Sammy2018

We have a company in the Uk assisting with my husbands spousal visa application he is a US citizen . The company assisting us has all his supporting documents and did completed the online application on Friday they also did the health care surcharge made his appointment for his biometrics and paid the priority fee.
We paid for courier service and the shipping labels I printed from VFS show the address as the New York hub.
my question is
The company has indicated we can send his biometric and passport info to the New York scanning Hub after his biometric appt tomorrow and they will send the supporting documents sepetalty within the specified timeframe to the New York Hub scanning office
Or
I can send them the biometric confirmation and passport and they will submit the latter and the supporting info together to the New York Hub scanning office

Thoughts on which is the better option ... I am concerned if they go separately something may go wrong and there is a delay.
i am also unsure on who will return the documents willthe New York scanning office return the documents or is it Sheffield.

The letter regarding the biometric appt also says
From October 31st 2018 you have the option to upload your own supporting evidence using your cellphone tablet or desktop rather than sending to the UKVI scanning hub. You still need to send your passport to the scanning hub. If you would like to try this service please paste .... into your browser and follow the instructions ...

thanks in advance for any feedback

toutdesuite

Hi Sammy, this is based on my personal limited experience, but I would submit all of the documentation, including the passport and biometric confirmation together as one package. My experience applying for a spouse visa is of a disorganized process rife with contradictory information, and the last thing you want is for important documents to be separated and never reunited. As for the option to self-upload documents, I don't recommend it AT ALL. I tried it--spending several days uploading hundreds of pages of documents because their upload speeds are glacial. Then, when it came time to "check out" there was no way to continue without purchasing a bunch of add-ons from VFS that I didn't need, and there was no option to purchase the one option I actually wanted--priority service for settlement visas. So, I purchased priority separately and sent a package of original documents and copies to the NY Scanning Hub. I'm on 15 BD since biometrics with no news. I think that the USA processing times are lagging because of the switch from processing in Sheffield to processing in NYC. Anyway, good luck with your application. I hope you hear good news soon!

Sammy2018

toutdesuite

Yours is a very good question. At the time I submitted my documents, on 19 November, I thought I was sending them to a scanning center that would send them onwards to decision makers in Sheffield. Now I'm not so sure because I haven't received the email that others mention: "Your application is being prepared for consideration by and entry clearance officer." Those who sent their documents to Sheffield in late summer and early fall seemed to receive those emails soon after filing their documents, and their decisions seem to come promptly when they paid for priority service. Others who sent their documents to New York and didn't receive the confirmation email, like A3am, seem to be waiting a long time!! I'm worried my application is in that camp...limbo. My husband is a British Citizen and leaving for the UK to start his new job on 26 December with or without me and our daughter. I hope we will not be separated but it's looking more likely that's the case. I called UKVI today for a status update and--BIG SURPRISE!--my application is "in process" and the woman I spoke with told me I could call back on the 30th BD to escalate it. To me, that says that they're going to wait until the 30th BD to start reviewing the application. I hope your experience is better than mine has been so far!

Sammy2018