OK, here goes:
Visa type: Dependent child, priority, for adopted child not in either of the two main categories of adopted child, hence outside the rules. See details below.
Online application completed: July 10
Biometrics completed: Not needed (no under-5s from the US need either photos or biometrics though children from all other countries now need photos taken at a biometrics centre so this may change)
Application packet mailed: July 10
Documents delivered by FedEx: July 14
Email confirmation from Sheffield: None received.
Contacted helpline: July 16. They said they had no record of our application. They refused to believe that we had our daughter's date of birth correct, and told us that it could be up to 2 weeks before we received a notification or a timeline.
I know that others may think we are being unrealistic, but frankly if we are paying for priority (and paying a huge amount) we want to at least know that our application has arrived.
Contacted MP: July 16th. The MP helped us previously when the New York visa office gave us illegal advice when we were obtaining our son's visa.
Contacted local British consulate: July 18th. We (two parents and sibling) are British citizens and residents stranded in the US with no means of support, due to British government policies (see below, also).
Consulate confirmed that the application had been received and was being collated: July 22nd. Remember, we never got any confirmation from Sheffield.
Email from visa processing office to ask for an additional form, owing to the fact that the online form and the instructions do not relate to each other at all: July 23rd.
Returned this form to them: July 23rd, within an hour.
Contacted helpline again: July 28th and 29th (twice on the latter date) and they again said they had no record of our application. In particular, we wanted a timeline on the decision, which we never received. In case you didn't know, the helpline does not have access to the actual visa system, only to a (clearly incorrect) version of its output. Remember, at this point we'd already been contacted by the processing office.
Contacted MP again: August 1st - good news - the MP's office had been given a time frame for our visa to be processed (over the weekend) and a decision to be made (by August 4th).
Decision email received, and visa shipped: August 5th.
Visa arrived: FedEx say that it should be here August 7th.
Flight home booked for: August 8th
I should explain that:
1) Our daughter only needs a visa for a maximum of 6 months, hence a delay of even a month being patently ridiculous. The published timelines include a maximum of 120 days - which would mean she only needed the visa for 2 months!
2) The UK government regulations state that you cannot be on paid adoption leave while not in the UK. International law, to which the UK subscribes, says that you must go overseas to meet a child you are hoping to adopt.
In other words, you are obliged by UK law to go overseas with no income to meet your child and bring them back... and then wait for the incredibly broken system to get round to issuing your child a visa.
So it's not like a spouse visa where the sponsor can be working at their job in the UK and waiting for their spouse to get a visa. You HAVE to be overseas and you HAVE to have no income.
3) However, both the adoption regulations and the immigration regulations require you to have sufficient income to support your child.
4) And, the Department for Education must include a request to the Home Office to confirm that a visa will be issued, before allowing a family that has met their child to take placement of the child. It should be the section of the Home Office that confirms this, that then issues the visa, or vice versa - in other words, the visa should be pre-approved.
When we adopted our older child and the visa was issued in NY they first gave us illegal advice (telling us to bring him to the UK on a visitor's visa). They then worked out they had made a mistake and issued the visa within 5 days.
I know that a lot of people on here have confidence in the system, keep saying "oh don't worry" "oh they don't always acknowledge applications" "oh it will come eventually" but basically the system is broken. If they can't get the right information to the helpline people, it's broken. If they can't find applications, it's broken. If they can't get the online form to match the instructions, it's really broken!
Husband works for a fairly commonly maligned government department, and he understands what is going wrong. If they (in his department) did this, someone's guts would be had for garters as they'd be messing British citizens around.
But normally, UKVI has no incentive to fix it because the people it is messing around are not UK citizens so it is not accountable to them.
Fortunately for us, all of us (including our older child) ARE citizens and constituents of our MP who has a huge incentive to help us, and has put in a lot of hours getting people to basically do their job.
I know that the attitude tends to be "oh well, we all survived, nobody died, your relationship/child/family will be stronger for it". But our attitude is, the UK government is supposed to be proceeding in the interests of the child - and for children adopted from other countries, they get visas issued extremely quickly. They just aren't doing it for our children.
Rant over!
