Welcome to the forum 
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As larrabee said, for US applications, the processing time count starts from the date you received the email from Sheffield to say they have your documents.
So, currently you are only on 10 working days, and you won't actually reach 30 working days until 8th August. Priority applications are generally taking about 30 working days anyway, so you likely have another month or so to wait.
Even if they counted from the biometrics date (which they do in most other countries, but not the US), you'd still only be on 18 working days.
I'm surprised it took them 7 days to acknowledge your application though, since normally, for priority the email is sent within 1-2 days. Sid you write the required SETTLEMENT PRIORITY SERVICE on the very outermost packaging? If not, then it may not have been sorted into the priority pile when it arrived, and therefore may not have been opened for several days.
Have you now purchased and emailed them the return shipping waybill from the VFS Global website so they can return your documents?
Thanks for replying! I'll gladly take all the advice I can get.
My parcel really should have got into the priority queue. It was a large flat box, with "PRIORITY SERVICE - SETTLEMENT VISA" in thick black marker pen on every side of the outer wrapping of the box, my priority receipt attached to the top and bottom of the box, and the same on the actual box inside the wrapping. My priority receipt was the first thing you would find when opening the box (marked "this way up"). I had a priority receipt in each envelope inside, and PRIORITY SERVICE in thick black marker on each envelope too. So, there is nothing more I could have done, and it would be lamentable if they failed to identify my package as priority.
Yes, the package sent to Sheffield already included a Royal Mail label for return of documents, and within 1 hour of their "AWB" email requesting a courier account or airway bill I emailed them back UPS return shipping label procured from VFS Global.
Yes, the time between my parcel actually being received and the email saying so was much longer for me than others reported on the forums, and yes this worried me and I already wrote to them asking for confirmation that I am in the priority queue but they keep sending back standard replies from the paid-for email service. If I am on 10 working days, that is a great disappointment. However, on forums I am seeing comparable US applications received around the same time as mine receiving decisions now.
An accurate estimated timeline would help me greatly. I'm closely monitoring forums including this one, and I'm seeing a typical processing time of about 35 business days from biometrics for recent priority US applicants. Those timelines seem so consistent that it has led me to wonder whether they start processing the application at that point. It would make sense for the clock to start ticking when Sheffield receives the documents, but who knows whether their 30 day timeline starting point is really defined as actual date received or date of email saying received? I've seen a lot of claims and assumptions on forums which I know to be incorrect. Is there somewhere I can look to verify that the timeline is 30 days from the package received email?
