**** COVID19 and UKVCAS Appointments **** (ONLY discuss here)

Yeah and then they were really fast to re-introduce the Minimum Income Requirement from 1 August 2020 and increase the immigration health surcharge from £400 per annum to £640 per annum from October 2020 in the middle of pandemic.

UK as a state did what they had to do during pandemic to rescue its citizens. Just because they did good things doesn't mean that people won't point out the bad things. They failed when it came to the order of things in regards of UKVCAS appointments and biometric reuse. And this topic is about UKVCAS appointments only. Let's not talk about out of topic stuff.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 12:27 pm

They actually did plenty. They were dealing with the urgency of people stuck in the UK unable to travel back to home countries before their visas expired. They were working on repatriating 1000s of British citizens stuck abroad. Some/many were deployed to other departments to help there, such as HMRC/DWP etc for the 1000s of UC claims and furlough stuff resulting form the pandemic. In all of this, they limited teams were still emailing many applicants for documents to be sent through to start working on applications across the many immigration categories.

tbp wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 1:29 pm

Yeah and then they were really fast to re-introduce the Minimum Income Requirement from 1 August 2020 and increase the immigration health surcharge from £400 per annum to £640 per annum from October 2020 in the middle of pandemic.

UK as a state did what they had to do during pandemic to rescue its citizens. Just because they did good things doesn't mean that people won't point out the bad things. They failed when it came to the order of things in regards of UKVCAS appointments and biometric reuse. And this topic is about UKVCAS appointments only. Let's not talk about out of topic stuff.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 12:27 pm

They actually did plenty. They were dealing with the urgency of people stuck in the UK unable to travel back to home countries before their visas expired. They were working on repatriating 1000s of British citizens stuck abroad. Some/many were deployed to other departments to help there, such as HMRC/DWP etc for the 1000s of UC claims and furlough stuff resulting form the pandemic. In all of this, they limited teams were still emailing many applicants for documents to be sent through to start working on applications across the many immigration categories.

Exactly right, just because a couple of good things were done - doesn't change the fact that a lot of incompetence has been displayed.

kuultechy29 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:52 am

VikasMandal wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:47 am

kuultechy29 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:35 am

No offense again to anyone but this was purely my choice as they have not given any update on biometric reuse for 4 weeks now and I lost one employer and on verge od loosing another one.

The cost is around £3575 for mqin applicant where sopra will come to your location to take biometrics.

Do they give VIP appointments even if you are qualified for biometric reuse?

Yes you can!

Unfortunately this is not true- i checked now and dont let you book a VIP service if you are already in bio metric re-use pool.

Tony34 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 2:49 pm

kuultechy29 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:52 am

VikasMandal wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:47 am

kuultechy29 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:35 am

No offense again to anyone but this was purely my choice as they have not given any update on biometric reuse for 4 weeks now and I lost one employer and on verge od loosing another one.

The cost is around £3575 for mqin applicant where sopra will come to your location to take biometrics.

Do they give VIP appointments even if you are qualified for biometric reuse?

Yes you can!

Unfortunately this is not true- i checked now and dont let you book a VIP service if you are already in bio metric re-use pool.

VIP appointment cannot be booked from UKVCAS website, You have to request a quote and UKVCAS agents will book it for you from the backend

As Vikas said above, you cannot book from UkVCAS website, you have to email them and then they will give you a quote and availability.

I am told for covid, they have added another £650 for nothing.

I got a quote for £3600 approx.

kuultechy29 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 3:51 pm

As Vikas said above, you cannot book from UkVCAS website, you have to email them and then they will give you a quote and availability.

I am told for covid, they have added another £650 for nothing.

I got a quote for £3600 approx.

Yes they get a pack of wet wipes and a bottle of sanitizer , £650 extra for this

It feels like some people here can not understand the pain and agony others have to go through when their life is in limbo and hanging by a thread.

tbp wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 1:29 pm

Yeah and then they were really fast to re-introduce the Minimum Income Requirement from 1 August 2020 and increase the immigration health surcharge from £400 per annum to £640 per annum from October 2020 in the middle of pandemic.

UK as a state did what they had to do during pandemic to rescue its citizens. Just because they did good things doesn't mean that people won't point out the bad things. They failed when it came to the order of things in regards of UKVCAS appointments and biometric reuse. And this topic is about UKVCAS appointments only. Let's not talk about out of topic stuff.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 12:27 pm

They actually did plenty. They were dealing with the urgency of people stuck in the UK unable to travel back to home countries before their visas expired. They were working on repatriating 1000s of British citizens stuck abroad. Some/many were deployed to other departments to help there, such as HMRC/DWP etc for the 1000s of UC claims and furlough stuff resulting form the pandemic. In all of this, they limited teams were still emailing many applicants for documents to be sent through to start working on applications across the many immigration categories.

