Marriage visa (settlement)

[mrswow]

Hi there i was hoping someone could help me a little

My partner is from the USA and i am from Scotland.

We applied for a visa for him to allow him to marry me here.

He had biometrics done on the 6th of June and he courier information we received said it arrived on the 20th of june.

This is where our confusion kicks in for 3 main reasons

1) when we called to see if we could in any way upgrade to make the process faster they directed us to a page that said for £400 they can upgrade and you get an answer in 5 days but they only take he first 5 per day. So that was all fine we did this for 6 days starting from the 6th of august, so by then our application had been in for a while.On the 10th of August we got an email saying we couldnt apply for that service because our application was being prepared for processing.

So really just a few timeline questions we have and the most important one - what does prepared for processing mean?

So we really just want to clarify a few points.

1) why exactly did we not qualify for that upgrade

2) his docs were recieved on the 20th of june but you had biometrics on the 6th so when would you start counting your 12 weeks from.

3) Im getting confused because the beta website that was linked said that people who applied in june 100% were processed by 60 days - would our application be included in those statistics OR not?

Im really starting now to confuse myself with the timeline. I know they say on the form
12 weeks but why then have the beta site saying all applications were processed in xx days.

When exactly should we start counting? Thank you so much for any help i really am so confused with all the different timings and wordings they use

I have no idea what prepared for processing means!

Thank you xx

[physicskate]

OK. Calm down. They have your application. It will be processed.

They recently changed it, so that once your application has been submitted it cannot be upgraded to priority (sometime within the last few months, not sure on the exact date). Priority can only be purchased before docs have been sent to Sheffield now.

60 days means business days (12 weeks). The timelines will be several months behind and the summer months always take longer as more people apply to move before the school year and as UKVI staff take holidays.

Preparing for processing means it has (presumably) been assigned a case worker, though actually it doesn't really mean much...

You start counting when you submitted your docs and they were received. Communication is notoriously poor, so the best way to see if there is an update is to check your return tracking number.

Did you send the docs within 5 days of the biometrics? Because you are supposed to!