a final hope for a note of clarification - it says i've got 30 days to pick up my additional documents from the office in england that i specified in the application...does that mean 30 days from now or 30 days from my visa start date (november 6th)?
It's 30 days from the start date on the visa, but the visa should not start any later than October, which is 3 months from when the decision was made.
To check, are you reading the date correctly (i.e. UK date format)?
Does it say:
06/11/2017 to 06/12/2017 (6th November to 6th December 2017)
or
11/06/2017 to 11/07/2017 (11th June to 11th July 2017)?
If it's 06/11/2017, that's really odd because it shouldn't start more than 3 months ahead, and it means you cannot enter the UK until 6th November.
If it's 11/06/2017, valid until 11/07/2017, that means you only have until midnight tomorrow (11:59 pm on July 11th UK time) to enter the UK!
We have seen the latter before, where a decision has been made but it's taken so long to get the visa to you that the 30 days have expired before you can fly to the UK. If this is the case, you'll need to send it back for a correction to the dates.
In fact, if it's the former and it's dated for November, and that's not the travel date you put, which means you need to enter the UK before November, you may be able to get it changed to an earlier date.