AnILRApplicant wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:15 am

atao wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 29, 2020 8:47 am

Believe me it's not only limited to this forum, people are complaining over Twitter as well newsreporters etc. and noone holds no shame to respond to anyone from UKVCAS and UKVI end. We all understand that things are not "normal" so we don't expect quick turnarounds however a basic business today can predict their customer base and service timelines - simple data science. With them, they don't even have to predict anything, they know how many applicants caused backlog and how long it will take them to turn them around with limited capacity, but they don't want to publish any information - no idea what the reason would be. I have to say good bye to my dream job this week becuase they don't want to hangaround in uncertainty waiting for me to get my ILR and they don't sponsor visas either. I feel really sorry for people who are not able to see their newborns or sick relatives. We are all affected by this one way or another and now I cannot focus on anything but keep refreshing all the pages all day long. Good luck everyone.

When did you apply for your ILR? Are you in the re-use camp? Can you ask them to extend until September/October? I'm in the same boat as you - I have had my dream job waiting for me since April! I told them last month that I am unsure of when I'd get my ILR and told them to give me until October . I honestly believe by the end of August, most people waiting would have had a decision.

Don't be afraid to plead! Tell them you'll read & prep on the side before starting so you'll be able to hit the ground running. Anyway, I'd say don't send a defeatist email/message. You're still very keen and you're a victim of circumstances beyond your control. Any good workplace that offered you a job in the first place should be able to wait for you.

Are you extending your current Tier2 till October? Would this be sufficient as "foreseeable future" for ILR application?

Desiro wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 30, 2020 8:47 pm

AnILRApplicant wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:15 am

atao wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 29, 2020 8:47 am

Believe me it's not only limited to this forum, people are complaining over Twitter as well newsreporters etc. and noone holds no shame to respond to anyone from UKVCAS and UKVI end. We all understand that things are not "normal" so we don't expect quick turnarounds however a basic business today can predict their customer base and service timelines - simple data science. With them, they don't even have to predict anything, they know how many applicants caused backlog and how long it will take them to turn them around with limited capacity, but they don't want to publish any information - no idea what the reason would be. I have to say good bye to my dream job this week becuase they don't want to hangaround in uncertainty waiting for me to get my ILR and they don't sponsor visas either. I feel really sorry for people who are not able to see their newborns or sick relatives. We are all affected by this one way or another and now I cannot focus on anything but keep refreshing all the pages all day long. Good luck everyone.

When did you apply for your ILR? Are you in the re-use camp? Can you ask them to extend until September/October? I'm in the same boat as you - I have had my dream job waiting for me since April! I told them last month that I am unsure of when I'd get my ILR and told them to give me until October . I honestly believe by the end of August, most people waiting would have had a decision.

Don't be afraid to plead! Tell them you'll read & prep on the side before starting so you'll be able to hit the ground running. Anyway, I'd say don't send a defeatist email/message. You're still very keen and you're a victim of circumstances beyond your control. Any good workplace that offered you a job in the first place should be able to wait for you.

Are you extending your current Tier2 till October? Would this be sufficient as "foreseeable future" for ILR application?

I am not. I've only applied for my ILR. I said October cause I think by then, I should have recieved my ILR

Verified News!

Super Priority and Priority Service will not resume for the foreseeable future. I rang Home Office immediately to reconfirm such information and was told exactly the same.

LZ_90 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:31 am

Verified News!

Super Priority and Priority Service will not resume for the foreseeable future. I rang Home Office immediately to reconfirm such information and was told exactly the same.

Thank you very much for the insider information. Did she mentioned anything about the roll-out of the biometric reuse?

No news at all regarding that, they seem to give contradictory information though

Priority or Super Priority Service's sole objective is to jump the queue (for all possible reasons and affordability by the applicant) at a chunky price tag, to do the same application processing activities within the maximum duration of 6 months (26 weeks) from the time of application submission.

If, in the past, the majority of the Standard Applications have been processed between 12 to 20 weeks and the reasons being there is a constant flow of applications. And with the Lockdown, the staff either on UKVI and UKVCAS were unable to work on this constant flow of applications for 10 Weeks (23rd March to 1st June), and to recover this lost time, measures like UKVI contacting directly the applications, some applications processed via giving them a biometric appointment, and a major applicants have been placed in bio-metric reuse pool with no communicated plan and no viable technology in place to reuse the biometric.

Questions:
1. Should the biometric reuse applications be considered as 26 weeks + 10 weeks of loss = 36 weeks processing time as a new baseline?
2. Is there any viable plan to have the biometric reuse to be available to recover the 10 weeks loss ?
3. If this technology cannot be rolled out in 10 weeks (1st June to 10th Aug), what happens next ?

Ultimately, we are the end recipient of this service for which a hefty application price, irrevocable waiting time, personal loss we have so far faced.

