Current Processing Times - Help us to help you

alisondc, I used new form which was just released then, ... thats too on the day I applied (5th April). In fact I had my applicayion ready on 4th April on old form but one of my friend reminded me of release of new form, ... so I had to take pain of filling new form, ... discarded old one.
But, ... since I filled both forms, ... I did not find any difference between both, except footer in new form says its validity period.

kiwiLB57 wrote:Hi all,

27 April Sent from New Zealand via DHL courier
2 May Shipment delivered and signed for by TELFORD
5 May Credit Card Charged

Still waiting on reference number.

I am meant to be leaving New Zealand on 20 June with my partner and will need a couple of weeks to process entry clearance with the British High Commission so I really need the approval in the mail by the end of May. Stress!

Alisondc: If you dont mind me asking, did you receive your ref number by email or over the phone? How long did it take? Best of luck with your application

Does anybody have the phone number to call to check on your application / ref number status?

Cheers everybody,

kiwiLB57

Hi all,

Just a quick upate to the above. I rang the home office tonight on the number that alisondc suggested. It only took a minute or so of being on hold before someone answered (excellent I thought!).

I did not have my reference number so they confirmed my details and then told me that my reference number was assigned on 11 May and a letter was sent with the details and then told me my actual reference number. I had put on the HSMP form that I would prefer to have the reference number emailed out to me as confirmation, but I guess with the quickness and efficiency of the phone service it doesnt really matter.

Now I just have to cross fingers to get a caseworker assigned!!

27 April Sent from New Zealand via DHL courier
2 May Shipment delivered and signed for by TELFORD
5 May Credit Card Charged
11 May Reference number assigned and sent via post (not yet received)
15 May Rang for update and no caseworker yet assigned..


Cheers,

kiwiLB57

KiwiLB57,

Happy to hear you were able to get though to the Home Office and that you now have a reference number! As for being assigned a caseworker my advice is to give them a call every other day. It just takes a few minutes and it made me feel better to see where it was in the process.

Best wishes and keep us all updated!

-alisondc

hsmp_april wrote:My approval was done on 4th May, I received it yesterday i.e. 9th May

Congratulaions HSMP_April!
Any idea when your appliaction was assigned to a caseworker.

Thanks

Hi there,

First off, I want to say a general thank you to the many people on here whose posts helped me compile my application. The application I was planning on sending was woefully inadequate, but luckily I stumbled upon this site and the many helpful people, so thanks.

Now, to my dates:

Application sent from Sydney: April 2
Credit card charged: April 24
Confirmation of reference number: 20 May

I actually emailed the HSMP office to ask for my reference number on 17 May. They were very polite and got back to me with the number, along with the news that "a decision is currently being made and has gone to a line manager for checking".

Can I assume an answer is imminent from that statement?

Once again, many thanks to everyone and good luck!

Hi jas,

Can you confirm whether the May 20 date that you mentioned was indeed the date that they issued you with a reference number or the date that you found out?

Sounds like an extraordinarily long time to get a reference number after your CC was charged.

All sounds good now though, if they have referred a decision to a line manager then it should any day that you find out!

Cheers,

kiwiLB57

jas_online wrote:Hi there,

First off, I want to say a general thank you to the many people on here whose posts helped me compile my application. The application I was planning on sending was woefully inadequate, but luckily I stumbled upon this site and the many helpful people, so thanks.

Now, to my dates:

Application sent from Sydney: April 2
Credit card charged: April 24
Confirmation of reference number: 20 May

I actually emailed the HSMP office to ask for my reference number on 17 May. They were very polite and got back to me with the number, along with the news that "a decision is currently being made and has gone to a line manager for checking".

Can I assume an answer is imminent from that statement?

Once again, many thanks to everyone and good luck!

Your reference number should have been generated earlier than May 20th, because your application is already with a case worker and it takes two weeks on an average to get assigned. Atleast that was the response I got when I called 'em up last week to check on the status of my application. I got my reference number on May 14th but I was told that it would be assigned to a case worker most likely before the end of next week (May 26th). Will see what happens. Good luck with your app!

kiwiLB57 wrote:Hi jas,

Can you confirm whether the May 20 date that you mentioned was indeed the date that they issued you with a reference number or the date that you found out?

May 20 was the date I received an email reply after I had emailed them on the 17th (from memory) asking for confirmation that my application had arrived.

Hopefully the answer will be soon. And hopefully it will be positive.

Cheers.

Thanks for everyones posts, really helpful!
Credit debited 24th April
Still hadnt received any ref no. 17 May so gave them a call.
Really helpful contact centre, apologised for not emailing me my ref no. (my partner also had no ref no. emailed and had his credit card debited 4 days earlier than me). They gave me my ref no. over the phone and also confirmed application was currently being worked on by a caseworker. "Uplined to line manager" is a pretty positive comment. Answer is currently in the post.
Good luck to everyone, especially my fellow Kiwis!

Well, at the request of the charming moderator "John", I'll repeat my post in here, despite the fact that it's off topic and may not be seen by all who might want to see it. But as "John" has requested I not start a new topic (who'd have thought starting a topic in a forum was a bd thing?) here goes...

Hello everyone.

