ICFN card

Hi

I submitted an application for Change of Personal Details on the 22nd July to the Durham branch of UKBA and received a letter, dated 27th July inviting me for a biometric appointment, which I attended on the 6th August.

I have a pre-planned holiday next weekend.

My application was the result of having received my new South African passport in my married name a full 9 weeks earlier than expected and of course, once I picked it up, my maiden name passport was cancelled. I then realised that I needed to change my ICFN card to match my married name in my new passport, even though the UKBA customer service line TWICE advised me to travel first and then only do the application to change the card once I got back because of the time delay! Can you believe that? Terrible advice!

Anyway, I sent a very nice letter with my original application explaining the circumstances and included a copy of my itinerary showing travel next weekend. I was given a brochure at the PEO to say that I should receive my decision letter and original documents back within 10 days, and then my card will follow. It's now 2 weeks since my appointment and I've received nothing at all and of course, they won't help you when you phone, because it seems to be a bit of a grey area as to which department actually deals with this kind of application. I was advised, however, that I should receive the card first, then my original documents back, which is not the guidance on their website.

I've been advised to send a fax asking them to treat my application as urgent, which I did do initially and have done twice this week.

The timescale given is 4-14 weeks, as with any application, but I can't understand how a simple change of name takes this long? It's exactly 4 weeks today since they received my docs.

Has anybody else had to do a rush job and asked them nicely to treat their app as urgent? Interested to know what the likelihood is of them taking my request into consideration.

I'm still optimistic for now, but after tomorrow, if I don't have any docs yet, I don't think I will be and I feel that we'll have to forfeit our trip

Any advice appreciated!

Thanks,
Lindsay

P.S. I just read something VERY exciting! (To me at least!)

I'm due to apply for ILR in December and am very concerned about the processing time for the ICFN then, because I have a flight out to South Africa for Christmas on the 15th December and the earliest I can apply is the 8th, so basically, a week. Thankfully, my husband is only flying out a week after me, so I figured that if it takes slightly longer than a week to arrive, he'd be here to collect it for me and bring out to SA so that I can have it on me when I arrive back.

BUT... I've just read that ICFN cards are not issued for ILR applications and that this is put directly into my passport like the old-style visas. Is that true? I'm incredibly excited if that is true, because that means my stressing can simmer down a bit!

lkpone wrote:BUT... I've just read that ICFN cards are not issued for ILR applications and that this is put directly into my passport like the old-style visas. Is that true?

I believe it is .... irrespective of the route to settlement (e.g. - economic migrant, spouse etc.).

regards