Originally Posted by KernowIan

Hi Gary, I am going to spend time on this over the weekend.

My MP called HO on Tuesday. They apparently gave cast iron guarantee that someone would call me with an update to my mobile from the HO parliamentary team. Nothing. I am going to fire off a very strong email this afternoon saying nothing of the promise in 48 hrs. (my MP naive? or just stalling?)

i am trying to get into the BBC. News night slammed Amber Rudd last night for the ongoing Afghan Asylum debacle.

Conservative party conference 1-4 October in Manchester ?????????

Originally Posted by garyede

Ah now i know what pc you use! All of that money and effort we are being treat like imbeciles!

Originally Posted by KernowIan

I just sent this to my MP. Scott Mann's office. Conservative. North Cornwall.

Dear xxxxxx,

Thank you for your call two days ago when you mentioned I should expect a call directly from Scott’s colleagues in the Home Office (Parliamentary section I think you said).

Unfortunately no such call has been forthcoming nor any email. [my wife] has now been waiting for 105 working days. The final target for the Home Office to meet is 120 Working Days. Quoted from their website:

100% of Applications will be processed within 24 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days).

That is 120 working days, and for xxxxxxxxxx that falls on 12 October 2017.



Can I please now turn to a question raised in the House on Monday last by Mike Gapes:

Mike Gapes Labour/Co-operative, Ilford South
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many entry clearance applications for a (a) spouse and (b) fiancé have not been processed within 12 weeks in each of the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans...isas#g10258.r0

The answer provided by Brandon Lewis is an utter disgrace. It demonstrates the level of interest he and other ministers have in the issue at hand. Unfortunately my four year old son is unable to comprehend the negligence, and the State enforced separation that the incompetence in Sheffield has caused. My wife has been without her passport since 25 April!


I am very mindful that Scott’s diary is full months in advance, but I once again ask you to please, please put this in front of him personally without any further delay. I am happy to travel to London to meet him. I am happy to meet him and Brandon Lewis and Amber Rudd in Manchester 1-4 October. A number of us are planning to go to Manchester if invited, and given Newsnight’s slamming of Amber Rudd last night we are hopeful of an audience of sorts. Sky news are also showing an interest. I believe an article will appear in the Guardian either this weekend or next.

Any further assistance that Scott can please provide in reuniting my wife with her son and her husband will be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Originally Posted by garyede

Very good letter Ian I might be able to attend too if you manage to pull off a meeting with any of the above politicians

Originally Posted by JimmyBlue76

Here's what I wrote to Mr Gapes and Mr Corbyn, personal details removed:

Dear Mr Gapes,

Whilst I am not a constituent of yours I wanted to write and thank you for the written questions you submitted to the Home Office on 12 and 13 September 2017 with regard to the processing of spousal visa applications and their processing by the Sheffield office. I find that my own situation is mirrored precisely by the circumstances you are referring to in those questions - my wife submitted her settlement visa application in May 2017 and we find ourselves in that group of applications that seem to have disappeared into a black hole at the Sheffield processing office. So thank you for at least attempting to get answers from the Home Office, even if they replied with an appalling attempted whitewash.

{Details of our particular case here}

Shortly before our 60 day service standard deadline was met we were told the application was not straightforward - we were not told why. We were asked for further financial information that the office claimed we had not provided even though we had sent this as part of our initial supporting documents. We submitted the requested information via email again and received another email from Sheffield several days later stating that we had not provided the information yet so they would make a decision on August 15th with whatever information we had provided if we didn't send the requested documents. We sent them again immediately and via email, and since then have heard nothing other than to be told on August 29th that they had finally got around to adding the documents to our case. We are now at day 95 since the bio-metric appointment. We have escalated three times and never had any reply from that. My MP has written to the Director of UKVI and received no response - after some 26 days.

