up and packing up!