Premium Service appointment booking issue for ILR (LR)

[eastwood]

No luck here -- did the same as you 12-1am last night, and on from 8am today, mainly Birmingham and also Liverpool (into my second week of trying to book). One thing I'd like to know is when people say 'one slot was available but it was gone', what do they mean? A few times I actually get a calandar with dates, but which date is the appointment? See screen shot:
I select a date but no appointments are ever listed. Should I try another date? I do, but there are never any slots for these. I click save and continue, and back into the usual 'We do not have any appointments..." I don't understand this system. Other than reading Kafka, Distill.io, the magic hours, I'm not sure how to crack it.

If I remember correctly by clicking on any dates the time slot(s) will be available right under the dates (no matter which date you selected), if you do not see time slot(s) it means what you have asked exactly, ‘one slot was available but it was gone’. Which means someone was faster than you and selected the slot and went on to next step.

Hi EAstwood,
so what you are saying is,i have to choose the date first,once it appears on the screen confirming available slots there then i have to click on the date options again.only then it will show the slots?is that right?already i have a week of sleepless night,yesterday i found one in Liverpool,it was for 10th October,there were some slots,but my mistake was i cliked on save and continue,its gone saying YOU MUST ANSWER THE QUESTION FIRST.Then i got another one in Cardiff,but i waited for few minutes then it didn't show anything and its gone...so frustrating. would you mind tell us what exact thing we need to do?thanks
regards
rangers

So sorry to hear that. Once a slot is available, you MUST click on the date first, if I remember right which date you click does not matter. AFTER you click on date, the time slot will be available UNDER the dates, which tells you the DATE and the TIME, you MUST choose the time slot first then click save and continue otherwise you will receive the message of ‘you must answer the question first’. Hope this helps and good luck.

[rangers]

No luck here -- did the same as you 12-1am last night, and on from 8am today, mainly Birmingham and also Liverpool (into my second week of trying to book). One thing I'd like to know is when people say 'one slot was available but it was gone', what do they mean? A few times I actually get a calandar with dates, but which date is the appointment? See screen shot:
I select a date but no appointments are ever listed. Should I try another date? I do, but there are never any slots for these. I click save and continue, and back into the usual 'We do not have any appointments..." I don't understand this system. Other than reading Kafka, Distill.io, the magic hours, I'm not sure how to crack it.

If I remember correctly by clicking on any dates the time slot(s) will be available right under the dates (no matter which date you selected), if you do not see time slot(s) it means what you have asked exactly, ‘one slot was available but it was gone’. Which means someone was faster than you and selected the slot and went on to next step.

Hi EAstwood,
so what you are saying is,i have to choose the date first,once it appears on the screen confirming available slots there then i have to click on the date options again.only then it will show the slots?is that right?already i have a week of sleepless night,yesterday i found one in Liverpool,it was for 10th October,there were some slots,but my mistake was i cliked on save and continue,its gone saying YOU MUST ANSWER THE QUESTION FIRST.Then i got another one in Cardiff,but i waited for few minutes then it didn't show anything and its gone...so frustrating. would you mind tell us what exact thing we need to do?thanks
regards
rangers

So sorry to hear that. Once a slot is available, you MUST click on the date first, if I remember right which date you click does not matter. AFTER you click on date, the time slot will be available UNDER the dates, which tells you the DATE and the TIME, you MUST choose the time slot first then click save and continue otherwise you will receive the message of ‘you must answer the question first’. Hope this helps and good luck.

Hi Eastwood,
Thanks so much,everyday we are learning a lot of things...isnt it?i will try tonight as well...lets see what happen.
regards
rangers

[eastwood]

If I remember correctly by clicking on any dates the time slot(s) will be available right under the dates (no matter which date you selected), if you do not see time slot(s) it means what you have asked exactly, ‘one slot was available but it was gone’. Which means someone was faster than you and selected the slot and went on to next step.

Hi EAstwood,
so what you are saying is,i have to choose the date first,once it appears on the screen confirming available slots there then i have to click on the date options again.only then it will show the slots?is that right?already i have a week of sleepless night,yesterday i found one in Liverpool,it was for 10th October,there were some slots,but my mistake was i cliked on save and continue,its gone saying YOU MUST ANSWER THE QUESTION FIRST.Then i got another one in Cardiff,but i waited for few minutes then it didn't show anything and its gone...so frustrating. would you mind tell us what exact thing we need to do?thanks
regards
rangers

So sorry to hear that. Once a slot is available, you MUST click on the date first, if I remember right which date you click does not matter. AFTER you click on date, the time slot will be available UNDER the dates, which tells you the DATE and the TIME, you MUST choose the time slot first then click save and continue otherwise you will receive the message of ‘you must answer the question first’. Hope this helps and good luck.

Hi Eastwood,
Thanks so much,everyday we are learning a lot of things...isnt it?i will try tonight as well...lets see what happen.
regards
rangers

Everything is from my memory so there might be discrepancies, but one thing I am certain is that you have to choose TIME slot before click save and continue. Also all the slots I have got are during daytime, most of them 8-9AM so you might just leave your distill open. Very best of luck Rangers.

[MissSue]

No luck here -- did the same as you 12-1am last night, and on from 8am today, mainly Birmingham and also Liverpool (into my second week of trying to book). One thing I'd like to know is when people say 'one slot was available but it was gone', what do they mean? A few times I actually get a calandar with dates, but which date is the appointment? See screen shot:
I select a date but no appointments are ever listed. Should I try another date? I do, but there are never any slots for these. I click save and continue, and back into the usual 'We do not have any appointments..." I don't understand this system. Other than reading Kafka, Distill.io, the magic hours, I'm not sure how to crack it.

