hbhb77

My partner had his biometrics for his spouse visa done on the 1st Feb in New York and our documents received in Sheffield email was received on the 13th Feb.

We paid priority and our lawyer has confirmed that she made this super clear on the application.

It has now been 39 business days and we have not heard anything - we have not been asked for additional information or been told that we our case is not straightforward.

We cannot think what the delay is and have seen many people who applied after us receiving their answer.

Did anyone else experience this? Do we have any idea what the reasons might be? The only thing we can think of is that the lawyer said that some people have deeper checks done on them? Or are we just unlucky? Don't know what to think! We know the 30 days is not guaranteed but we have seen a lot of people on these forums over take us.

mikelincs

We have a specific thread devoted to timelines of spouse visas and that should give you a better idea of what is happening.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/citiz...o-chat-899214/

hbhb77

Thanks - I have been following the timelines closely but as there is no chat allowed on the thread I was hoping to gain a bit more context to people's experiences. From the thread I can see that quite a lot of people who filed priority at the same time or after us have had their decisions.

I was wondering if anyone who has had the same experience as us has any ideas of why some applications are held up vs others? We can't think of any reasons why we are taking so long and have not heard anything so would be interesting to understand other people's stories, if they suspected any reasons and if they got approved in the end!

BritInParis

52% of settlement applications are processed in 30 days, 95% in 60 days so your current waiting time isn’t particularly unusual. Are you now married to your sponsor?

hbhb77

Yes we are married. The difference is that we have paid for Priority so should be within the 30 days (though this is not guaranteed) and we can see that most people who pay for priority are handled in this time. Both priority and non-priority are included in the statistics you quote.

BritInParis

Priority just means your application is moved to the front of the queue for processing so if 80% of applicants opt to pay priority then you’re really no further forward.

hbhb77

Thank you. Yes I understand that, although we have seen multiple people who applied after us who have received a response. I therefore question if there are other reasons we might be delayed as we clearly are not being dealt with at the front of the queue.

BritInParis

Possibly but without knowing more about the circumstances of your application and those you are comparing yourself to it’s difficult to say.

hbhb77

OK - our lawyer said our case should be straightforward. We just have not heard of anyone who pays priority and is waiting this long without getting either a "non-straightforward" email or being asked for additional evidence so was wondering if this case case or not as I can't see many people in a similar position.

BritInParis

Comparing yourself to others is not a particularly helpful exercise. Every application will be different and a huge range of factors can affect your processing time. All you can do at this point is be patient and wait for a decision.

EDIYYZ

Hi Hbhb77,

I am currently in the same position as you. Today has marked my 30th business day, and I haven't received another email since getting confirmation that my application is with the decision making centre. I believe that I'll hear something soon. My solicitor also advised that we should hear something within 30 business days but there was no guarantee. We also paid for priority. I think due to Easter holidays there might be a backup of documents. I am no expert, but I'll wait patiently. I do believe we'll hear something soon. Unfortunately, it's just not fast enough. After stressing for the last two weeks, I've decided to just let the process take it's course. There is nothing I can physically do to expedite my application. Paying for priority increases the chances of receiving our passports sooner, but looking at the timeline forum, it seems like a lot of people have chosen priority. I guess that's where the no guarantee comes in.