Originally Posted by Colesy898

I received this below from our lawyer the other day. I know it's not new news but good to see UKVI are admitting that they are short staffed. It's interesting though that they say the most affected are European visas but from what I have read on this thread most are applying from outside Europe and we are still getting massive delays. We are now on working day 17/18 and paid priority but it sound like we are going to be waiting a while longer

"The UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) is currently experiencing unprecedented increase in some application categories workload. According to the statistics, the most affected category is the European applications.
UKVI openly admits lack of caseworkers and staff in general and is, therefore, sometimes unable to make a decision within its published timeline of 15 working days for entry clearance applications, and 6 months for all the in-country applications"

Originally Posted by Colesy898

I also have this

"How you contact UK Visas and Immigration is changing. From 1 June, all customer enquiries will be handled by a new commercial partner Sitel UK."

If this is an external company I am interested to know how much information they will be able to provide regarding an update on an application. I am keen to contact them to get an update because I have heard many horrible stories of UKVI 'misplacing' documents so I want to make sure mine ours is actually being looked at. I don't however want to spend £1.37 per minute on hold for half an hour to tell me nothing more than I already know.

Has anyone tried to call for an update since the changes on the 1st? And if so how long were you on hold and did you get a reasonable response to your query?

Originally Posted by BEVS

Hi all.

As a rule BritishExpats does not encourage timeline threads as they are somewhat pointless given that all applications will be on a case by case basis and processing times will be what they will be.

Note: The above applies to all countries . There will only ever be so many staff to deal with so many cases. It is always a case of patience is a virtue until or unless the wait time goes way way beyond the processing time guidelines & there has been no contact as has been pointed out by BritInParis and other posters.

If you have an actual question about this visa or the process then that is fine. Please no more posts simply asking for updates where there are none.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Untraceablebr

Hi mate I tried the old service a few weeks back on a few occasions, pretty useless, they only have limited access to your application.... The information they give you is not always accurate and all they can do is escalate your case if you have no response regarding your application..... tried both phone and email safe to say I'm £80 poorer and know nothing new. You are better off contacting your MP once 3 month period has passed or priority service standards...... Yes UKVI does misplace documents as it happened to us and if you have placed a covering letter detailing what documents are provided they will normally contact you requesting the missing documents.

Originally Posted by Colesy898

Thanks for the heads up, I don't think I will waste my money then. Will have to keep waiting. I think it's the not knowing that is worse than actually waiting. Had we just done this a few months ago there might not have been so many delays!

Originally Posted by Untraceablebr

You never know so keep positive! They will resolve it and if they need to contact you they will. As hard as it sounds sometimes you have to sit back and let them get on with it. You can't really do anything until the full 3 month period has passed and you have not had any contact from them.. that's when you can act and some form of action gets taken.

Originally Posted by Colesy898

Do you know if it's still the full three months I have to wait even if I paid priority? My lawyer mentioned they are able to send a complaint after 4 weeks (which is this week) but she is away until next week which is frustrating. I know other people have been waiting a lot longer than me. I'm not very good at sitting back and letting them get on with it, I'm too impatient!!

Originally Posted by Untraceablebr

Hi Mate, well my lawyer put in a complaint after 5 weeks and we used priority service but they didn't reply. It seems my hold up was due to a document that went missing and a communication problem sending the requested documents. If you meet all the financial requirements and your application is straightforward and clear from the latest (freedom of information request from the home office) your application will get decided. I just used a link online from the gov.uk website that gives you information regarding your application and ours has been decided 2 days ago! They say your visa can take up to 3 months and they say each case can vary depending on circumstances and that applies to priority services as well there is no guarantee on time scales everything is (we aim). Where did you apply from?

Originally Posted by Colesy898

So I gave in and called them!! They said it was passed for a desision on the 15th (where as the tracking website I use said it had been passed for a decision on the 11th) so I am now counting my 15 working says from the 15 which I think would have been yesterday. As expected she didn't know much she just said "you should have a decision soon". We applied from outside the UK so can't use gov.uk to track it. I'm hoping everything is ok with the application docs as our lawyer went through everything and organised it all for us.
Even though I haven't really learned anything different to what I new before I feel better after calling them just knowing that someone has it somewhere, in a pile of other applications!

Originally Posted by Untraceablebr

We applied from outside the UK. And yes you can track it, check this link because it works for me

https://contact-ukvi.homeoffice.gov....heckvisastatus

Originally Posted by Colesy898

Yeah that's the one I tried the other day, just tried again and it still says application number not recognised. I have tried a few different types of number that it says you can use, but it still doesn't work

Originally Posted by Untraceablebr

Strange, when I tried it the other day it didn't work even with all the different reference numbers.... Tried it tonight and worked straight away. I'd keep trying it daily it might just work for you. Well good to know yours is heading for decision. You'll get the application is with a entry clearance officer to decide your case email followed shortly (2-7days) after by application decision made email.... Again that's my experience what I have had in the past, everyone is different and depends on locations... Good luck and keep us posted, I'm just waiting for the documents posted email now

Originally Posted by Colesy898

Do you not find out the decision until they send the documents back? I thought it would say in the email! I think I will explode if that's the case, I'm already going crazy waiting as it is!! Good Luck with yours!