Priority Spouse Visa FALL Timeline (Oct-Dec)

It has been 27 business days for me so far and counting..
The package was delivered to Sheffield November 22 2017. Hasn’t had any response yet. Not even confirmation email that they got my documents.

Sent from US? Or Ukraine?

I'm not priority, but my stuff was delivered on December 1 and no email that they received the paperwork. I got an email when I did my biometrics that said to send in my paperwork (or if I already had, to ignore the email) and at the bottom of that email, it states "A further email will be sent to you to confirm when your application has been assessed and dispatched.  If your application was made in a Visa Application Centre, the staff there will contact you when your documents are ready". They are either really slacking when it comes to contacting people when their documents have been scanned in or they are starting to phase that out - I've seen a lot of people recently state that they haven't been notified of the documents being received.

Sent from US? Or Ukraine?

Sent from US, Miami.
I’m a Ukrainian National but a US resident ( green card holder) for the last 6 years

I'm not priority, but my stuff was delivered on December 1 and no email that they received the paperwork. I got an email when I did my biometrics that said to send in my paperwork (or if I already had, to ignore the email) and at the bottom of that email, it states "A further email will be sent to you to confirm when your application has been assessed and dispatched.  If your application was made in a Visa Application Centre, the staff there will contact you when your documents are ready". They are either really slacking when it comes to contacting people when their documents have been scanned in or they are starting to phase that out - I've seen a lot of people recently state that they haven't been notified of the documents being received.

That was the 'documents received' email - for some reason it sometimes gets triggered automatically when you give biometrics, even though for US applications it shouldn't be sent until after they have received your documents.

In a lot of other countries you submit your passport, application and documents at the biometrics appointment, which is when the email gets triggered, and then the sponsor mails their documents from within the UK afterwards.

But in the US, nothing is submitted at biometrics, and then everything is mailed together after the appointment. Once the documents have been received in Sheffield, the email you already received is then sent out. For some reason though, you got it early.

So, there are only two emails sent in total - the one you already got, and the 'decision made' email.

Hello and Happy New Year everyone!

I have been reading the forum for the last time and decided to add my post.
My situation is a little bit different, so I am not sure if my time frame should be considered here.
I am the Russian citizen, living in France. We decided to apply for a fiance visa with my partner, so we could have all our legal paperwork in the UK.
This is our time frame:
11 November 2017 - completed online application and paid for it, paid 641,35EUR for Priority.
16 November 2017 - visited TLS Contact Paris, they took my biometrics and scanned the documents, so I didn’t need to send anything to Sheffield.
17 November 2017 - received information email from Sheffield that my online application has been received at the UK Decision Making Centre, and that application is being prepared for consideration by an ECO.
13 December 2017 - made an email request regarding the status of the application but never received a response.
02 January 2018 - contacted the UKVI by phone, to inform that I have never received their response by email, and I was told that they do not have any application with my GWF number in their system. The lady informed me that she will escalate the case to find out why they don’t have the status of my application.

Now the main question - could they lose my application? Why don't they have any information... All this sounds very strange and upsetting. At least we are on 30 business day of waiting...

Hello and Happy New Year everyone!

I have been reading the forum for the last time and decided to add my post.
My situation is a little bit different, so I am not sure if my time frame should be considered here.
I am the Russian citizen, living in France. We decided to apply for a fiance visa with my partner, so we could have all our legal paperwork in the UK.
This is our time frame:
11 November 2017 - completed online application and paid for it, paid 641,35EUR for Priority.
16 November 2017 - visited TLS Contact Paris, they took my biometrics and scanned the documents, so I didn’t need to send anything to Sheffield.
17 November 2017 - received information email from Sheffield that my online application has been received at the UK Decision Making Centre, and that application is being prepared for consideration by an ECO.
13 December 2017 - made an email request regarding the status of the application but never received a response.
02 January 2018 - contacted the UKVI by phone, to inform that I have never received their response by email, and I was told that they do not have any application with my GWF number in their system. The lady informed me that she will escalate the case to find out why they don’t have the status of my application.

Now the main question - could they lose my application? Why don't they have any information... All this sounds very strange and upsetting. At least we are on 30 business day of waiting...

Nothing to worry about.  You know they have your application as you submitted it at the TLS centre.

The call line (or email service) do not have access to your application.  They have access to a very generic system that is glitchy and doesn't always work - and certainly isn't accurate.

30 business days over the holidays is nothing to be concerned about.  I'm not sure how long applications are taking from Europe at the moment but historically it's been a rather long wait - with priority.

