Urgent return of documents - timeframe?

[armagon]

I submitted an application for a Certificate of Approval to the Home Office a couple of months ago, but now need to get my passport, and my fiancee's passport, back as we need to travel outside the country urgently.

The website says that you should submit an email request, which I did a couple of weeks ago. They give themselves a 20 working day turnaround to get the documents back to you (which hasn't expired yet).

I need to travel in 3 weeks, so if I wait the full 20 working days then that doesn't leave me much time. If they overrun beyond the 20 working days, or if the post somehow gets held up, I'm in trouble.

I know there's also an option to urgently request travel documents in person - i.e. you turn up at Croydon once the request has been processed and they give them to you. Does anyone have any experience of either requesting documents using the COA email process, or the urgent document pickup process? How long does it generally take? Is it reliable?

Thanks in advance.

[studenten]

Hi,

Not sure if you have received your documents yet. I am in a similar position as you except my application was a student visa. Anyway what I did was I called the telephone number 0800 606 7766 where I asked them if I could have my documents returned to me asap. I was told to send a fax requesting them to send me the documents asap if possible by a personal courier i.e. DHL, FedEx etc and if it was possible if they could contact me so I could set it up. I received a call and I arranged everything, I'm supposed to get my travel documents back tomorrow!

Good luck!