BRP not delivered yet

[mauriunews]

Hi everyone!

Tomorrow I should be flying out of the UK and return within some days, but my BRP has not arrived yet. I was wondering if anyone would have any other insight on what else I could do.

By the end of my visa appointment at Croydon's PEO, I received a letter in person confirming UK Visas & Immigration had granted my Tier 4 Doctorate Extension Scheme visa on 25 June 2014. I was also told my BRP would arrive within 10 working days, which should have been by yesterday (09 July 2014). Following the instructions of the very same letter, I sent an email yesterday afternoon to BRPdelivery@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk reporting I had not received my BRP within 10 working days and I attached a scanned copy of the said letter. Later, skimming through other Home Office online help files, I read I should have included in the email some details that were not explicit in the visa granting letter (eg. Passport number and expiry date as well as a contact number). However, the scanned letter I attached already contains my full name, citizenship, date of birth, my home address, and most importantly my Home Office application reference number through which the Home Office should have easy access to my passport details and contact number. This morning (10 July), still without any reply back from the Home Office, I then rang the Home Office's number 0300 123 2241. After choosing a vague and obscure automated option that sounded like "other enquiries", I finally managed to talk to a human being who took down my mobile number as well as some of the information above (among which the Home Office ref number) and told me a caseworker would contact me within 24 hours!

I have just called DX and (after countless automated options) I managed to beg one human being to check whether they would have anything in their system addressed to me (either out to be delivered today or that had failed to be delivered over the last 10 working days). Unfortunately, they had nothing in their system for me.

My flight should take off tomorrow (11 June 2014) by the end of the day.

Having said this, would it occur to you that there is anything else left I could do now?

Is anybody else experiencing the same issue at the moment?

Last year, I had my Tier 4 visa issued in June by the end of my visa application appointment at Sheffield's PEO. They issued the BRP on the very same day. As my train back to London was just about to leave (and I was not even expecting the BRP to be delivered that day) and the BRP was not ready yet, Sheffield's PEO sent to my address my new BRP the following day at no charge at all! Is it only Croydon's PEO that takes so long? Or there is some change of practices since June last year and BRPs anywhere in the land are not delivered anymore on the same day you book an appoointment in person at a PEO.

Ultimately, as a last resort solution, ifI insist on travelling tomorrow, would Immigration not allow me to re-enter the UK next week if I show only the letter I received in Croydon instead of my BRP (technically, because of my nationality, I do not need a tourist visa to enter the UK)?

In case the caseworker contacts me, say, tomorrow morning, would anyone have any time estimation of how much longer it would take for my BRP to be delivered following the contact?

Thank you for any insight!

[mauriunews]

So far, it's the 12th day after my visa was granted but no BRP.
As a result, I had to change my plans and will not be able to travel outside of the UK tonight.

Eventually, someone allegedly from the Home Office called me yesterday, following my call to 0300 123 2241. Been told the following:

1-'No, if you leave the UK without a BRP, even if you have a letter issued by the UK Visas & Immigration stating that your visa was granted, you will not be allowed to re-enter the UK' - the "explanation" given was, and I quote, 'anyone could have printed such a letter'. What?

2-'After reporting not receiving the BRP within 10 working days to BRPDelivery@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk, you have to wait at least 72 hours to allow the responsible unit to reply your email. If you do not receive an email back within 72 hours, you could then contact the Home Office again in order to see what is going on'. Is this 72 hours' period written anywhere?

3-'You should not make plans to travel outside of the UK until you receive your BRP' - on an incredibly unforseeable date into the future I suppose. On average, a successful applicant should receive a BRP at home within 10 working days. But nothing is guaranteed and if things go wrong clearly you are at your own here.

According to DX, they still have nothing addressed to me.

Is anybody experiencing the same delivery issues here? Does anybody know if DVLA has had any technical issues printing BRPs over the last days? If 10 working days are not enough, would anyone then have any good 'guesstimate' of when I would be able to receive the BRP?

Has anybody ever complained directly to the Home Office about BRP deliveries? What has been the outcome?

Thanks for any insight ...

[rumyyy]

hi,
I m in similar situation, I have received my approval letter 2 months ago, i have contact them on 15 may and they told me a caseworker will contact me.
Still waiting.
I am thinking to call the number tomorrow.
Hope you don't have to wait as long as i did.

[mauriunews]

@rumyyy

Two months????!!!

I am really sorry you have been going through this. In the meantime, have the UK Visas & Immigration updated you on what is going on with your case? Have you contacted anyone else? Have you also sent an email to BRPDelivery@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk? Have they replied anything at all?

The BRP is not only necessary for being able to re-enter the UK, but most importantly it viabilises a non-EU citizen's functional life in the UK. Without it, one is not able even to be hired for any job. It does not seem to be acceptable. We are not citizens in this country, but does anybody know if there is anyone or any institution that might be of any assistance in these cases?

[rumyyy]

thank you.
yes i have sent email to that address and as i post previously they told me case worker should contact me directly. It's nearly two months since that e-mail.
I have sent them another one and they told me that this was not a delivery issue. So they can't help anymore.

