EU Settlement Scheme

Hi all,

It's been some while since I needed any advice and/or info regarding settlement and residence cards.  I've been in Northern Ireland for nearly 11 years and because of good ole Brexit, I've submitted my application for the EU Settlement Scheme.  Here's my timeline so far:

October 2009 - 5-year residence card
November 2014 - second 5-year residence card (spent 1 year out of the UK in France)
21 November 2019 - applied for settled status as the civil partner of an EU citizen (Irish)
25 November 2019 - attended my biometrics appointment
10 December 2019 - received my CoA
9 January 2020 - emailed a query for an update
13 January 2020 - received a form response saying "Please note, however, that the expected processing times are a guideline and are not service standards. As mentioned above, processing times can vary as all applications are considered on a case-by-case basis. 
 
We will notify the caseworker today of your email and concerns. You will be contacted if any additional information is required or when a decision is made."

To date: haven't had a decision and we're 8 weeks into my application.  The website gives guidelines of around a month. 

Has anyone else gone through this process, particularly recently, and if so, what has your experience been like?

Thanks!!

Oh, dealing with waiting like this is so hard. Hang on there!

We did our EUSS application last March. Had to go to Edinburgh to have photos done, as we don't have smartphones and couldn't use the automated system. I think that it was probably within a week of the time we got home and finished up online that we got our statuses, but we were only going for "pre-settled" and not "settled". Perhaps that's the difference?

Scotland has hotlines for EUSS applicants. Perhaps NI has one as well, so you could speak with a live body who could tell you what's going on? It does seem like a very long time for a supposedly simple, automated process for a straightforward application.

Yes you would think it would be a fairly straightforward process for an application like mine.  However I am under no illusions it's automated.  The response I got on 13 January said it was with a caseworker, so if all these applications are having to be dealt with by a human I shudder to think how bogged down they must be.