Information on Early Decision

I received the following email today:

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your e-mail. We received the Urgent treatment form on the
28/06/07. A decision was made on your application on the 02/07/07 and
your decision letter and documents were dispatched via Air Mail.

Please allow up to 12 weeks for Air mail to reach its destination.

Unfortunately due to security reasons, I cannot disclose the decision
via e-mail.

Kind Regards

I had requested for an early decision because I am required to report for a job on 11 July 2007. Obviously, I CAN'T wait to know the HSMP decision by "up to 12 weeks"!

How can I find out earlier what they have decided?

Thanks.

You can't, maybe if you call and beg, they might humour you.
But you need the decision letter anyway to get into the UK
and was this HSMP or EC, if its hsmp, then you have to do ec anyway so there is no point of hyperventilating

I just wanted to express my sympathies! If I'd received that email when I was still waiting, I'd have cried...torture.

*But* - I'm going to guess that the "12 weeks" is just the HO giving themselves a buffer so you don't call nagging them every day. You might get your stuff back sooner - much sooner.

Hang in there!

Amy

1400 Years wrote:I received the following email today:

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your e-mail. We received the Urgent treatment form on the
28/06/07. A decision was made on your application on the 02/07/07 and
your decision letter and documents were dispatched via Air Mail.

Please allow up to 12 weeks for Air mail to reach its destination.

Unfortunately due to security reasons, I cannot disclose the decision
via e-mail.

Kind Regards

I had requested for an early decision because I am required to report for a job on 11 July 2007. Obviously, I CAN'T wait to know the HSMP decision by "up to 12 weeks"!

How can I find out earlier what they have decided?

Thanks.

Yeah it does defeat of early decision, if the paperwork takes 12 weeks to arrive but indeed that's the worst case scenario and it depends on the country. I'd get the mail tracking number if there is one and check to see its progress.

Oh...but I typed too fast! Not enough coffee yet today. Given that the 11th is 7 working days away and you still have to get EC, I'd suggest you talk to your new employer and explain the situation...while I do think you'll get your docs back sooner than 12 weeks, it seems unlikely that you'll have full EC approval by next Wednesday.

1400 Years wrote:I received the following email today:

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your e-mail. We received the Urgent treatment form on the
28/06/07. A decision was made on your application on the 02/07/07 and
your decision letter and documents were dispatched via Air Mail.

Please allow up to 12 weeks for Air mail to reach its destination.

Unfortunately due to security reasons, I cannot disclose the decision
via e-mail.

Kind Regards

I had requested for an early decision because I am required to report for a job on 11 July 2007. Obviously, I CAN'T wait to know the HSMP decision by "up to 12 weeks"!

How can I find out earlier what they have decided?

Thanks.

Why not just ring the customer service centre?

Try your luck!!!
Call them at +44-114-207-4074. I am sure no one answers the call because I have been trying to call from UK. All I do it hold and wait for someone to answers and listen to my woes.

You might want to try to get connected to your caseworker or his/her manager, to determine the status of the application. After all, you actually don't yet know the decision, so some word on the status might help you plan your next steps (plan for a review if it's been refused, or discuss with your prospective employer re: a delay in the start date to get through EC).
AG

Thank you for your suggestion to call them ...

... but prior to posting on this board, I had spent a fortune on phone cards in trying to get some human being to respond on the telephone ...

... to no avail.

And just how does one access the caseworker/their manager when they won't respond to emails either?!

While I understand that they receive calls from all over the world all the time, this we-won't-repond-or-even-pick-up-the-phone attitude is not only a travesty but preposterous too.

hi 1400 Years, what times of day have you tried to ring the HSMP people? I always had good luck getting someone on the phone between 3 and 4 p.m. UK time.

Do you get through to the recorded welcome message, or have you been hearing only ringing on the line and then getting charged by the phone card company? I never waited more than 8 mins. to speak to a real person after navigating the menu options in the recorded welcome message.

1400 Years wrote:I received the following email today:

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your e-mail. We received the Urgent treatment form on the
28/06/07. A decision was made on your application on the 02/07/07 and
your decision letter and documents were dispatched via Air Mail.

Please allow up to 12 weeks for Air mail to reach its destination.

Unfortunately due to security reasons, I cannot disclose the decision
via e-mail.

Kind Regards

I had requested for an early decision because I am required to report for a job on 11 July 2007. Obviously, I CAN'T wait to know the HSMP decision by "up to 12 weeks"!

How can I find out earlier what they have decided?

Thanks.

Did you get that reply from wpcustomers? or from hsmp.workpermits?

My understanding is that the former will now give decision by email. It might take a couple of days (& you might get an FAQ) but it's worth a try.

wpcustomers@ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
________
Smoke Kills

At first I called around 1-ish, then I'd call after 2-ish and then around 3-ish. By 4 to 4.15 they start some tape saying the office is closed!

And I would Press 1 for HSMP inquiries.

Wrong going?

It is a hit or miss type of thing but I remember reaching them from the us after keeping my finger on the redial button. I guess it helps if you have one of those systems that keeps redialing until you get a ringing phone in this instance.

To: WoodieG

It is from the hsmp.workpermits... address that I got the intimation from.

wpcustomers... address always "maelor-daemons" (bounces!) any email sent.

And they so explicitly state that due to security reasons, they won't convey the decision via email.

And receiving the FAQs list in response is going to be of no good; I have read the FAQs many times over. So what would I do with the FAQ link when they send it to me?