I am going to call and ask on Monday.
I want to change my job but due to this im stuck.
I have a ticket abroad after 7 weeks. Getting nervous

[mauriunews]

Some update ...

Given that I had to have one sponsor in order to obtain my Tier 4 DES visa, today I contacted my visa sponsor (my university) when the Home Office did not reply my email 72 hours after I reported I had no received a BRP within 10 working days.

My Uni then contacted the Home Office. I knew from the call I received last Thursday that the last piece of information on the Home Office's system was updated on 27 June (but they claimed the information could not be disclosed to me). According to my Uni's contact in the Home Office, my case is unusual. Apparently, there has been no printing problems at the DVLA. There was an error in the Home Office's initial request for a BRP for me and for no apparent reason they did not know why there was no other request put in - my Uni basically thinks they forgot to. According to what this Home Office contact told my Uni, I should receive my BRP by the end of this week. Otherwise, I should get in contact again with my Uni so that they could get in touch with their contact again.

Once I receive the BRP, my Uni advised me also to put in a complaint and claim some compensation for the travel cancellation expenses incurred, given that I have paid for a premium service. According to them, this is a customer-oriented service and the Home Office's professionalism should make it illegal for them to put any marker on my files in case I make any further applications in the future. Well, on this regard, I am not so 100% sure this is so customer-oriented. The way the Home Office person talked to me they basically conveyed the idea that the Home Office would do proceed in their own pace according to their own interests and definitely not mine. Does anybody have any insights on the matter? How likely would I be in successfully claiming compensations?

NB: rumyy, what if you contact your sponsors? Do you think they could also contact the Home Office and investigate your issue?

[mauriunews]

FYI ...

Well, I come from a country where a person's word is never good enough; you have to have evidence of everything that is happening until issues are finally sorted out. Everything has to be written - including the outcomes of each step. Of course, this is utterly inefficient, daunting and entails excessive amounts of paperwork (just think when you order a book by Amazon and you can track all the steps from the warehouse in the US until your doorstep - that is the digital 21-century version of the paperwork back in my country with individual protocol numbers regarding each and every step when issues are not sorted immediately). Despite that, in situations like these, I have the feeling (probably, because I grew up in such a culture) that procedures are being properly dealt with.

Having said this, it feels totally bizarre to solely rely on the word of my uni's unnamed contact in the Home Office that a new BRP would be requested and should arrive by the end of this week. Given that I had not received any reply (not even automated) to the email I had sent to BRPDelivery@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk for more than (magical) 72 hours, yesterday I contacted again the Home Office number just to check whether I had to write another email (actually I wanted to certify myself I was keeping written footprints that nothing had happened on the Home Office's end). Still yesterday, a member of staff from the Premium Service Contact Centre at the PEO I had been to contacted me back - eventually, the person identified her/himself and told me (s)he was the very same person I had spoken to (not so smoothly) last week (but very smoothly this time, probably because I was much more serene not feeling the frustration of cancelling travelling plans because the BRP had not arrived within 10 w.d.). The person told me that for a very random reason the BRP had been unduly destroyed in a specific routine of theirs (?!) whilst the production of another BRP had not been requested yet; the person was going to put in a new request yesterday, and given that (s)he would not be in today, tomorrow (s)he would check and call to inform me on any developments. Apparently, the next deadline should be within 10 more working days, but the person expects that this time it should take much less than that for the BRP to leave Cardiff and reach my place in London.

Even though I was brought up in a very kafkaesque country, I ended up hanging up the phone without any written evidence of anything, having to rely on the phone message recordings of the Home Office - recordings to which I would never have access to! So, only now have I realised I should have written another email for my own peace of (alien) mind. Anyhow, the lesson I have learnt is that relying on words alone might not suffice not even in this country. If the person at the PEO calling me was in fact the same one who talked to me last week, then it baffles me that it was already pretty evident to her/him back then that it was never a delivery issue to begin with, that I did not have to wait 72 hours for the BRPDelivery service to reply to my email until I could chase the Home Office again, and most importantly the person could have put in a request for the production of another BRP, shortening the new waiting time for the second BRP.

Bottom line: if you don't receive the BRP within 10 working days, keep chasing them by all means because apparently, despite the online systems and veneer of professionalism, your self interest will always be above the will of civil servants to get your documentation right and in a timely manner - and this is universal.

I hope you do not mind that I share my experiences here. My intent is just to illustrate applicants of real-life issues that might happen and are beyond being eligible to a visa, correctly applying for one, but simply not getting your documentation in due time. Moreover, needless to say that if you have any other insights on what else could be done, I'm more than happy to hear from you!

[mauriunews]

Apparently, now UK Visas & Immigration is eventually proceeding as it should.

As promised last Wednesday, I have been called late this morning by the Premium Contact Centre at the PEO I visited on 25 June. The member of staff confirmed they had put in a second request to produce a BRP for me and that it should reach my place by the beginning of next week.

I asked again just to understand better what had happened to the first BRP. It was produced, it did not reach the delivery stage (for undisclosed/unknown reasons at this point in time), it had to be discarded (not destroyed), a second request had not been put in, which has been addressed this week.

