Tier 2 General Visa application processing delay

[watashimo12]

hi all,
i have applied for tier 2 general visa on 9th september from dhaka, Bangladesh. i received a call 3 weeks later inviting me to attend an interview on 8th October. after that interview i never heard from them again! i have sent them query emails several times and they come back with "application is delayed for further investigations". they offered to escalate this to higher authority at least 4 times but always tell me the same thing at the end.
now its been 15 weeks since i have applied and even though they say they are investigating, they have not contacted my employer yet.
now that everything is closed for christmas and new year, i don't expect anything soon.
though i applied from Bangladesh, all our applications are decided from Delhi nowadays.
they sent me an email from Delhi saying "your application is not straightforward and decision can not be taken and will not be processed within our service standards" does this mean this could take as long as they wish?
anyone out there facing similar delays?

Kind Regards
hasan

[NileshN]

Hi,

Even I have been waiting for 4 months almost. I have applied for Tier 2 general from Mumbai on 27th Aug and still waiting. I guess its with many of them. Even I have followed up and escalated but no use. Same replies. Now will have to wait till Jan I guess as its holiday now.

[watashimo12]

Dear Nilesh,
thanks for your kind reply.
such a misery that its taking this long for our application processing. i have contacted them once again and they wanted few more details (as before!) so that they can escalate this to higher authority. i guess we have to wait till things open again in the new year.
by the way, did you receive any email saying things like "your application is not straightforward" and will not be dealt within our service standards or something?

its a shame that they have introduced all these PBS and so many steps to get the COS but when it comes to treat one, they can not do it time or order.
please keep us posted. happy holidays mate!

Hasan

[NileshN]

No Hasan I didn't receive any such email. Infact I had to keep writing and calling them to know why its taking more than 12 weeks to process. The reply was same internal enquiries going on, please be patient. I guess nothing much can be done apart from waiting. Did escalation and all but to no avail. Anyways hope to hear something from them in the new year. U too keep me posted on the status of ur visa. Thanks. Wish u Happy holidays!

[watashimo12]

hi,
is there any update for you about your visa application?
i got in touch with UKVI in delhi and they advised they are waiting for some investigation results to make a decision.
i guess i will have to wait longer than expected now!

[NileshN]

Hi,

No I haven't got any update on visa status. Still waiting. Will keep u posted if I hear anything. Let me know if you get ur visa. Thanks

Nilesh

[talk2ram28]

incase of delay in processing in visa processing it is most likely to be some check for your employer. From Nov 6th 2014, case workers and visa officers have been granted extra power to scrutinise individual cases for making decisions. There has been lot of Tier 2 abuses by the employers and hence they are double checking to know the validity of their intentions for hiring a Tier 2 worker.

[NileshN]

Hi,

I guess u r right. They visited my employer last week to find about me n the job details. Thats i got msg from employer. But 4 +months is really too long. Hopefully this month I get some response.

[watashimo12]

Dear Nilesh,
its great to know that they have finally visited your employer. do you know if they made an appointment before the visit? and what did they want to know from the employer? and most importantly; have you got a decision from them yet?

[NileshN]

Hi mate,

No I haven't got any decision yet. I don't know whether they intimated my emp before visit. They want to know about the docs I had submitted. Unfortunately one doc was scanned incompletely but then they have all my originals still they wanted to verify in person from the emp.anyways there is no progress further. I don't know how long will they take and what more they would like to know. What about u?
Thanks
Nilesh

[watashimo12]

Dear Nilesh,
thanks for your quick reply.
its a shame that its taking this long without no apparent reason.
i haven't got any update. you at least know they went to really verify something but in my case absolutely nothing happened yet!
please let me know if you hear from them and i will keep you posted too.
Kind Regards

Hasan

[watashimo12]

Hi Nilesh,
just to let you know that my employer had a home office visit today. 2 people came in without any prior communications. they walked in and asked for the manager. they had about 100 printed questions to ask and it took almost 2 hours to complete the whole thing.
basically they asked anything and everything you could ever thought of! questions were about the business, earnings, keeping records, tier 2 licence, RLMT, my employment and so on.
they also told him that this is due to not visiting the site before the issue a licence. when asked, they were unable to say anything on my visa application.all they said is, they were asked to do this visit and write a report to 'relevant department' who will probably deal wight he visa application part.

let me know if you wish to know anything else on this.
have you got any update on your application? how many weeks has it been? i mean, it has been 3 weeks since they visited your employer, right?

hope this finds you well.

Hasan

[NileshN]

Hi Hasan,

No even after 3-4 weeks I haven't got any update. My employer said the same thing that they had come with hell lot of questions regarding everything n also didn't mention any timeframe regarding the visa appl. So really no clue how long they will take. This really ridiculous that all this while they were sleeping and now all of sudden they realised that they need to verify the employer details and their licence. This they should have done when issuing license to the employer and not when issuing visa to the employee. Anyways we all are helpless now, just have to wait and see what is the outcome.

Good luck to you and let me know if you hear anything.

Thanks.
Nilesh

[goldsurfer]

Hey Guys,

Are any of you working in IT and going to the UK for an IT job? I am asking this because i want to know whether they are delaying it for people seeking visa to take up jobs in IT only or the UK BA has problems with other sectors too.