Just got off the phone to the HSMP office and was told that my application had failed. I applied for (and got) the following:

Academic: 25 (25)
Work Experience: 35 (25)
Partner: 10 (10)

So I got 60 points, leaving me 5 short.

I'm definitely going to have them review the decision. I just want to ask other people's opinions on the liklihood of success. The chap I spoke to from the HSMP office was upbeat about my chances given that I was only 5 points short.

Should I hold out hope that they'll give me a yes on my review?

Happy "john"?

Well, I got a refusal yesterday, but here is my timeline:

03/4 application sent by FedEx
07/4 application received
10/4 cc charged
26/4 called and got ref. number 067xxx
17/5 decision made
24/5 received docs

I claimed (and got) the following points:

Education 15 (15)
Age 5 (5)
Work Experience 50 (35)

They considered my work experience as a graduate level job, but not a senior level.

I am filing a review request soon.

jas_online, what was their reasoning for not awarding you the 35 points for work experience? any ideas for reviews ?

Regards,
Hany

Thanks to all the excellent posts on this forum, I got my approval today.

Here are my timelines -

26th April - Application sent by FedEx
28th April - Reached Doncaster per FedEx
3rd May - Credit Card charged
4th May - Received reference number via email
30th May - Decision made
5th June - Received docs

This was an out of country application (from the US).

Points claimed -

Education (15)
Past Earnings (25)
Work Experience (25) (Could have claimed 35 points as I do have the required experience but decided to play it safe)

I could have claimed an additional 10 points under Partners Achievments, but did not want to make the application too complicated and also did not want to risk sending more originals lest they get misplaced.

-Dominic

Hi all,

I got my approval letter in the mail today with all docs returned!! Very very stoked as it means that I can get entry clearance here in NZ for cheap, rather than switching to the UK on arrival from WHM.

27 April Sent from New Zealand via DHL courier
2 May Shipment delivered and signed for by TELFORD
5 May Credit Card Charged
11 May Reference number assigned and apparently sent via post (never received) although I indicated an email address to be advised ref #
29 May Allocated to a case worker
1 June Decision made and docs / decision letter posted to New Zealand
7 June Docs arrived at Courier company
8 June Docs collected from Courier company

I called the Home Office every second day to check on my progress. I dont think it helped or hindered my cause but just made me feel like I was doing something rather than waiting.

Cheers everybody,

kiwiLB57

Congratulations kiwiLB57!

Best wishes for entry clearance!

Alisondc

Here are my timelines -

23rd May - Application sent by RoyalMail Special Delivery
24th May - Application reached Doncaster
25th May - Credit Card charged
30th May - Received reference number via post
14th June - Decision made and documents receieved by RoyalMail recorded delivery.

I am in-country HSMP applicant (switiching from WorkPermit) with a job offer.

Point Claimed

Master's Degree - 25 points
5 yrs experience - 25 points
Salary (40K) - 25 points
Wife's Education/experience - 10 points.

Best of luck with your application.

I only found this site after my application was submitted. Maybe I could have done it myself rather than pay a company. Anyway I don't know the breakdown of when things got processed as the company I went through did all that.

9th June - Application sent
11th July - Decision made and docs returned

Was an in country application (on WHV). So glad I can now stay indefinitely.

Emma

my timelines

app received by HO on 28 June via special delivery
Reference no given 18 July

now the long wait...

schin

decision made 24 july.

i wonder what decision is.

schin

app received by HO on 07-jul-2006
Still waiting for reference no

My timelines:

app received by HO on Jun 26th
get ref no by phone on July 17th
allocated to case worker on July 24th

now waiting for the final decision.

Folks,

I AM VERY MUCH THANKFUL TO THIS FORUM. IT WAS A GREAT GREAT HELP.

My timelines are,

Application received by HO 26-Jun-06
Reference number - 10-Jul-06
Decision letter dated - 27-Jul-06
Got letter & docs - 29-Jul-06

SBS wrote:Hi Reddy as,
Have you received any reply from HO?
All the Best-SBS

No,not yet.I am thinking of calling to the HO.Does the HO team respond to me,regarding my application?

Got my HSMP application approved!!!!!!

Here are my timelines again

App delivered to Sheffield on 28 June 2006
Got ref number 17 July 2006 : 0780XX
Decision made 24 July 2006
Got letter and documents today 2 August 2006

Now I can start looking for EC.
I wish to thank you all on this forum for your valuable advise which helped me to compile my application.

thanks and regards
schin

My lawyer submitted my application on 26th July and when she contacted HO today to inquire about ref number they told her that HO is experiencing delays while entereing data in the database and would be able to allocate a reference number after 1-2 weeks!

Has anyone being told the same by HO?

nikhil wrote:My lawyer submitted my application on 26th July and when she contacted HO today to inquire about ref number they told her that HO is experiencing delays while entereing data in the database and would be able to allocate a reference number after 1-2 weeks!

Has anyone being told the same by HO?

That's correct. HO is changing their charging department to use Siemens and that cause a backlog. I received an email from HO about this. Just to put that in perspective, my application timeline is:

App. received: 07/31
CC charged: 08/01
Ref no.: nothing yet...

Seems like any application send prior to July is faster since they have not change their charging department, thus the applicants in that timeframe received the ref. number much faster.