Settlement visa processing times

Hi

I'd like to start by saying thank you to all of the members of this board. I have been following some of the threads posted for a couple of weeks now and the information (whilst sometimes emotional and contentious) has always been very informative.

My husband applied for a settlement visa from Lahore at the end of October 2008. There has been no change to his online status and the 60 working day / 12 calendar week period expires around 23rd January 2009.

My husband had two previous stays in the UK. The first resulted in a failed asylum application and his return to Pakistan in 2001. He has since spent almost 5 years living in the UK after returning through an agent on a passport other than his own. He returned to Pakistan in September 2008, after declaring his illegal stay, to avoid the mandatory ban on reapplication. All of his history has been disclosed in his application. I am a UK citizen by birth, have a good job, decent savings and my husband and I lived together in our own home after marriage for several weeks before his departure. Neither of us has ever claimed public funds.

Apologies for the long spiel but I wanted to set the background to my question. Does any member have experience of a similar case and, if so, how long did it take to process / what was the outcome?

Thanks

Hi,
I had been living in england since 2005 jan as a student, met my partner in 2006, had relation, lived with her one year and got approval certificate from HO in 2008 and got married in march 2008, applied for spouse visa 7 days delayed leave to remain expired. jus becoz of 7 days delay they rejected my visa, retained my passport(too rediculous) made me to overstay because of very slow processing in croydon, i managed to get my passport in july in airport!.

I came to chennai on july 30, applied for spouse settlement visa on 12 aug 2008, they said it wud take 3 months to process. mean while I made Hundreds of phone calls to chennai BDHC(04442192310,04442192308 which are always busy, u may get connected after trying atleast 20-30 times, once get connected people answering ur call does not disclose thier name and conversation is not recorded! so thay are really saying anything they want! cos they miss routed me many times!. I was asking them "wud you let me know if you need any more documents to support my application after submiting application", they said "YES".)
Finally I had my interview on 10th of dec 2008, devastanly i was refused on the grounds that i dint submit suffiecient evidence for sponsors finance!.I asked ECO "why dint you let me know about these necessary document while I had already mentioned in application, on many phone calls". he jus saying " we are dealing somany applications!, we cant inform about documents after receiving application". But UK HO in croydon does that!.
Then I was advised by BDHC Chennai to submit appeal along with necessary documents which wud take another 0 weeks to 16 weeks which is stated online. But now when i called BDHC chennai, asked about appeal status which i submitted on 22 dec 2008 with a proof of delivery, they are saying on phone that they received it on 29 dec(rediculous).
pain is They are saying that they are processing appeals in jan 2009 which they received in sep 2008 , so my appeal wud be in a queue, wud come to processing in april 2009, it may be sent to AIT in uk so the total period to process my apeal may be 8 months or more!!!

So please make sure you have submitted enough documents to support ur application

Sponsors bank statements, make sure you show enough balance in it,
Payslips.council letters, proof for sponsors stay in uk for more than last 3 yrs all originals, uk passport copy etc
Sponsors accomodation proof
applicant bank statments
marriage certifacate, photos taken, recepts for marriage bookings

I submited all except bank statement of sponsor(she is having e-mail statements which high commission does not accept), i was refused for that. now waiting for uncertain date.
I still HOPE AND PRAY this BDHC at chennai wud process my appeal bit quicker!

Thanks for your reply. Hopefully I have submitted everything I needed to but I also use an online bank and could therefore only give my husband screen printouts to include with his application. I read somewhere that the BHC will contact banks for balance confirmations in such cases.

I can't believe they waited 4 months for your initial reply! My husband and I haven't been chasing the VAC or BHC because I thought it best to give them until week 11 of their 12 weeks but from your post it looks as though they could go to 16 weeks.

Aren't they supposed to let applicants know if their case is likely to exceed the 12 week timeframe?