Timothy Tao wrote: ↑Thu Jan 24, 2019 3:09 pm
Hi Folks,
I finally received the decision email yesterday. Time scale: 27 Nov online application, SET(O), 28 Nov biometric enrolment. I am really NOT delighted at this moment thinking about how much effort I had to put, how unhappy I was while waiting and following this case, and how many people are still suffering from the awful government department UKVI. I will definitely follow up with continuous complaints on this.
I am a researcher at university. As I have been following this thread since beginning, read all 92 pages of the posts, contributed 20+myself, and actually tried a lot of things myself. I consider myself have some real experience with this now and would like to share with you.
(1) Telephone escalation to UKVI service centre (03001232241, option 4 and then option 1) would not work at all. This conclusion is true no matter you are talking to a nice person (most probably a new staff) or you are talking to a bad person (most probably an experience elder staff). The truth is that your escalation will not reach/affect the casework team at UKVI. You will only get an automatically generated email response after checking Yes (decision has been made) or No (your application is still under consideration, which is the case to most of us here). Saying "it is within 6 months service standard" or saying "we're unable to decide within 24 hours decision..." doesn't make any difference, this is just a "click and send" operation by an operator at the UKVI service centre (not the caseworker) after received the requested update from UKVI casework team (it is still under consideration). The operator doesn't have any information to the issue of your application, the only information the operator has is whether your application is done or not done. Then the operator selects a type of generic email replies, and click "send".
(2) In theory, you cannot escalate for the second time within 5 working days and once you got an update (the so-called generic email), you are not eligible to raise an escalation again within 30 working days. However, if a new staff (i.e. unexperienced staff, as most of them are) picked up your phone, that person may raise an escalation for you regardless of the rules. This information is from several senior staffs at the call centre. Once again, these do not really matter because (1).
(3) The reason for a lengthy delay (1+month) is not strictly relevant to the nature of your case. I saw various reasons or no reason for cases to be allocated to an administrative check. However, the length of the check is probably relevant to the complexity of your case.
(4) My guess of the ultimate length of the administrative check is 8 weeks, I have not seen anyone not receiving a "visa granted" decision after 8 weeks. This doesn't include those who have serious issues which may result in a refusal.
(5) There are three ways at the moment could potentially push your case forward if you are in a hurry to get the visa.
(5.1)Complaint to
complaints@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk or
complaints@homeoffice.gov.uk and wait for 20 working days.
(5.2) Write to
SRSUKVACS@homeoffice.gov.uk and they will forward your complaints to the UKVI casework team.
(5.3) Write to your local MP, they can help to chase your case via their direct connection to the UKVI MPs team.
(5.1) is not definately proven to be useful in my case, because I have not received a reply of the complaint until now. I guess (5.2) is similar, although they forwarded my email to the UKVI casework team, I have not received any reply as well. (5.3) contributed the most in my case, since my local MP is really really helpful, called every 3 days, wrote two formal letters to UKVI. However, this is only my guess. The UKVI MPs team has more information and access to our case but again cannot influence the casework team directly. The written letter from your MP would do, but that takes a long time as well (probably slightly faster than 20 working days, my MP still has not received any written response from UKVI to his 2 letters yet). Therefore, my guess is (3)and (4) may still hold, no matter what you do.
I will continue to complaint to UKVI together with my local MP even I have received a decision now.
...we were the November team, who had to wait the longest...happy to see others also got theirs like Madihaali, eagle123 etc...patience but it was hard...so just don’t give up, no point sitting idle- for me it was clearly my MP’s involvement and the letter from UKVI MP’s team did suggest that...now waiting for the refund