Priority Spouse Visa FALL Timeline (Oct-Dec)

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting, but I'm looking for a little advice. I'm a UK-US dual citizen relocating back to the UK for a job. We recently applied for my US citizen husband's spousal visa (priority) using a London-based immigration consultant (not sure if I can name them here or not?).
Biometrics - July 3rd
Application received in Sheffield - July 10th.

Our consultants told us our application was straightforward and that 2-3 weeks would be the expected turn-around time. They advised that we apply in early July in order to be able to arrive in the UK in early-mid August. We (naively, it seems) trusted them. We sold our house and moved in with family, assuming it would be short wait. We are now in what we thought would be our last week of living out of suitcases, and are realising this is optimistic. Our consultants are still maintaining that we will likely get notification next week (around BD 15), but I am now reading these forums and realising that this seems like poor and inaccurate advice. I am trying to understand what we should realistically be planning for. My husband has accepted a job offer in Scotland, and they want him to start as soon as possible. I really need to be in the UK by the 2nd or 3rd week in August to start work, but we also have a 2 year old. I am reluctant to go ahead to the UK without them, but it would be difficult for me to take my son without my husband because I can not afford childcare without a second income and I can not work without childcare. So it's Catch 22.

Can any of you give me some indication of what we are realistically looking at? It does seem from all of your experiences that 30+BD is more realistic (taking us to at least August 20th [a nightmare]). I just not sure if we should trust the optimism of the people we've paid to advise us, and wonder if we need a reality check...

It does seem like you got some bad advice, unfortunately.
I applied priority about a month ahead of you. I'm currently on BD 29 since my documents were received in Sheffield, and I still haven't heard anything.. I've read that this is the busiest time of the year as well, making processing times potentially longer.

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting, but I'm looking for a little advice. I'm a UK-US dual citizen relocating back to the UK for a job. We recently applied for my US citizen husband's spousal visa (priority) using a London-based immigration consultant (not sure if I can name them here or not?).
Biometrics - July 3rd
Application received in Sheffield - July 10th.

Our consultants told us our application was straightforward and that 2-3 weeks would be the expected turn-around time. They advised that we apply in early July in order to be able to arrive in the UK in early-mid August. We (naively, it seems) trusted them. We sold our house and moved in with family, assuming it would be short wait. We are now in what we thought would be our last week of living out of suitcases, and are realising this is optimistic. Our consultants are still maintaining that we will likely get notification next week (around BD 15), but I am now reading these forums and realising that this seems like poor and inaccurate advice. I am trying to understand what we should realistically be planning for. My husband has accepted a job offer in Scotland, and they want him to start as soon as possible. I really need to be in the UK by the 2nd or 3rd week in August to start work, but we also have a 2 year old. I am reluctant to go ahead to the UK without them, but it would be difficult for me to take my son without my husband because I can not afford childcare without a second income and I can not work without childcare. So it's Catch 22.

Can any of you give me some indication of what we are realistically looking at? It does seem from all of your experiences that 30+BD is more realistic (taking us to at least August 20th [a nightmare]). I just not sure if we should trust the optimism of the people we've paid to advise us, and wonder if we need a reality check...

Welcome to the forum .

Unfortunately 2-3 weeks is pretty much unheard of in the summer months, even using priority. I don’t think we’ve seen an application processed they quickly since about Jan/Feb time. The standard processing for the last 18 months has been about 30-35 working days, so I’d allow at least 6 weeks for processing.

If your application was received July 10th, I’d estimate you’ll probably get the visa around the end of August, maybe early September.

Also, VFS Global are now advertising the priority service as a 30-working-day service, though they are barely meeting that target at the moment.


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Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting, but I'm looking for a little advice. I'm a UK-US dual citizen relocating back to the UK for a job. We recently applied for my US citizen husband's spousal visa (priority) using a London-based immigration consultant (not sure if I can name them here or not?).
Biometrics - July 3rd
Application received in Sheffield - July 10th.

