Can payment clearance delay cause a case to be deprioritized

[t0kugawa]

Dear readers,

I want to share with you my story as well as settling some concerns as I have been through quite a few headaches regarding clearing the payment for my naturalization application.

On October 5th I went to the NCS at the Southwark Council in London, all went well and they said my application will be sent 1st class by next day (October 6th).

On October 18th I have received an envelope containing the Biometrics registration form as well as another letter saying that the payment process failed and that i was supposed to send a new payment form at the enclosed address. I was surprised since i had more than enough funds to clear the payment and I have also informed my bank about this transaction beforehand, so I called the bank and they said that whoever attempted to make the payment has inserted the "start date" of the debit card where the "expiry date" should have been. I have taken a picture of the payment form which I initially sent so I was 100% that this wasn't an issue on my end. My deadline for submitting the Biometrics and new payment was set to 28th October.

While being a bit concerned about this unexpected lack of attention from whoever was handling my case, on the next day (October 19th) I went to the post office to do my biometrics as well as to send a new payment slip (with the exact same information as my original payment!) 1st class to the address mentioned in the letter I received, namely:

Department 1
UK Visas and Immigration
PO BOX 306
Liverpool
L2 0QN

I have waited almost two weeks for the payment to be cleared, but royal mail showed me that the payment envelope was still in transit and stuck somewhere near Liverpool. I called them and first they stalled me saying that their software is having issues in updating locations, and in the end (On October 25th) they told me that since i sent that payment 1st class to a PO BOX address, there was nobody to sign for it, and hence it shall be returned to sender. Leaving aside my sudden rush of anxiety as well as frustration for being in danger of not making the October 28th deadline, I have googled the .gov page and got the correct address where I should've sent the 2nd payment, namely:

UKVI
Department 1
The Capital
New Hall Place
Liverpool
L3 9PP

This (3rd) time the payment envelope DID make it in time. Sent it on October 25th, addived on 26th, payment cleared on 27th just one day before the deadline (this was visible in my bank account).

At the moment I have not received any formal letter of confirmation of receipt of payment & biometrics (do you think I should have received some form of communication?) and was wondering whether this delay may have caused my application to be put in the 'back of the line' (from browsing various people's experiences online, I noticed that there is no actual order in which applications are processed, so there's no evidence that once my payment was cleared they resumed work on my case).

My case is (subjectively) very simple, i'm a single applicant, EEA national exercising treaty rights, 6.5 years in the UK, (master degree 1 yr + 5.5 yrs of working non stop) with all required evidence and documents in place.

While being fully aware that I cannot check the status of my application formally until 6 months have elapsed, I was expecting some form of communication confirming the receipt of payment (rather than me frantically checking the bank account every hour in october). Do you think I should attempt to contact the Visa & Immigration department (if so, what number/email should I use ?) in order to follow up on this ? I feel a bit upset since this entire delay was caused by the case worker not initially putting in the correct payment data from my original payment form and this almost led to the cancellation of my application or at least a big delay in processing it. Just to say it again, I have sent exactly the same payment form with the same data 3 times (1st time was the case worker's fault, 2nd time was the royal mail & PO BOX issue, 3rd time's a charm).

Thank you for taking the time to read about my experience, I hope this will make future applicants aware that a lot of unexpected issues and inconveniences can appear at any time throughout the process. I would like if possible to know if you have any advice for me regarding following up on my application ? The 2nd time i sent the payment (that letter stuck near liverpool because of the po box issue) has yet to be returned to me and since there is sensitive data in there (debit card details) I was wondering whether or not should I call the bank and cancel my card however i'm iffy about doing that since I don't know whether the Visa & Immigration will need to check the validity of my payment again in the future. At the moment of writing I'm praying for the ceremony invitation letter to pop up hopefully before the winter holidays as I'm sure work gets very slow due to people being off on vacation in that period.

Sorry for the long text.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

[noajthan]

This case confirms the wisdom of keeping copies of any application and payment form submitted to UKVI/HO. For ever.

Expect very little handholding or feedback from UKVI/HO.
Do not expect to be kept notified every step of the way.

There's no receipt issued for payment.
Simply monitor bank account for confirmation of payment.

Biometrics are not acknowledged. You enrol at PO and that's it - job done.

As to processing policy, that's a mystery.

Then its simply a waiting game.
Good luck.

[alterhase58]

I have seen a few postings relating to Post Office inquiries. I get the feeling of deja vu with some of the advice being given to callers. Sounds like HO Helpline sometimes.

It is not correct that Special Delivery cannot be sent to P O Boxes! Many large organisations run P O Box addresses and Special delivery is signed for when the Box is collected from or delivered by the Post Office depending on the arrangements in place. And Special Delivery before 1pm is generally delivered separately anyway and signed for (I saw the signature for my NCS submission on the PO website!).

I am sure the are some members on the board working for the Post Office. If I am wrong please correct me.

[t0kugawa]

This case confirms the wisdom of keeping copies of any application and payment form submitted to UKVI/HO. For ever.

Expect very little handholding or feedback from UKVI/HO.
Do not expect to be kept notified every step of the way.

There's no receipt issued for payment.
Simply monitor bank account for confirmation of payment.

Biometrics are not acknowledged. You enrol at PO and that's it - job done.

As to processing policy, that's a mystery.

Then its simply a waiting game.
Good luck.

Thank you for your reply noajthan. It's better to know and be aware of the fact that there isn't any formal confirmation of payment/biometrics rather than waiting in vain for one and worrying about it. That makes me feel hopeful that perhaps everything is alright now and hence the waiting game becomes less of a burden.

[CR001]

I am sure the are some members on the board working for the Post Office. If I am wrong please correct me.

How is where any of the forum members work relevant to the OPs question?

[t0kugawa]

I have seen a few postings relating to Post Office inquiries. I get the feeling of deja vu with some of the advice being given to callers. Sounds like HO Helpline sometimes.

It is not correct that Special Delivery cannot be sent to P O Boxes! Many large organisations run P O Box addresses and Special delivery is signed for when the Box is collected from or delivered by the Post Office depending on the arrangements in place. And Special Delivery before 1pm is generally delivered separately anyway and signed for (I saw the signature for my NCS submission on the PO website!).

I am sure the are some members on the board working for the Post Office. If I am wrong please correct me.

Hi alterhase58, thank you for replying to me.

When I called the post office to enquire about the location of my payment letter (the one with PO BOX on its address), they told me that usually when posting a letter (this was done from within the UK in my case) they will check this information and tell you right at the till before sending it if there's an issue with the receiver's address, however, and I quote "in this case for some reason they didn't do it". On top of that they said that the PO BOX address of the home office (the one i quoted in my original post) does not appear in the Royal Mail database as a valid address. I was stunned, because that address was the one to which I was told to resend the payment to (when I received the biometrics letter and the failed payment notice). I got the correct address from the .gov website where i sent the 3rd payment, but perhaps, like you mentioned, the instructions shouldn't have been that unclear to begin with. Water under the bridge now.... hopefully...

[alterhase58]

I am sure the are some members on the board working for the Post Office. If I am wrong please correct me.

How is where any of the forum members work relevant to the OPs question?

OP contacted Post Office and seem to get vague advice - I didn't want members to reveal where they work though - I take the point.