UKBRC for ILR Name Change - how do i escalate delays?

[ukpolak]

Hello,

I am a US citizen and have had ILR for a couple of years. Last year I married a UK citizen and am in the process of changing my maiden name to surname.

I went to the US Embassy in London to change my passport name and had it sorted in a few days. Likewise UK bank accounts and other agencies have changed the name quickly as well as charged a v small fee (or done it for free).

However for my existing ILR card I started the process in January. I sent off everything, they debited my account and asked me to get my biometric details taken. So i visited my closest Post-Office to get this done.

I haven't heard anything since and am due to travel in mid-March - I was expecting this small change to take a couple of weeks in keeping with all other similar experiences? I contacted some immigration consultants (smithstone or something) who advised that it'd likely get done in April, 3 months after my initial request! Also I wrote to my MP to expedite and they just said that there is a large volume of requests (i.e. tough). The UKVI website advises against urgent travel however I don't consider booking travel 8 weeks in advance to be urgent?

Could anyone recommend another avenue for escalating this? Does anyone have the email address of a senior director of UKVI / UKBA to raise this? I mean it's just a surname change on my ILR. Ironically the original ILR application took a couple of weeks (from a work sponsored visa to ILR).

Grateful for any suggestions.. i just can't believe why this is taking so long?

Many thanks