ABCeasyas123

Sorry this is lengthy... Has anyone had any experience with the VFS "settlement priority visa" option which costs $780 USD (specifically NOT the Gold Package option of $1900)?

I submitted a spouse + dependents settlement application via the normal visa4uk website and followed the links to "register at commercial partner" which took me to the VFS site for the Los Angeles premium center. I was given a bunch of options to choose from including this $780 per person priority option and since I didn't need all the additional assistance offered with the Gold Package but we were in a hurry, I close the "Settlement Priority Visa" package at $780.

However, the man at the VFS confused me so much, I now have no idea whether we're going to be treated as Priority applicants or not in Sheffield. Earlier in the month all the other ASC locations in the US had apparently been suspended so he was literally sweating, trying to handle all the foot-traffic that had been diverted to his posh priority office. He said all kinds of weird things to me including but not limited to "we can't take your child's biometric photo here because he doesn't need fingerprints... oh wait what am I saying, yes we can" and "paying for priority service absolutely does not put your application to the front of the line in Sheffield. There is no such thing as priority in Sheffield, the only priority we provide is scanning your documents to get them to Sheffield faster" aaaaand the clencher "you need to pay an additional $1020 per application because we do not offer Priority Service here, we only offer Gold Priority Service.".

He went on to tell me I couldn't get a refund on my $780 (x3 for all applicants) and if I stopped payment on my card, Sheffield would treat it as suspicious and probably deny my application.

In the end, we got all the biometrics done there, send the application and supporting docs ourselves and I mailed the application in via UPS, I DID included the receipt from VFS and wrote "Priority Service Paid" on the envelope. But now I have no idea if we're going to be treated as priority applicants or not!

Anyone had any remotely similar experiences that might be useful for us to gain a common understanding of this weird situation?

Thank you!

BritInParis

If you paid for the service, wrote Priority on the envelope and included your receipt then, yes, you should be given priority processing.

ABCeasyas123

Hi BritInParis, Thanks for your reply. It sounds very logical but I'm assuming in reality it's as illogical as the rest of the application process. Do you have first-hand experience of this kind of priority service specifically? Ideally I'm trying to see if something similar has been told to anyone else at a VFS center and what their outcome was in the end.

60minuteman

I paid priority in cash at VFS but didn't mark it as priority or include the receipt, I wasn't told to and presumed they would mark the application priority in some way.... We will see!

ABCeasyas123

Good luck @60minuteman! The only reason I marked the envelope was because I'd read so many of these threads with folks saying that's how they'd done it but like you I wasn't told to do it officially either so who knows if it helps... Time will tell I suppose...

60minuteman

Thank's, I'm 15 days in....waiting