Our consultants told us our application was straightforward and that 2-3 weeks would be the expected turn-around time. They advised that we apply in early July in order to be able to arrive in the UK in early-mid August. We (naively, it seems) trusted them. We sold our house and moved in with family, assuming it would be short wait. We are now in what we thought would be our last week of living out of suitcases, and are realising this is optimistic. Our consultants are still maintaining that we will likely get notification next week (around BD 15), but I am now reading these forums and realising that this seems like poor and inaccurate advice. I am trying to understand what we should realistically be planning for. My husband has accepted a job offer in Scotland, and they want him to start as soon as possible. I really need to be in the UK by the 2nd or 3rd week in August to start work, but we also have a 2 year old. I am reluctant to go ahead to the UK without them, but it would be difficult for me to take my son without my husband because I can not afford childcare without a second income and I can not work without childcare. So it's Catch 22.

Can any of you give me some indication of what we are realistically looking at? It does seem from all of your experiences that 30+BD is more realistic (taking us to at least August 20th [a nightmare]). I just not sure if we should trust the optimism of the people we've paid to advise us, and wonder if we need a reality check...

Is July 10th the date of “application received and being prepared for processing” email?  That’s the date the business days are calculated from.

The good news is that we haven’t seen the usual summer backlog slowdown this year!  (At least not yet).

Hi everyone,

Hi littlesmall. 

Is July 10th the date of “application received and being prepared for processing” email?  That’s the date the business days are calculated from.

The good news is that we haven’t seen the usual summer backlog slowdown this year!  (At least not yet).

Yes, that's the date of the email that said it was received and been prepared. I'm just so frustrated because we went through all of this to get my Green Card and US citizenship and we never used a lawyer. We only ever used forums like this one for advice, and did the whole process ourselves. This time round we thought we'd "treat" ourselves to legal advice in the hope of saving some of the stress of trawling online for information....and yet here I am, feeling like an idiot.

Thanks so much for the much-needed reality check; I just wish I hadn't wasted the £££ and come to you first. I'm not even mad with the Home Office; I'm just mad with being given unrealistic expectations in the first place. We could have totally applied earlier with a 6-8 week turn around in mind, but we didn't because that's not what we were told...

I emailed our immigration consultants relaying what I had learned here, and questioning why their advice was so far off - will let you know how they respond.

Yes, that's the date of the email that said it was received and been prepared. I'm just so frustrated because we went through all of this to get my Green Card and US citizenship and we never used a lawyer. We only ever used forums like this one for advice, and did the whole process ourselves. This time round we thought we'd "treat" ourselves to legal advice in the hope of saving some of the stress of trawling online for information....and yet here I am, feeling like an idiot.

Thanks so much for the much-needed reality check; I just wish I hadn't wasted the £££ and come to you first. I'm not even mad with the Home Office; I'm just mad with being given unrealistic expectations in the first place. We could have totally applied earlier with a 6-8 week turn around in mind, but we didn't because that's not what we were told...

I emailed our immigration consultants relaying what I had learned here, and questioning why their advice was so far off - will let you know how they respond.

I suspect they don't have much experience with USA applications.  Though they are grossly misleading their clients.  The USA has some of the fastest processing times of any country in the world with UKVI. 

Did they have you include a property inspection report for where you will be living?  If so, that's a big red flag.

Did they have you include a property inspection report for where you will be living?  If so, that's a big red flag.

Why is an inspection report a red flag?

P.S. My own USA settlement visa progress:-
39 working days from online application submitted...
28 working days from biometrics
25 working days since documents arrived at Sheffield...
20 working days since first email from Sheffield.

Why is an inspection report a red flag?

P.S. My own USA settlement visa progress:-
39 working days from online application submitted...
28 working days from biometrics
25 working days since documents arrived at Sheffield...
20 working days since first email from Sheffield.

It's not required and has never been required.  The lawyer gets a kick back from the fee you pay to have done.  It's a red flag because it shows they are just trying to make money and not following the requirements.

Having people write "testimonials" to your relationship being genuine is another red flag. 

