UKVCAS appointments

Just read this on the website (we submitted our application 3rd May):

In order to be fair to everyone, we are continuing to open up the booking system in date order starting with people who registered with UKVCAS after the 27th March but did not have an appointment due to the COVID-19 lockdown. We are continuing to work from the earliest to the most recent registrations as we think this is the fairest and best approach to take.

If you are one of these customers, you will have received an email from us asking you to book an appointment. The email will have full instructions about next actions.

So according to this, we should have received an email? We haven't, and we've checked spam folder. Any ideas? Have tried logging in and booking an appointment, but there's nothing available at any of the service points.

We did get an email today from FLRMDocuments@homeoffice.gov.uk asking us to email them directly just a scanned version of our marriage certificate and proof that we've been living together, which we've just done.

What date did you submit your online application?

They're making their way through the applications submitted in date order and last I heard, only people who applied in March and maybe early April had been sent emails so far (I saw the other day that someone who applied mid-April had not yet received an email).

If you applied in May or June, you likely have a few more weeks to wait before you get an email.

Thanks for this. That’s what I thought, I was just a bit thrown by the line ‘you will have received an email...’ but then I guess we all know what they’re like

They also said:

In order to be fair to everyone, we are continuing to open up the booking system in date order starting with people who registered with UKVCAS after the 27th March but did not have an appointment due to the COVID-19 lockdown.  We are continuing to work from the earliest to the most recent registrations as we think this is the fairest and best approach to take.

So, if you have not yet received an email, it's because they are still working through the earlier registrations and haven't got to yours yet.

They have 4 months' worth of applications to get through, and we don't know how many thousands of people applied in that time, or how long it's going to take for them to send the emails out.

There are people who applied several weeks before you did who have not received that email yet, so we're waiting on those to happen first before they get to the later applications.

Just FYI - We submitted our application on April 15 and we have not yet received the email inviting us to book an appointment.
Exactly like you, we did get an email from the FLRMDocuments people asking for the same thing - marriage certificate and proof of living together. We've sent those in.
When we get our email invitation, I will be sure to post an update in the various threads.
Good luck everyone!

Big news today on the UKVCAS website.
Rather than paraphrase what they say I am copying it here:

Updated: 02 July 2020
We are opening the appointment booking system to even more customers. We have news about a new UKVI policy which may accelerate the application process.
Taking a phased approach in date order
We are now opening up the booking system in date order to customers who registered with UKVCAS after the 27th March and on and before 30 April 2020. We are continuing to work from the earliest to the most recent registrations as we think this is the fairest and best approach to take.
If you are one of these customers, you will receive an email from us before 4 July 2020 asking you to book an appointment. The email will have full instructions about next actions.
Certain customers within this date range will not be invited to book an appointment. See the impact of the new UKVI policy changes below.

Accelerating the application process
UK Visas and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS) is working closely with UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) to tackle the significant demand for appointments in order to accelerate the application process.
UKVI is changing the way it processes applications in response to COVID-19 (see here). This new way of working involves reusing biometrics (fingerprints) that have been recorded in a previous application as part of the process to verify your identity. This will mean that certain customers will not need to attend a Service Point.
UKVI are currently working to identify those customers that are eligible to use this new approach.
If you are likely to be eligible for this new process, UKVI has asked us not to invite you for an appointment but to wait for an email which will give you further information and next steps.
We are continuing to invite customers by email that will definitely need to book an appointment at a Service Point. See ‘Taking a phased approach in date order’ above.
Further details will be available over the next few weeks. If you have any questions, please check the website for the latest news.

Would be great if we did not have to attend another appointment. We will keep a lookout for an email.

Oh that would be amazing. I guess I will stop being lazy and get all of my docs uploaded this weekend!

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Big news today on the UKVCAS website.
Rather than paraphrase what they say I am copying it here:

Updated: 02 July 2020
We are opening the appointment booking system to even more customers. We have news about a new UKVI policy which may accelerate the application process.
Taking a phased approach in date order
We are now opening up the booking system in date order to customers who registered with UKVCAS after the 27th March and on and before 30 April 2020. We are continuing to work from the earliest to the most recent registrations as we think this is the fairest and best approach to take.
If you are one of these customers, you will receive an email from us before 4 July 2020 asking you to book an appointment. The email will have full instructions about next actions.
Certain customers within this date range will not be invited to book an appointment. See the impact of the new UKVI policy changes below.

Accelerating the application process
UK Visas and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS) is working closely with UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) to tackle the significant demand for appointments in order to accelerate the application process.
UKVI is changing the way it processes applications in response to COVID-19 (see here). This new way of working involves reusing biometrics (fingerprints) that have been recorded in a previous application as part of the process to verify your identity. This will mean that certain customers will not need to attend a Service Point.
UKVI are currently working to identify those customers that are eligible to use this new approach.
If you are likely to be eligible for this new process, UKVI has asked us not to invite you for an appointment but to wait for an email which will give you further information and next steps.
We are continuing to invite customers by email that will definitely need to book an appointment at a Service Point. See ‘Taking a phased approach in date order’ above.
Further details will be available over the next few weeks. If you have any questions, please check the website for the latest news.

I did wonder why they didn’t do this in the first place, because they can just re-use biometric data! Does this mean those applying for say FLR (M), they can just re-use the biometric data of the initial spouse visa application?


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Just got the email saying I do NOT have to attend a biometric appointment. They will be in touch to provide instructions on how to upload a "facial image" so that if/when we get approval, they have an updated photo for the BRP.
Fingers crossed!!

Just got the email saying I do NOT have to attend a biometric appointment. They will be in touch to provide instructions on how to upload a "facial image" so that if/when we get approval, they have an updated photo for the BRP.
Fingers crossed!!

When did you apply and is this for FLR ?


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I just got the email too! I applied in May for FLR(M). Looks like it will be a few weeks while they sort out how to send them a "facial image" for the BRP. So I'll be finishing uploading my documents this weekend.

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I applied April 15 for FLR(M). I have uploaded all my documents on UKVCAS.. I also received an email from the Documents address at the home office (other people have received this one too) asking me to send them two things - a copy of the marriage certificate and the proof of residence (mail). I've done all that so now await the next email asking for the upload of the "facial image".
Fingers crossed!

I got the email about re-using biometrics too. Applied 29th March. Also previously had the email about sending the marriage cert, degree cert, and evidence of living together.

Now to see how long it takes for them to get the system for submitting facial ages sorted.

Well this is some good news.

I gather we will need to upload the documents ourselves onto UKVCAS as part of this allowance rather than let them do it at the appointment.


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