Home Office / Sopra Steria IT issues 07-2019

[Talos]

Hello All,

I am in need of some advice or at least information if anyone knows about the UKVI/UKVCAS system failure on the 3rd of July 2019.

We had an appointment booked for my wife's Visa, but the office cancelled with the comments "You will get a phone call to confirm re-booking and refund of our appointment".

It has now been 3 working days, still no call from them. I called the UKVCAS phone line to get "Please wait until the Home Office call us" only, no additional information.

The expiry date on my Wife's BRP card is now passed.

A) Should we start worrying about passing the BRP date?

B) Anyone else affected, or was this a localised failure?

C) What is the usual turn around for this kind of failure with UKVI / UKVCAS ? Are we now waiting 2 days or will it take them weeks to resolve?

D) Combine questions A) and C). Are we in trouble?
This is entirely on their side since everything we did from submitting/paying for the application until being there an hour earlier than appointment time was correct.
Can we expect them to sort it?

Regards,

[Casa]

I'm not able to comment on the IT issues, but I can put your mind at rest regarding the BRP expiry. The date of application is the date you submitted your wife's application online.

[Talos]

Thank you.

Would that mean that however long it takes the UKVI / UKVCAS (hopefully counted in days, not weeks), as long as the application itself is "Open" and in progress we can just wait indefinitely for it to get sorted?

Would you have any info on how that works with the leave? I.e. Would the successful application apply 30 month starting on application date, or decision date?

Regards,

[CR001]

Would that mean that however long it takes the UKVI / UKVCAS (hopefully counted in days, not weeks), as long as the application itself is "Open" and in progress we can just wait indefinitely for it to get sorted?

The key date is the date the application was submitted and paid online. The visa expiry before UKCVAS appointment is irrelevant.

Would you have any info on how that works with the leave? I.e. Would the successful application apply 30 month starting on application date, or decision date?

Applying online before visa expiry is an 'in time' application and the applicant will be protected by Section 3C of the Immigration Rules, meaning the visa conditions continue while HO is processing the application. The new visa start date is from date of decision and is not 'tagged onto' the end of the last visa expiry date.

[Talos]

Thank you for the information.

This does relieve a bit of our worry and stress from this situation. Now just a waiting game until something gets sorted.

Regards

[CR001]

Links below to the legislation and the guidance notes, if you need it for any reason.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/77/section/3C

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... 9.0ext.pdf