An update for anyone who’s interested. Just spoke to the MP’s office. They called me after receiving my letter. My husbands visa got approved TODAY!!! also just checked the tracking and it’s updated to ‘picked up’ and it’s only 3:50pm!!!

AND today is our third wedding anniversary!! What a great gift.

So approved after approx 39 BD (with priority)

An update for anyone who’s interested. Just spoke to the MP’s office. They called me after receiving my letter. My husbands visa got approved TODAY!!! also just checked the tracking and it’s updated to ‘picked up’ and it’s only 3:50pm!!!

AND today is our third wedding anniversary!! What a great gift.

So approved after approx 39 BD (with priority)

Congratulations and happy anniversary!   

An update for anyone who’s interested. Just spoke to the MP’s office. They called me after receiving my letter. My husbands visa got approved TODAY!!! also just checked the tracking and it’s updated to ‘picked up’ and it’s only 3:50pm!!!

AND today is our third wedding anniversary!! What a great gift.

So approved after approx 39 BD (with priority)

Congrats!!! 

Congratulations and happy anniversary!   

Thank you! The best gift we could have ever asked for!

Hi everyone! 

I joined and utilized this website to help gather the information needed for my application, I cannot thank you enough!!! I now begin the waiting game....

Also wanted to note that I do think it does take longer to get your received email if you send it via any other way than UPS.  We had A LOT of paperwork (Self-employed business owner) so I shipped everything to my fiancé and he shipped it in via Royal Mail Special delivery....took 7 days to get my received email!

Met in Miami 2016
Engaged December 2017
Application Type: Settlement/Fiancé Priority
Applying from USA as US Citizen
Online application submitted: July 9th, 2018
Biometrics appointment: July 11th, 2018
Package sent: July 20th, 2018
Package delivery: July 20, 2018
Email receipt of application: July 27, 2018
Decision made:
Documents returned:

Hi everyone! 

I joined and utilized this website to help gather the information needed for my application, I cannot thank you enough!!! I now begin the waiting game....

Also wanted to note that I do think it does take longer to get your received email if you send it via any other way than UPS.  We had A LOT of paperwork (Self-employed business owner) so I shipped everything to my fiancé and he shipped it in via Royal Mail Special delivery....took 7 days to get my received email!

Met in Miami 2016
Engaged December 2017
Application Type: Settlement/Fiancé Priority
Applying from USA as US Citizen
Online application submitted: July 9th, 2018
Biometrics appointment: July 11th, 2018
Package sent: July 20th, 2018
Package delivery: July 20, 2018
Email receipt of application: July 27, 2018
Decision made:
Documents returned:

Good Luck! 

Hi,

I've been lurking here a long while and thought that I should share my experience.

I'm a UK citizen that lived in the US since age 6. I've got 6 kids and a US wife. On a visit last year, I decided I wanted to move over and try out the UK. With 3 small kids (not in school yet), we thought it would be good to go. I got UK qualifications through downloading manuals from shady spots on the internet and flying over for test; found a nice paying job in April. Then the visa process.

Priority Settlement / Wife and Adopted Son
Application: April 28th
Bio-metrics: May 7th
Received in Sheffield email: May 16th
Long Silence: May 17th - July 24th
Angry Email to useless UKVI: July 24th
Response saying literally nothing: July 25th
Email stating 'non-straightfoward application': July 25th
Emailed MP: July 25th
Email from UKVI requesting Payment for IHS fee: July 25th
Decision Email: (Pending)
Documents: (Pending)

I know the standard line is that emailing/calling the paid line doesn't do anything. However, in my case it seems to have got the ball rolling and I wish I would have done it a month ago. The email requesting the 'top up' of the IHS payment said it was needed before approval. So, how long would they have sat on it and not asked for the payment had I not called?

In the meantime my wife and 5 kids are living with my in-laws in a 800 Sqf in Atlanta. While I'm working and living a static life with relatives. The MP replied and would be happy to contact them on my behalf. We shall see....

Can you get a refund on the priority? It's pretty obvious they were just sitting on our applications until I email.