As I am sure you are aware, ours is not a unique case. This online forum {link to here added} contains 75 pages of similar, if not exact (give or take a day or two), stories. In most cases, the sequence is the same - as people approach the 60 day service deadline they are suddenly told that their case is not straightforward. No one is ever told why - Sitel are a shameful money making machine that never, and I do mean never, provide any worthwhile or useful information despite that being their one task, for which applicants pay handsomely. And suddenly the Home Office can ignore us. In his disgracefully uninformative answers to you Brandon Lewis pointed you to a report from August 2017 detailing the figures for settlement applications in Q1 this year - but Q2 is where the issues seem to be arising, and where the Home Office suddenly seems to be unable to produce statistics - despite their own website containing statistics for decisions made in May 2017 stating that 100% of the applications decided from the USA in that month were dealt with by day 90 (you'll recall we are at day 95). Applications made in April and May this year (and many further back than that) seem to have been ignored, lost or inexplicably delayed. I see stories of people who are approaching 124 days without a decision.

Furthermore, I believe that the HO is deliberately misleading the public. Cases that are about to breach the 60 day standard are shortly before the deadline declared to be 'not straightforward', which if you read the notes in the August 2017 report now means they are set outside of the standard service times and can now be ignored in favour of processing applications that have longer to run, thus allowing the Home Office and UKVI to report better processing times and results.

{details of why I think our case is straightforward and how we meet and exceed all requirements} Yet UKVI conveniently deemed it non-straightforward just before they were due to miss their processing deadline, and have since ignored it whilst processing visa applications made after ours was, and they admit they still don't know when they will make a decision for us.

Please continue to push the Home Office for answers to your questions because very few people outside of those affected seem to know what is going on and Brandon Lewis should be ashamed by his transparent effort to avoid giving you any useful or meaningful information. His department most assuredly does have the answers to your questions - or is he suggesting that UKVI is being so incompetently and haphazardly run that they do not know how many applications they are processing at any given time, and that there is no monitoring of their processing service standards in real time? If that's the case - how can they possibly hope to meet them?

The limbo that those of us affected by this are stranded in is simply soul destroying. I missed my daughter's 2nd birthday. My wife missed our eldest son's birthday just yesterday and will most likely miss my birthday in October. When I travelled to the US for my wife's birthday in July my daughter didn't recognise me. We spent our 17th wedding anniversary on opposite sides of the world. We have missed months of potential earnings and job experience for my wife. My family has been split so UKVI can mislead the public about meeting its processing standards, and then deliberately try to avoid your questions on the issue. I know of dozens suffering in the same way, there are most likely hundreds. Brandon Lewis' answers are an insult to all of us.

Thank you for bringing this to light in Parliament, and please don't stop asking questions about it until you get some meaningful, truthful, answers.

Yours Sincerely,

Originally Posted by rvg1212

UKVI is pathetic playing with people lives and families. They should be processing the backlogs first rather than the other way round. Also, their ridiculous couple of generic emails "application not straight forward" is all non-sense. Credit to the MPs to raise the questions (Mr. Gapes & Mr. Corbyn) in the parliament, and I hope they press on the issues and we all get some resolvement due to that. It's been 37weeks waiting with no communication at all; apart from the generic email in March - "application not straight forward" and MPs involvement resulted in few responses stating "please be patient - due to the number of applications delays have incurred" which is pathetic excuse..... possibly MPs is all shying away from involving when knowing the facts, why process new applications then..? Also Sitel Co. should be pressing on the complaints and unresolved issues they are witnessing through numerous phones calls should be helping us people, but instead racking up the money together with UKVI (money making business; playing with peoples lives, emotions, and helplessness). I applied back in 28th Dec 2016, nothing as of yet!!!! I hope all that are waiting for similar amount of time (37weeks); please post if u hear any news. Thanks.... wish everyone gets their settlement soon.

Originally Posted by Hamza9

I feel so bad for u it's pathetic! Do they have any idea how we live without our spouse for this long! Are we not paying them money ? I never expected this from UK services! I never knew they could get such money freaks ! Where r we supposed to go for justice!!!! They r not hiring any more people ! N the priority service scheme for making money is on the top! Getting so much money n giving nothing in response! N then we have to pay money for the calls too! Just pathetic!

Originally Posted by simonnz

What time of the day do Sheffield send out there emails to say you got your visa? Is it uk time or the country of applying time

Originally Posted by hullmonkey

Can someone tell me if the applicant has to make a call of enquiry or if the partner/sponsor can make the call.

Thanks

Originally Posted by j4v3d

I guess they won't be using Apple Macs! Then again they could be, all that money they could each buy a Macbook and new iPhone X.