I hope the BRP arrives next week! Fingers crossed!

[mauriunews]

Great!

At last, the BRP has arrived!!! All the information is correct.

Hence, it took in total 18 working days for it to arrive and some travelling plans shattered as a consequence of the delay. Coincidentally, it was, after all, within the time frame my Uni's contact at the Home Office had said (by the end of this week), and earlier than what the Premium Service Contact Centre staff member had estimated (early next week). It was issued on 16 July (Wed), the day I was contacted again by the Premium Service Contact Centre, following my call to the Home Office.

I just hope only one of the two channels activated - either my Uni's contact at the Home Office or the Premium Service Contact Centre - ended up being used. Otherwise, I'll (hopefully not) receive a third BRP by the beginning of next week.

[jpat2002]

hi,
I m in similar situation, I have received my approval letter 2 months ago, i have contact them on 15 may and they told me a caseworker will contact me.
Still waiting.
I am thinking to call the number tomorrow.
Hope you don't have to wait as long as i did.

Hi
I know it's one year ago.. Bt if you remember then could you please share your experience.. Like at end how long it took to get yr BRP card and what was technical problem about..?? And did CW contact you or not..??
As one of my friend is on same boat and he gt email response from BRP delivery team saying BRP production is delayed due to technical team..?? Did you received similar response..? Please reply how did you gt ye card..??
Thanks

[velumanim]

Hi Guys,

I haven't got my BRP for more than 30 days, even I got pissed and panic. But you guys chill out and DO NOT worry about that if you dint get your BRP on time.

Obviously we have to chase with them for the update. It may affect your salary if you came on TIER 2 visa.

You can try calling to the support guys to check the status ( but for me it dint worked out - so I think mailing them is the easiest communication for any response and its better way too, by seeing this below information you can at least cool and calm down without any panic).

Their first response from below point #1 is
-----------
If your 1 month multi entry visa has expired, we advise you not to make travel arrangements until you have received your BRP.
Please note your right to remain in the UK is not affected.
We apologise for the delay and any inconvenience caused.
Regards,
*****
BRP Collection Team
-----------

My Advise and what I did: Follow below step for the chase up :

1. Report your BRP not received yet in below site: you will receive a mail as confirmation
https://www.gov.uk/biometric-residence- ... ot-arrived
2. As they say with in 5 working days they will reply (and they did for me on 5th day- its impressive !).
3. They may provide your BRP status or direct you to contact some team (with mail-id mentioned).
(They responded to me to contact with this mail-ID : BRPOATECH@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
4. I mailed them and got a response that my BRP has not printed and it will be delivered on <they gave me a date to collect>
5. you can collect at the mentioned address. ( am not sure about changing the address with this scenario, I would suggest better go as with you provided details ,as not to make any confusion because our target is to get the BRP in our hand )

their positive response to me

--
-----BRP OA Tech <BRPOATech@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk> wrote: -----
To: <my personal ID>
From: BRP OA Tech <BRPOATech@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk>
Date: *******
Subject: NAME/ID

Good Afternoon

FULL NAME
DOB
COUNTRY

*****/**** (some ID - I don't know this )

Further to our email of ** April 2016, your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) will now be available for collection from: ** May 2016.

The BRP must be collected from the collection point on your decision letter.

When you visit the collection point to obtain your BRP you must bring your passport / travel document containing your Visa. Please also bring this letter as it will help locate your BRP quickly.

For any further enquiries on this matter, please contact the BRP Collection Team at https://www.gov.uk/biometric-residence-permits/collect.

We apologise for the delay and any inconvenience caused.

Regards,
******
BRP OA Tech Team
Home Office
--

hope this might be helpful ....

Regards, your friend

[Eve_s]

Hi velumanim,

God bless you for the email address, friend! I'm waiting for the brp since 18/04/16. I applied from outside UK which make things worse (another line on their number, which is paid and quite useless). I was also told that its a huge issue and lots of BRP are affected. It's a very good sign somebody from this bunch started receiving their brps.

BTW in their reply letter BRPCollection didn't provide neither the status of my BRP, neither any contacts of a responsible team. Could you please tell me the date from the letter when you can receive your BRP? It will give me some estimation of recent plans.

Thank you.

[velumanim]

Hi velumanim,

God bless you for the email address, friend! I'm waiting for the brp since 18/04/16. I applied from outside UK which make things worse (another line on their number, which is paid and quite useless). I was also told that its a huge issue and lots of BRP are affected. It's a very good sign somebody from this bunch started receiving their brps.

BTW in their reply letter BRPCollection didn't provide neither the status of my BRP, neither any contacts of a responsible team. Could you please tell me the date from the letter when you can receive your BRP? It will give me some estimation of recent plans.

Thank you.

Hi Eve,

Thank you !

Am not sure about that it depends on their reply. but for sure if they spot the issue then it doesn't take a week to deliver it (depends on the from/to location delivery time).

Hope you have mailed to TECh team on top of the report submission.

Good luck, you will receive it soon

Regards, your friend