Exceptional times has been used as a reason (either genuinely or as an excuse) to cover the inefficiency in even communicating clearly to these applications as what is happening with their lives.

Though these applicants are not probably infected or are still alive so is it really worth giving the right level of service to these genuine applicants? Or atleast set some expectations.

LZ_90 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:31 am

Verified News!

Super Priority and Priority Service will not resume for the foreseeable future. I rang Home Office immediately to reconfirm such information and was told exactly the same.

I hope this is not true but I also wouldn't be surprised. It's very easy to mess with people's lives, well done to every single one of them. Backlog will be cleared for Jul & Aug in potentially 2-3 weeks time and then no priorty service for new applicants? So everything will go to old school and all of a suddem people's fingerprints will start to change since their last enrollment? Wouldn't surprise me either.

Hi Team

Whoever has applied in the month of April / May and have received the "re-use" biometric, can you pls check whether the appointment can be booked from UKVCAS site?

Even my friend is enquiring on it, as some of his friends got the option to book the appointment.

I am cross-checking too...

LZ_90 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:31 am

Verified News!

Super Priority and Priority Service will not resume for the foreseeable future. I rang Home Office immediately to reconfirm such information and was told exactly the same.

Hi LZ_90,
Thanks for the update.
May I ask where you received the verified news prior to ringing home office?

vijayswami wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:29 am

Hi Team

Whoever has applied in the month of April / May and have received the "re-use" biometric, can you pls check whether the appointment can be booked from UKVCAS site?

Even my friend is enquiring on it, as some of his friends got the option to book the appointment.

I am cross-checking too...

I applied April 27.

I've called and emailed and got the same response.

"... UKVI are currently working to identify all customers eligible for this approach. UKVI has asked us not to invite these customers for an appointment. At the moment, we cannot confirm when this new way of working will be launched but we will contact all customers to explain the next steps over the coming weeks."

Haven't seen any available appointments ever whenever I check every now and then.

South-Gloucester wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 10:33 am

LZ_90 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:31 am

Verified News!

Super Priority and Priority Service will not resume for the foreseeable future. I rang Home Office immediately to reconfirm such information and was told exactly the same.

Hi LZ_90,
Thanks for the update.
May I ask where you received the verified news prior to ringing home office?

I think the moderator removed my source so even if I write again, it will be removed. It’s a reliable source but what more important is that the home office has confirmed this

Hi
i have applied in may and i did get an email for biometric reuse. Today i can see some appointemenets available on UKVCAS to book !
I think they are making appointments available to everyone now ?
Cheers

Chinese nationals are informed that they’re able to book superiority service for their uk visa application (from overseas) but it’s provided by Vfs - a different company. I start hoping that home office gave me the wrong info - they always do give contradictory info

LZ_90 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:58 am

Chinese nationals are informed that they’re able to book superiority service for their uk visa application (from overseas) but it’s provided by Vfs - a different company. I start hoping that home office gave me the wrong info - they always do give contradictory info

Really important to note that the call centre is an outsourced third parry agency, run and manned by Sitel, and not UKVI staff. They only give out generic info, often flawed and incorrect.

Also note the the priority or super priority is a UKVi service for faster visa processing, not a VFS application submission centre service.

raj_262920 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:37 am

Hi
i have applied in may and i did get an email for biometric reuse. Today i can see some appointemenets available on UKVCAS to book !
I think they are making appointments available to everyone now ?
Cheers

is this ony for me or everyone can see appointements now who ever got a biometric resuse email? i can see some appointments on monday, should i book or is it better to wait?
Thanks

raj_262920 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 12:04 pm

raj_262920 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:37 am

Hi
i have applied in may and i did get an email for biometric reuse. Today i can see some appointemenets available on UKVCAS to book !
I think they are making appointments available to everyone now ?
Cheers

is this ony for me or everyone can see appointements now who ever got a biometric resuse email? i can see some appointments on monday, should i book or is it better to wait?
Thanks

Can you tell me the date of your application? Thanks.

asap8 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 12:07 pm

raj_262920 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 12:04 pm

raj_262920 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:37 am

Hi
i have applied in may and i did get an email for biometric reuse. Today i can see some appointemenets available on UKVCAS to book !
I think they are making appointments available to everyone now ?
Cheers

is this ony for me or everyone can see appointements now who ever got a biometric resuse email? i can see some appointments on monday, should i book or is it better to wait?
Thanks

Can you tell me the date of your application? Thanks.

5th May, but not for ILR, its T2G

LZ_90 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:58 am

Chinese nationals are informed that they’re able to book superiority service for their uk visa application (from overseas) but it’s provided by Vfs - a different company. I start hoping that home office gave me the wrong info - they always do give contradictory info

Decision on application from overseas are made by UK embassy not home office here i'd thought? So perhaps UK embassy in China has reinstated priority service to process application, not quite same can be applied with Home office here I guess...