Spouse Visa Processing Time & Request for Return of Passport

[sidney2528]

Hi All,

While this is the first post, I have been a regular reader here- and it is a real resource for news, updates and advice. Thanks for your posts.

I’m from Mumbai, India and my husband is a naturalised British citizen who was born in Malaysia. We got married (civil registration) on 15th December 2016 in my city, following which we applied for a spouse visa so that we can begin our new life together in the UK. This application reached Sheffield on 3rd February 2017, and it has since been 33 working days/ just a shade above 6 weeks of anxiously waiting for the decision.

Can anybody tell me by which date will we get the result?

I am doubly worried because our plan to have the church wedding this year. This will be in June (date set as 10th June 2017 in Malaysia with everything booked). We hoped for the visa decision to be handed over by this time, and planned for me to join him in the UK by now, looking forward to booking visit visas, flights, etc., for the wedding.

So my other query is (God forbid) that I’m still awaiting a response by end of April, can I request for my passport to be returned? How will this affect the application process? Does it mean the application is withdrawn as we surely do not want this to happen?

Please advice.

[asif_sharif]

you should have waited to a decision first never assume anything when it comes to the home office

[sidney2528]

you should have waited to a decision first never assume anything when it comes to the home office

Yes, in hindsight, that does seem right. However, we had to notify the church and others well in advance, and making the call after the decision could be a long delay.

We think that our application is straight-forward, have met all the requirements and submitted all the documents- now hoping and praying for a positive result. By our calculations( all Settlement Visa applications within 12 weeks of the application date, the decision should be given by end of April.

What is your suggestion if it takes longer?

[CR001]

What is your suggestion if it takes longer?

Wait some more.

A number of applications are currently being placed on hold following the High Court judgement.

immigration-for-family-members/uk-spous ... 26494.html

[sidney2528]

What is your suggestion if it takes longer?

Wait some more.

A number of applications are currently being placed on hold following the High Court judgement.

immigration-for-family-members/uk-spous ... 26494.html

Thanks CR001. We have met the financial requirement and have not got any mail about the pause or sending documents back.

[sidney2528]

Can anybody offer some advice please?

[CR001]

Can anybody offer some advice please?

What advice? All you can do is wait. UKVI will take as long as they need to process your application.

[MK752]

Hi sidney2528,

From my experience, since your husband is a British citizen, it can take up to 3 months. I wouldn't worry too much just yet.

[uk_settle]

Can anybody offer some advice please?

think there is a understandable backlog thsi time due to all setlement applicaations (including premium ones) being sent to Sheffield. Have patience and keep faith..

Also just to check you sent the documents to sheffield right?

[sidney2528]

Can anybody offer some advice please?

think there is a understandable backlog thsi time due to all setlement applicaations (including premium ones) being sent to Sheffield. Have patience and keep faith..

Also just to check you sent the documents to sheffield right?

Thanks for the replies everyone.

@ uk_settle: Yes my husband posted it to Sheffield.

@CR001: All we could think up is this-

Sending a mail now to UKVI informing them of the situation and requesting for the passport to be sent back in May IF a decision has not been made by then. We will stress on the fact that we would not want to withdraw the application, that there is a genuine reason for the request, and not a case of pressurizing them to rush with the decision. We will post the wedding invite which has been sent out to guests. We look send the letter to both sides- me to VFS from here and he will send the same to Sheffield.

I really hope this will give a favourable answer from them.

[ukguyinlondon]

Hi Sidney
Hope it all goes well.
I came across this link - https://www.gov.uk/visa-documents-returned

Not sure if it applies to your situation also.

But it was interesting to note that after application, submission etc there is room to apply for priority service by paying 400...

Anyways - all the best and hope it goes well. Keep us posted.
I have also recently applied for my wife and kids in India - will post timelines in Timelines section...

[sidney2528]

Can anybody offer some advice please?

think there is a understandable backlog thsi time due to all setlement applicaations (including premium ones) being sent to Sheffield. Have patience and keep faith..

