stickinthemud

Hi Fellow Visa Strugglers,

I finally reached UK Visas on the telephone after an hour and a quarter wait. She could not tell me what stage my spousal visa was at, just promise to "escalate" it...which I had already done and it means nothing. They just send you a note saying they are working on it.

However I pointedly asked her what applicants who call her are saying. It turns out that people have rung saying they have been waiting 5 months or 6 months and have still not heard back or got their UK spousal visa. She said no one said 7 months...because they always called before that.

I have been waiting five months and wish I had known before the wait time was this long. Mine is a spousal settlement visa going through the New York office. And it was non-priority. And I did not use any VFS Global services (Is this retaliation?). I see people on this site using the priority service are getting their visas faster. I don't know if this long wait applies to all visas. I got an email acknowledgement that they received my visa application more than 3 months after it arrived at the New York office by UPS.

If others are getting theirs faster it would be good to know. But be warned when you are planning for this. Good luck and best to all

Sheryl

SanDiegogirl

Even in good times the 'standard' time for processing was 12 weeks - and that was not guaranteed; so following a pandemic when many offices were closed etc the wait is going to be much much longer.
I've also noticed that applications from the US take longer than normal.
People pay a lot more for priority service - hence they get their visas more quickly.

jmin

The priority service is a premium service that results in a faster processing time, currently within 30 days in the USA. If you pay for the service, you will receive your decision much more quickly. Also, when people know that there is a slowdown - such as now - more choose to use the priority service which could lead to regular applications taking even longer.

Offering the priority service costs the UK nothing, it's pure profit and allows them to charge those willing to pay more. This is then used to fund non-fee based services. It's the same situation for what you applied for as well, what you pay is far above the cost to process the application.

I sympathize after waiting for 6 months for something else that typically takes 2.

stickinthemud

HI, An update. At last the UK spousal visa arrived! It was 5 1/2 months since applying, and 4 1/2 months since submitting fingerprints etc. What a relief. I hope others are getting results also. Sheryl