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Looking at the timeline thread, it appears that "Going Postal" seems to produce quicker results. I have a theory here: HO seems to have a separate team looking at the postal applications and as most people apply through NCS, there isn't as much workload with the caseworkers handling postal applications. Hence the quicker decisions - sometimes within 8 working days of fee being debited!

Perhaps. It would be interesting to look at statistics.

There are about 200,000 applications a year, it is difficult to draw conclusions based on several posts in the forum. It also could be that people who apply by post feel confident with what they are doing as their application is simple and hence is handled quicker.
It seems that last one or two months applications are dealt very quickly regardless of the method of applying. You will need to examine this theory on a longer period to be more conclusive.

From your own timeline (NCS, got approved in 15 days) it seems that there is no major difference between NCS and postal.

Congratulations by the way.

I think there is another important factor which is previous Nationality . I have a feeling (based on 4 application currently with Home Office) that applications of certain nationalities are taking 2-3 months (or even longer) as there are additional checks for them.

Most of these applications are straight forward and eventually getting approved but just taking longer than than others.

We should also have the 'Nationality:' in the Citizenship time line.

I think the processing time is not influenced by POST or via NCS at all...

i agree with linkers and personally think that Nationality Factor is the primary reason due to which some people get their applications delayed more than others...

I am from Pakistan and my application is simple straightforward.... but my case is still in progress and is already over 2 months and there are few other pakistani people I know who are still waiting after 3/4 months for the outcome...

perhaps a freedom of information request to UKBA/HO will give access to summarised data dump for further analysis and interpretation.

hsmp2007Tier1 wrote:I think the processing time is not influenced by POST or via NCS at all...

i agree with linkers and personally think that Nationality Factor is the primary reason due to which some people get their applications delayed more than others...

I am from Pakistan and my application is simple straightforward.... but my case is still in progress and is already over 2 months and there are few other pakistani people I know who are still waiting after 3/4 months for the outcome...

what sort of further checks it could be which are causing delay?

HO does not reveal the full extent of checks they are able to do.

I would like to think, that some nationalities routinely get checked against all the lists of suspected terrorism etc.

UK does not seem to have a policy to reveal this info, but you would notice from many embassy websites that they clearly mention nationalities that they take considerably more time to process visa applications. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Algeria, Libya to name a few that I have noticed.

Ayyubi72 wrote:HO does not reveal the full extent of checks they are able to do.

I would like to think, that some nationalities routinely get checked against all the lists of suspected terrorism etc.

UK does not seem to have a policy to reveal this info, but you would notice from many embassy websites that they clearly mention nationalities that they take considerably more time to process visa applications. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Algeria, Libya to name a few that I have noticed.

Yes, that sounds logical. But I have seen many applications from Pakistan etc, decided within three weeks.