I am waiting for my Cos and will be applying from Mumbai in a couple of weeks.But your situation has got me worrying about the process duration

[watashimo12]

hi,
thanks for your email. I am not applying for IT job, its Tier 2 General with Resident Labour Market Test and Restricted COS.
its taking ridiculously long and thats something to worry about indeed. i have been waiting for 5 months plus, and even though they have visited my employer recently i don't think i will get a decision very soon.
i wish i read up in this forum before applying as if i knew it would take more than 5 months to get a decision i wouldn't apply at all.

if your employer has a licence for quite a while and already had home office visits, they might not delay in deciding your application. but thats just a guess, nothing else. otherwise once they receive a visa application the UKVI asks the Home Office to conduct a site visit where they will ask more than 100 questions. The problem is, Home Office is operating with shortage of staff and any such site visit takes 4 to 5 months from the day requested. things does not finish just yet, the staff has to write a report (with the 100 answers with a summary i guess!) and then that report is used to make a decision! the way UKVI is running, they have quite a backlog of everything so when that report comes back it lays around for a while before someone pulls it out to make that 'Valuable Decision"!!

the statistics say they are refusing 37% of all tier 2 visa applications to show that they are trying to control 'immigration". i hear they give quite 'bogus reasons' when refusing an applications nowadays. they even gave more power to the case workers recently to refuse applications if they 'Thought there was something wrong" which totally overrides the whole idea of Point Based System!

anyways, if you don't have to leave your current employment while you wait for the decision you should be fine. but once applied you won't be able to do anything to get a decision. it could take as long as they wish!

hope this helps!
Hasan

[talk2ram.28]

There is a major crackdown on Tier 2 companies.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/549941 ... -crackdown

I heard recently that they are looking at salary levels before approving applications. 20-30K salary range is least preferred for them as they think these are salary levels mostly set up bogus Tier 2 companies just for running the payroll.

[watashimo12]

hi Nilesh!
any update on your end?
i got an email from Delhi saying "your application is not straightforward and will not be processed within our service standards" they sent the same email right after i applied as well. God knows what they are doing up in Delhi!
i sent a quick status update message to UKVI customer service and they came back saying "your application is still processing"
really don't know how longer i can take this bullshit!
hoping to hear something from you !
take care!

[NileshN]

Hi Hasan,

No decision. So finally I withdrew my application yest. Since its high time I can't wait any longer as the passport n other documents stuck with them. I can't even travel or take up any other opportunity. Atleast now I will get my passport back tomr or Mon.

Its real shame that they are unable to conclude the application even after 5+ months.

Wish u luck.. Hope u recv ur visa soon.

Thanks
Nilesh

[watashimo12]

Dear Nilesh,
thanks for your message. what a pity that you had to withdraw the application! i might have to take the same route someday as well!
don't know about you, but after spending more than £3k in visa fees (me+wife+kid) and waiting for 5 months, it can't be an easy decision!
anway, i will still keep you posted till is see the end of it.
i hope you will find something else to do in life (and much better than the intended job in the UK) rather than wait for some scumbag to decide on a visa application which in their own words is 'Point Based"!
kind regards!

[Porus]

Hi Khan, Sorry for your visa getting rejected after 7 months along with your dependents. I hope you get a better sponsor soon. In my case where I have applied tier 2 dependent visa , its almost 8 months over and no response yet. One dependent is 4 years old and missing her mom for 8 months and still no consideration from British embassy in delhi to decide fast on the applications. If there is any legal way to sue them I would do for their indecision but I dont know what to do.

[Porus]

Hi Experts,
9 months have passed and I have a response from British High commission which is as follows.Please help in sharing your views.
A) TIer 2 General migrant visa was issued incorrectly by Home office because the sponsor assigned an incorrect CoS to the main migrant.
B) Tier 2 General dependant visa is pending 9 months because , British High commission has escalated to Home office highlighting their error and no response from them yet.
C) As main migrant has her leave issued incorrectly by Home office , as soon as it has been corrected by HO, the British high commission will expedite the dependent visas accordingly.

Queries for Experts please:
1) WIll the HO send visa curtailment letter to the main migrant now so that main migrant will have to leave UK and reapply with correct CoS ?.
2) Will dependent applications also be rejected and asked to reapply along with main migrant if we want.
3) WIll the 10 months Tier 2 General stay be counted or invalid for Tier 2 main migrant if she reapplies and intends to apply ILR in 5 years time?.
4) Is it possible for the main migrant to take her passport to Croydon office and change CoS with new CoS number supplied by her employer ? .
thanks

[post2vineet]

Hey Porus,

Sorry to hear all of pain you went through Sir.

I know its too late to ask this question.After June what you did, did you withdraw your application?I am also in same situation.I am in UK from past 7 months and I have applied for my wife and kid(2year) the dependent visa.We have applied on 24th August and Its 12th week running and we are getting response as "enquiry is goining on".We have applied from Delhi.I am able to see the same pattern as it happended for you in my case as well.

Any suggestions, recommendation, except patience?

Regards
Vineet

[fv1]

Same here I applied for my wife on 24th Aug from Pakistan and still waiting they are doing some further checks

[post2vineet]

Sorry to hear it fv1,Looks like we are sailing in same boat.

Its really frustrating to explain to family why visa is not coming as if we are doing something illegal here.Even I have called UKVI customer service 4 times and they are having the same response "we are esclating your case" or if I mail them they will reply saying "further checks conducting".

Not sure what else we can do ?

[fv1]

Same here, did you receive any delay email???