Ok then send them an email, and explain that you have tried to call but you can't get through and would really really appreciate if someone would call you or you can get a number to call to learn of the decision as you are clearly pulling your hair out.

I did that too - yesterday. Twice; and have just done it again; and have just received a mailer-daemon for the <wpcustomers@bia.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk> address.

That's the wrong email address! They had it on the website for a while by mistake, it might still be there in some places.

The real one is @ind.etc NOT @bia.etc

I sent my emails on the following addresses; the @bia... one bounced; the other ones received the emails all right:

wpcustomers@bia.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk,
WPCustomers <wpcustomers@ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>,
HSMP.Workpermits@ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Phoning Work Permits UK is a slow process, but once you get into the phone queue you need to stay on for a few minutes to be connected to an operator. Rather than using phone cards, try skype-out.

But it's no surprise that the phone lines are understaffed - knock-on effects of the earlier flooding were not unexpected, and Sheffield was quite badly affected.

AG

Hi 1400years,

I had called them quite a few times and was able to get the status or decision on phone. But its like tossing a coin. we don know which way it falls.

But giving this i was not told about my review decision which was taken today and they said i can get to know only through the airmail post which was already sent to me.

So go to wait.

all de best buddy.

Cheers
ikon

Thank you everyone! Your "giving an eye" has been supportive indeed! It's felt good to know that so many strangers out there empathise with one another.

Gordon, thank you for the Skype suggestion! Why didn't it occur to me before! Tomorrow, I'll sit still and spend my pounds on Skype Out, no worries!

And for those who might be curious about my latest barrage of emails to the HO ... there's been no response from them at all since yesterday.

Fingers crossed still .

ok, people. skype worked.

my hsmp application's been refused, she answered.

The refusal is unfortunate; perhaps the caseworker indicated the grounds for that refusal, which might be worth sending to review. In the interim, I hope that you are able to postpone your job offer while sorting this. Best wishes, AG

Received documents yesterday afternoon.

Scored 75 points, but could not meet the English language requirements; hence refused.

My IELTS had expired on 14.05.2007 (had scored 8.5 band) so sent along my MA English Literature (2 year certificate) and MBA (1.5 year certificate), which are considered equivalent to UK Bachelor degrees ... but then these, although considered equivalent to UK BA level degrees all right, for my country, these are considered higher level degrees (that's what they wrote citing NARIC).

The thing is that during my BA and BCommerce degrees (which I didn't send because these I thought aren't equivalent to UK Bachelor degrees) we were passive learners. More like cabbages than students. More than 120 students in the class, and the teacher blaring out stuff and no interaction from the students, no presentations, no quizzes - just mid term and final term exams and off we went. So to me these didn't fit the criteria of "displaying a level of competence in each of the four areas of language skills"; but in the MA English and MBA, we had lots of presentations, seminar-style classes, loads of quizzes and assignments which aptly and comprehensively exercised our English language skills ... and so ... out of dead [and foolish!] honesty, if you will ... I sent these degrees, along with a letter (as they require) from the MBA awarding institution. (The MA English Literature degree speaks for itself.)

Thus far, in all my travels abroad, I have never been rejected on any visa application because I have maintained dead honesty as I have known that these guys appreciate one's being upright about one's case; and I thought it should work this time too.

As supplementary evidence (not asked for, I know, but who knows what might suddenly work with these people - again from prior experience), I had also provided a CD of my voice overs in English, a short-short UK film I had played lead role in (film was in English), my English news bulletin clips as news anchor, and some of my newspaper and magazine articles (in English) that I had written from 1992 to 2004. Clearly they would have none of these!

I also have an MA English for Specific Purposes from University of Warwick, UK, and also taught and designed courses in English at the university for a year.

And then I had this job offer from University of Birmingham for work as Instructor of English - for which of course, I had to apply in English, be grilled in the interview session via conference telephone in English, and then be approved to teach English in English in one of the popular universities in Britain - but none of that worked as evidence for my all round English language skills.

But if I had sent in a degree certificate from more than 12 years ago in which we DIDN'T need to display any English language skills except pass the degree course by rote learning, I suppose they would have been convinced indeed about my language skills.

[And yet they wouldn't trust an IELTS score that expired only a month before the application was sent. (I wasn't relying on it though, which is why I sent in the degree certificates.)]

So, yes, I would appeal, but do you think the above arguments would be a strong bases?

Could I not, as a last sentence, write to them, that according to their published guidance book, they say that "we may ask an applicant to do the IELTS"; couldn't they have asked me to do that???

After all, all the rest of my credentials were well supported with evidence.

(Please do not get personal anyone; only pragmatic responses are welcomed. I erred out of [silly] honesty, but there we are.)

Dear 1400 Years,

I do appreciate the fact that you possess very strong command over the language. But please do realise that a caseworker has to go by the rule book and hardly has any discretion, whatsoever, while deciding the HSMP VISA cases.

I don’t want to get personal here but I want to point out that if instead of submitting all the additional evidence, had you submitted the "required" proof, you would have got the approval.

Also try to understand that a caseworker is like a pre-programmed robot and one may very well argue that he does not have the capability to judge the English language competency of an applicant based on a piece of a recital presented on a CD !! In fact he may even be a person who has very basic communication skills BUT he for sure can assess an application by running through his checklist and seeing whether or not the IELTS/(Bachelors Certificate) is included.

So, coming to the point of whether you can appeal against the decision - Yes you can but based on the evidence you have, I am of the opinion that it will again be a not so pleasing result for you.

Best Regards,