Hommeeeee
Experience was as follows:
Left the house at 8:30 to grab coffee and stop by my office to print my booking confirmation (thought I could just get QR code up on my phone but saw when doing a final check last night I needed the printed copy). Was heading from Bracknell off to Birmingham by 9 and made AMAZING time (was at the building by 10:45 LOL). No real place to wait if you aren't going in momentarily so we both sat in the car until around 11:30.
Went in at 11:30 to ask how early we could head in to be told we'd be called at 12. about 5 or10 minutes passed 12, the door guy said he'd start checking confirmations and passports (and I was lucky to be the second person in). Got directed to a desk where they noted my info down, checked my passport and confirmation, and told me I'd be called for check-in shortly. By the time I took as seat, I was only sitting for about 2 minutes before I was called to do check-in at the first desk (out of 4).
Sat down after check-in and read for a bit on my ipad. As somebody else mentioned, there was no security check point or anything nor any signs directing you that you couldn't have phones/ipads/electronics of any kind (which was nice as it made me less bored as partners can't accompany you unless they also have an appointment due to space inside). Sat for maybe 30 mins then was called to do biometrics. I sh*t you not, this probably took to longest out of everything. If I had to guess, I'd guess 10 minute
at least. The machine was SOO fussy. Kept saying "move left" then "move right" even when you just slightly shifted to one side. I tried going forward and backward and it timed out on me TWICE so I had to eventually press the "call for assistance" button LOL but I know it's not just me as the lady said the machines are picky as well as when I was sat waiting, I could hear them constantly saying to people "open your eyes completely...head has to go up...move to the left..." and directing them so I wasn't the worst.
Sat back down after biometrics for maybe another 20 minutes or so (give or take a bit) then was called up to the second desk for the document check/submission. The guy re-scanned by passport and BRP card then told me he was going to look through everything I submitted quickly to make sure it was all okay and said "bear with me, there's a lot of documents..it'll take a few minutes". I just laughed and said "yep...about 36 of them if I remember correctly..." That only took another 10 minutes or so. After that he said he had verified everything I uploaded and it all looked fine and was all there and that "because I paid for super priority, he'd submit everything now to UKVI directly and that I should have an email communicating to me the next steps probably by Monday". I asked him if they would tell me if it was approved or rejected via the email and he just sort of responded with a "no I've just verified it all" and I said "Sorry I'm just nervous as don't want a rejection" and he sort of laughed and said "I can tell your nervous. No, it's fine. I've verified everything and they'll just let you know in that email when you should be receiving what you applied for with the next steps and that should be by Monday". Said thanks and was on my way and out of the door of the building by just passed 1:30PM. Made it back home by 3:45PM.
Seems to suggest to me that he
knows whether it's approved or rejected and that it's approved and the email Monday will tell me
when my BRP card will be arriving as opposed to
if - though I wouldn't have thought he'd know this as I would've guessed it would be UKVI that makes the decision once receiving the docs (not sure if anybody else whose applied using the new process has had a similar discussion with the document checking person?). Also, I've not a clue what they mean by "next steps" so will be interesting to see what happens I guess? Thinking maybe just info around how to return my current BRP and stuff?
Everybody was very nice there (even when dealing with some frustrating applicants) and was very helpful and working to get everybody processed as quickly as possible. The location for Birmingham was very convenient and easy to find using google maps (so no issues with that) and everything seemed to go quite smoothly so now I just have to wait for this email to see about "Next Steps"
I'll report back either Monday evening or whenever I hear what these "next steps" are!
