MERGED: Spouse Visa Issues with Sheffield +Spouse Visa Chat Thread.
Sep 21st 2017, 8:33 am
#1156
Just Joined
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 25
Re: MERGED: Spouse Visa Issues with Sheffield +Spouse Visa Chat Thread.
Who applying past 2 months (July august)they received decision and we are waiting here more than 93 days
Sep 21st 2017, 10:10 am
#1158
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 133
Re: MERGED: Spouse Visa Issues with Sheffield +Spouse Visa Chat Thread.
I still have about ten weeks before I get in that situation just trying to get some info to be prepared in case it gets there (fingers crossed it doesn't). I received the non straightforward email about two weeks ago, I do have a previous refusal due to some missing financial documents. We decided to re apply with a fresh application rather than appeal and provided all documents. Don't know if the refusal has put me at the bottom of the pile.
Sep 21st 2017, 10:17 am
#1160
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 133
Re: MERGED: Spouse Visa Issues with Sheffield +Spouse Visa Chat Thread.
Funnily enough, there's also a question on that issue in Parliament this week https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans...9158.h&s=Visas
Complete with the process for requesting a refund.
Matt.
Complete with the process for requesting a refund.
Matt.
Sep 21st 2017, 10:31 am
#1161
Forum Regular
Joined: Aug 2017
Posts: 109
Re: Sheffield Settlement Visa +90 Day Delays
One of the purposes of being here is that we can monitor each others progress as once we are over the 100 day mark we are in to the unknown. Non of us know whether our applications will be looked before the 120 day mark as part of the revised service level agreement. Nobody on this thread has had a decision and are discussing ways collectively were to go next. I think momentum will build considerably if nothing is done by working day 120.
I can see there is growing discontent on the http://britishexpats.com/forum/citiz...899315/page77/ thread
Looks like a lot of people are reaching the 120 working days (24 weeks) mark and we need all of those people to be identified and add throw their hat in to this thread so we have act as a collective very soon.
If we can all try and spot those who are 90 working days and over on the thread mentioned above. Can we please ask them to add their details on this thread so we can come together quickly if the time arrives.
Sep 21st 2017, 10:52 am
#1162
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 225
Re: Sheffield Settlement Visa +90 Day Delays
Hi
I can see there is growing discontent on the http://britishexpats.com/forum/citiz...899315/page77/ thread
Looks like a lot of people are reaching the 120 working days (24 weeks) mark and we need all of those people to be identified and add throw their hat in to this thread so we have act as a collective very soon.
If we can all try and spot those who are 90 working days and over on the thread mentioned above. Can we please ask them to add their details on this thread so we can come together quickly if the time arrives.
I can see there is growing discontent on the http://britishexpats.com/forum/citiz...899315/page77/ thread
Looks like a lot of people are reaching the 120 working days (24 weeks) mark and we need all of those people to be identified and add throw their hat in to this thread so we have act as a collective very soon.
If we can all try and spot those who are 90 working days and over on the thread mentioned above. Can we please ask them to add their details on this thread so we can come together quickly if the time arrives.
Last edited by garyede; Sep 21st 2017 at 10:55 am. Reason: bad grammar
Sep 21st 2017, 10:55 am
#1163
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 53
Re: MERGED: Spouse Visa Issues with Sheffield +Spouse Visa Chat Thread.
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,
Sep 21st 2017, 11:21 am
#1164
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 225
Re: MERGED: Spouse Visa Issues with Sheffield +Spouse Visa Chat Thread.
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,
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,
Sep 21st 2017, 11:24 am
#1165
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 86
Re: Sheffield Settlement Visa +90 Day Delays
@garyeye: you did mention about IHS payment request for your daughter in the email to your MP. We paid promptly after received that email on 60th day, thought we might hear the decision after a few days. More than 3 weeks since, nothing!
Sep 21st 2017, 11:32 am
#1166
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 225
Re: Sheffield Settlement Visa +90 Day Delays
Sep 21st 2017, 11:32 am
#1167
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 52
Re: Sheffield Settlement Visa +90 Day Delays
I have been chasing the call centre through phone and email. I got this today:
Dear xxxx
Thank you for contacting UK Visas and Immigration International Contact Centre.
With regards to your enquiry about the status of your application, I can confirm that your application is being considered and is currently awaiting a decision.
Please note that we aim to complete 90% of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within 6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days) and 95% of settlement applications within 12 weeks of the application date and 100% within 24 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days).
Regards,
Dear xxxx
Thank you for contacting UK Visas and Immigration International Contact Centre.
With regards to your enquiry about the status of your application, I can confirm that your application is being considered and is currently awaiting a decision.
Please note that we aim to complete 90% of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within 6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days) and 95% of settlement applications within 12 weeks of the application date and 100% within 24 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days).
Regards,
Sep 21st 2017, 11:36 am
#1168
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 86
Re: Sheffield Settlement Visa +90 Day Delays
That is interesting because normally from all of the posts I have read the applicant who gets the email to pay the IHS fee has been successful and shortly after receive their visa. I am optimistic for you let me know if your successful. I would be surprised if you were asked to pay the fee when you are going to get a refusal because as you probably know a refusal means you get your IHS payment(s) back.
Sep 21st 2017, 11:39 am
#1169
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 225
Re: Sheffield Settlement Visa +90 Day Delays
I have been chasing the call centre through phone and email. I got this today:
Dear xxxx
Thank you for contacting UK Visas and Immigration International Contact Centre.
With regards to your enquiry about the status of your application, I can confirm that your application is being considered and is currently awaiting a decision.
Please note that we aim to complete 90% of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within 6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days) and 95% of settlement applications within 12 weeks of the application date and 100% within 24 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days).
Regards,
Dear xxxx
Thank you for contacting UK Visas and Immigration International Contact Centre.
With regards to your enquiry about the status of your application, I can confirm that your application is being considered and is currently awaiting a decision.
Please note that we aim to complete 90% of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within 6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days) and 95% of settlement applications within 12 weeks of the application date and 100% within 24 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days).
Regards,
Sep 21st 2017, 11:40 am
#1170
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 52
Re: MERGED: Spouse Visa Issues with Sheffield +Spouse Visa Chat Thread.
I have been chasing the call centre through phone and email. I got this today:
Dear xxxx
Thank you for contacting UK Visas and Immigration International Contact Centre.
With regards to your enquiry about the status of your application, I can confirm that your application is being considered and is currently awaiting a decision.
Please note that we aim to complete 90% of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within 6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days) and 95% of settlement applications within 12 weeks of the application date and 100% within 24 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days).
Regards,
Dear xxxx
Thank you for contacting UK Visas and Immigration International Contact Centre.
With regards to your enquiry about the status of your application, I can confirm that your application is being considered and is currently awaiting a decision.
Please note that we aim to complete 90% of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within 6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days) and 95% of settlement applications within 12 weeks of the application date and 100% within 24 weeks of the application date (where 1 week is 5 working days).
Regards,
