I paid for the rush service but it hasn't come ....

Hello everyone!
I have been on this site countless times over the last few months while I was getting ready to submit my Visa Application and I just want to say thank you to everyone for all the information ... it was sooooo helpful!!

I just registered for the group officially today though because I have a specific question that I haven't found on the site before. My question is this:

I haven't received my visa (accepted or denied) and its been 21 days since they received my application. (I got an email on September 9th saying they had it).

I paid $500 for the rush fee that said it would be back in 15 working days.

I have moved my ticket back but I just wondered if anyone here has any advice for me or if anyone has been through this themselves.

Is the rush service a scam?

Thanks so much to anyone who has the time and/or knowledge to respond!!

The priority service is definitely not a scam. If you read, it states the goal is to return a decision within 15 days but that's not a guarantee. Since you were requested to provide more documentation and did so at 22 September as per your other post, it's not a surprise you haven't heard yet. They need additional time to review the new information.

This is why you should not book a ticket until you have the visa in hand. You never know if there may be delays.

Thanks for the response
As far as the ticket, I definitely wouldn't have bought one until my visa arrived but it was kind of a freebee haha Its a long story but basically I missed my flight back to the states this summer and it was cheaper to buy a roundtrip instead of a one way so we picked a date. All of the posts I had read seemed like the turn around at Sheffield was super quick. Might have been for us too had we not been missing those stupid bank statements haha
The waiting is KILLING us! I can't seem to relax at all.
Really appreciate your response those.

I'm sure that you've been glued to the Any Updates from Recent Applicants thread.  You probably don't have too much longer to wait, especially if you got acknowledgement that your application is being processed as priority (as opposed to being placed in the wrong pile).  It seems as though requesting more documents adds about a week to processing times based on that thread.  I don't know anything for certain, though.  Hopefully you hear soon!  I know that it's a lot of money and very annoying to have to wait.  Best of luck with everything!

Thanks so much for your encouraging words!!!!
Sometimes all you need is for someone else to say 'its probably fine' and it makes all the difference in the world!

Really means a lot

Just curious - did they explicitly advise 15 working days?

The old provider had a timeline of 15 days (Worldbridge), but as far as I am aware, the new provider only states the application is placed ahead in the queue and doesn't give estimated time frames.  If so, applications would still be processed as priority, but not necessarily in 15 days so I wouldn't worry about anything at the moment. 

Worldbridge is who I went through!!!!
What do you mean 'the old service'?
Oh God, please respond because my heart is skipping beats right now!!!

Worldbridge ceased being the premium service provider at the end of March 2014. The new provider is VFS. They have been providing the service since 1 April 2014.

How were you able to order through Worldbridge?  I just visited their site and the United Kingdom is not an option in the drop-down box for 'Where are you going?'  Did you go through VFS and think it was Worldbridge?  You should have gotten an e-mail when you purchased your priority service.

Yes, Worldbridge doesn't even offer any priority services for UK visas anymore.

The only place you can purchase the priority service is here through the VFS Global website) ($510 for settlement (fiance/spousal) visas or $170 for all other visas):
http://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/usa/user_pay_services.html

The service is still the same (UKVI offer the service in Sheffield - they move your application to the front of the line for processing), you are just purchasing it through a different website now.

And there is no fixed amount of time in which it will be processed. When Worldbridge did it, UKVI offered a 15-working day service, but then they realised they couldn't guarantee they could get the applications processed in that time, so they changed it to 'This service allows settlement visa applicants to pay to have their visa application placed at the front of the queue once received by the UK Visas and Immigration Decision Making Centre (DMC) in Sheffield, to commence processing ahead of other visa applications.'

A few months ago, priority applications were processed in a few days, but right now, it's been taking up to a month (maybe longer if they need to request extra documents), and 2-3 months if you didn't purchase the service.

I suspect that you've correctly used the new provider (VSF) and may have perhaps seen older posts on the forum about Worldbridge and the 15-day processing time and mixed them up.  UK immigration changes rather frequently; we advise that any information more than 6 months old is to be regarded as outdated unless verified with the official sources.