Also just to check you sent the documents to sheffield right?

@ukguyinlondon Thanks for your well-wishes and best of luck with your application too.

Hi uk_settle,

Just a quick question please-

You've mentioned on the timeline thread that you've contacted UKVI thrice after submitting- can you share some more information please? Whom? Where? What was your message?

Thanks

[sidney2528]

@uk_settle Please can you update me on how you went about contacting them? Please respond.


@UKguyinlondon It appears that the priority request after submission is only for applications in the UK.

[sidney2528]

I would be extremely grateful to moderators/respected gurus/members for their comments about this-

I've applied for Settlement Visa (Wife ) on 1st Feb 2017, and it's been two months of waiting. I sent a status inquiry on 31st May, and here is the response-

Thank you for contacting the UK Visas and Immigration International Enquiry
Service.

We understand that you would like to know about the current status of your
visa application. I have tracked the status (XXXXXXXXX and date of birth
XXXXXXXXX) and found that there are no current updates. This could be
because your application was submitted recently or the details that you
have provided above are incorrect.

If it is the former you may contact us at a later stage once our records
have been updated. We will be happy to give you the current status of your
application. If the information provided is incorrect then please provide
the 9-digit GWF number and the date of birth of the applicant.

Alternatively, once the process has been completed and a decision has been
made the visa application centre will be in contact as per process.

Does this mean my application is yet to be processed??

Please help.

Thanks

[antmorgan88]

Hi, do you mean 31st March? I think that international enquiry line really do go around the houses but are trying to say its not been processed yet. From what I gather each country has different processing times. My partner is from Mexico and they 'aim' to process within 60 working days. The Directgov site provides processing times based on visa type and country applied from. It also breaks down the percentage of how many visas are processed in 15 days, 30 and so on. Whenever a number of days is given though it is aspirational.

Your wife should recieve an email when it is allocated to an Entry Clearence Officer too and this will give an estimated processing time.

[singhmohit]

Hello sidney2528,

My wife's waiting in Delhi for her "Spouse Settlement" since 21st Feb. We enquired on the 31st March as well and get the following reply "yet to be assessed" - anxiously waiting and keeping the fingers crossed.

Any update since your post?

Mohit

[vinny]

Posts merged.

[sidney2528]

Sent across a second status inquiry in case details had been wrongly given, though I suspect that was not so. Here is the brief reply-

Thank you for contacting the UK Visas and Immigration International Enquiry
Service.

We have service level standards for processing UK visa applications. We
will process 90% of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within
6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application (biometric taken) date;
and 95% of settlement applications within 12 weeks of the biometric taken
date and 100% within 24 weeks of the application (biometric taken) date.
Please note that we define 1 week as 5 working days.

For any further details, or should you need to contact us again please
refer to our website at https://ukvi-international.faq-help.com/, select
appropriate country, click next and then select 'E-Mail form' and complete
as instructed. We will aim to come back to you within 1 day.

So I guess it is now going to be 12 weeks. We're desperately praying and hoping this to be 12 weeks, and NOT 24 weeks. Otherwise, we have been told, on calling, that UKVI may use their discretion to hold on to/slow down application rather than cancel it . We really hope for this to be the case. Praying very hard.

[uk_settle]

Apologies for late reply Sidney. We contacted through normal online form from outside UK and cheeky paid service from inside UK. Got the same reply every time except the last one as you have. Infact when we called from inside UK, they told us it might even take 24 weeks so hard to trust this call center replies. Keep faith and you should have the decision soon!

[sidney2528]

@uk_settle Thanks for the response, and happy to report that I got my passport with the visa granted, so hopefully this will be a non-issue.

[singhmohit]

Happy to report that I got my passport with the visa granted, so hopefully this will be a non-issue.

Well done Sidney2528 - many congratulations!! Hope things go well with your remaining wedding activities/celebrations!
We applied on 21st Feb and still waiting Hoping to hear back from UKVI soon...
Mohit