Ok weird question.. so if it's about a month before u receive your decision email from the time u submitted the visa and it reached Sheffield then what is the few day decision ikeep reading about or is thatcher how long it takes to get your package back with a decision letter ?

Ok weird question.. so if it's about a month before u receive your decision email from the time u submitted the visa and it reached Sheffield then what is the few day decision ikeep reading about or is thatcher how long it takes to get your package back with a decision letter ?

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean?

The process is:
- Sheffield receive application
- the 'application received' email is sent within the next few days
- processing time starts when the email is sent
- when the decision has been made (about 20-25 working days later, depending on processing times), a 'decision made' email is sent, along with an email with your UPS tracking number for the package
- the visa and documents are then returned to you... it can take a day or two for UPS to pick them up, and then another couple of days for you to receive them.

Thanks for your comment, KFdancer. When I paid for the priority service in Paris, I was told that it will take 15 business days, that's why I started worrying...
Does anyone have any experience contacting MP? After how many days is it better to do / not to do that?

I've read on here's that Some people have receive their decisions in a few days others longer .. is that everything back from Sheffield or the actual sent in their stuff to Sheffield and got a decision on that small time period

Sorry for My quick typing and crap explaintion lol ... I'm at work .. prob should have asked this when I got home 😊

Thanks for your comment, KFdancer. When I paid for the priority service in Paris, I was told that it will take 15 business days, that's why I started worrying...
Does anyone have any experience contacting MP? After how many days is it better to do / not to do that?

It hasn't been 15 business days for a LONG time - and it's frustrating that they are still advertising that processing time on the TLS website.

The US is generally one of the fastest countries for priority processing... it used to be only maybe 1-3 weeks, but priority has been taking 1-2 months for the majority of 2017.

France may have longer processing times than the US (they don't have any processing times published for settlement visas in France at the moment though), so it sounds like you're still within normal waiting times.

You're not supposed to contact your MP unless UKVI exceed their processing standards time of 12 weeks.

I've read on here's that Some people have receive their decisions in a few days others longer .. is that everything back from Sheffield or the actual sent in their stuff to Sheffield and got a decision on that small time period

Sorry for My quick typing and crap explaintion lol ... I'm at work .. prob should have asked this when I got home 😊

The decision made email is sent on the day that the ECO approves or refuses the visa. Then the documents are mailed back and you receive them within a few days of the email being received. You don't find out what the decision is until you get the documents back.

The time it takes to receive the decision email is different for everyone... it can take anywhere from 2-5 days to 5-6 months, depending on a number of factors, such as:
- whether you paid priority or non-priority
- how many applications were in line before yours arrived
- how busy they are at the time your application arrives
- whether you have any complicated circumstances that need looking into
- whether they have to request further documents
- how quickly each ECO works through their pile of applications
etc.

As an example, if two applications arrive on the same day, but application A is the first application received and application B is the 51st application received, then B will take longer to process than A, because they have 50 other applications to process first before they get to B, plus all the ones that were already in the priority line before A and B arrived. So, A might get their decision email on day 15, but B might not get their decision email until day 25.

Thanks for your comment, KFdancer. When I paid for the priority service in Paris, I was told that it will take 15 business days, that's why I started worrying...
Does anyone have any experience contacting MP? After how many days is it better to do / not to do that?

As ksand said, they scrapped the 15 business day standard a couple of years ago.  Shame on them for telling you that.

During this summer's backlog we had two members who had applied from Europe and unfortunately, both of their priority applications took well in excess of 100 business days. 

As ksand said, you can contact your MP after 12 weeks have passed, but unfortunately they don't have any influence or ability to get your application processed any faster.  Hopefully as it's a quieter time of year to apply, you'll have your decision very shortly. 

Wow, 100 business days sounds very sad... 
I am really disappointed now that we have paid for that priority service, as the main reason for that was Christmas time together...
It wasn't that TLS Paris only told me about 15 days for priority settlement visa, it was printed out on the paper and stapled to their counter. It is a real misselling... If it was a private company, they would have been fined a long time ago, but as soon as this is the government... no one cares
I will keep you posted if I have any updates, fingers crossed for a quieter time...

I’d say priority service is definitely worth it. It can take double the time if you don’t pay for priority.

Recent processing times for US applications have been around 1 month for priority and 2-3 months for non-priority. Not sure about France applications though.

(In the summer, US Priority were about 6 weeks, while non-Priority were taking 3-4 months.)

They used to advertise priority as 15 working days but they got so swamped with applications that it wasn’t possible to process them all within that time. So, they changed the wording to ‘your application will be put to the front of the line, to be processed ahead of other applications’.

But if there are say, 100 priority applications ahead of yours in the line, then it’s going to take a while to be processed.


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