Hi, how did it go lastnight. I was finally able to book for the 11th of October in Croydon lastnight. I am still in shock if this is real. I hope you managed to get something.

[mahesh7337]

I cant see even a single appointment at Belfast center since 3 days using distill chrome addon.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions for me.
Did anyone get any appointments at Belfast centre in the recent days.

[VirtualWaver]

I managed to book my one on 28th of September. I tried to login just after midnight with Chrome and it showed that one. Try to do the same.

Hi which center did you get your appointment? thanks

Hi mate,

Liverpool

[YouKTier]

I cant see even a single appointment at Belfast center since 3 days using distill chrome addon.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions for me.
Did anyone get any appointments at Belfast centre in the recent days.

Hi although not an ideal location for me, earlier I booked an appointment at Belfast for mid September. Distill birdie came to my rescue. I had to cancel my old appointment as I picked SET (0) instead of SET (LR) on the pre-booking page. Appointments have been quiet since yesterday but luckily I got this one at around 14:40 today. You will eventually get it Just keep trying, good luck!

[rangers]

I cant see even a single appointment at Belfast center since 3 days using distill chrome addon.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions for me.
Did anyone get any appointments at Belfast centre in the recent days.

Hi although not an ideal location for me, earlier I booked an appointment at Belfast for mid September. Distill birdie came to my rescue. I had to cancel my old appointment as I picked SET (0) instead of SET (LR) on the pre-booking page. Appointments have been quiet since yesterday but luckily I got this one at around 14:40 today. You will eventually get it Just keep trying, good luck!

Hi youktier,
My misery is still on,last night i found one in sheffield,10th october,i was waiting while the screen was showing AVAILABLE APPOINMENTS FROM THE DATE SELECTED... waited for a while suddenly it said web page cant get the excess for temporarily, go back to GOV.UK....so frustating. btw i am using distill,somehow its buzzing every now n then but not getting anything through it.can you tell me how to set it up properly?
regrds
rangers

[idgreat]

Hello everyone,
I have been trying to choose an appointment for the 13th of Oct. which will be Saturday. the date is available but no Available appointments time on that date to select. So am wondering, can i book Friday before? which will be the 12th of Oct. and this now will make it 29 days before my validity period instead of 28 days before. Meanwhile the first day i entered into the country was 22nd of Sept. 2013. Which is just over a year and my current FLR expires 11-09-2018. Can someone please advice me on what to do.

[idgreat]

Hello everyone,
I have been trying to choose an appointment for the 13th of Oct. which will be Saturday. the date is available but no Available appointments time on that date to select. So am wondering, can i book Friday before? which will be the 12th of Oct. and this now will make it 29 days before my validity period instead of 28 days before. Meanwhile the first day i entered into the country was 22nd of Sept. 2013. Which is just over 5 years and my current FLR expires 11-09-2018. Can someone please advice me on what to do.

[Konzo1]

Hello everyone,
I have been trying to choose an appointment for the 13th of Oct. which will be Saturday. the date is available but no Available appointments time on that date to select. So am wondering, can i book Friday before? which will be the 12th of Oct. and this now will make it 29 days before my validity period instead of 28 days before. Meanwhile the first day i entered into the country was 22nd of Sept. 2013. Which is just over 5 years and my current FLR expires 11-09-2018. Can someone please advice me on what to do.

you can apply 28 days before your 5th year anniversary in the UK. meaning that if u came to the UK on the 22nd of Sept. 2013 then you qualify from Sunday, 25 August 2018 to last day of the expiration of you FLR

[Aug01]

I got it!!! I got the appointment on the 29th August in Belfast. Will be booking flights now to Belfast!!! Thank you so much eveyone for information and guidance and encouragement!!! It would such a lonely / clueless experience without you guys.

Congratulations! How did you do it please? What time of the day did you check? I need to get one before 20th Sept!

[filliou]

I got one this morning as well (Croydon), booked around 10:50am Saturday morning (for mid Oct). After over 2 weeks of trying various centres. Distill plugin works, set it up and keep it running whenever possible with your payment card at hand. Know your availability and move quickly when you finally see an appointment come up. It seems random when they release the appointments. The midnight release seems almost more trouble than it's worth. I more or less gave up on this premium route and was about to go postal (in all senses!) when I thought I'd just try this morning for the hell of it. I'd like to say thanks to everyone on this form for your very useful advice and feedback.

[nawaid]

HI all,

I've been trying to book two slots for me and my girlfriend since July 22nd, till now I finally got them! it's being a very very frustrate journey like you guys.

For the past month, I've been using the same method(refreshing the page on 00:00 am every day), when I looked back, it's not really working, slots always gone too fast(like seconds), and even if I landed any slot, the website will crash at any seconds makes me want to kill myself, after such painful experience I finally found the most efficient way today, hope it will help you guys(the method only needs one chrome browser):

so I recommend newcomer try your luck at 00:00 like others because it indeed releases a huge amount of slots at that time, but due to the traffic is too much, it's more like a gamble.

if you don't get your slots at 00:00, don't give up, use a chrome extension called distill (https://distill.io/), it refreshes the page and monitor the page changes for you automatically, go to the website and it easy to use, you can set a Email and SMS alerts,or for me I use a ringtone on my computer and set refresh timer at 20 secs, if new slots available it will let you know immediately, it's such great tool I got my two slots within 20 mins at around 2pm today.

it's great relief for me and I hope you all free from this booking nightmare, good luck!

Hi, I am new member to this board and I really appreciate your help for others. I am trying your method but unable to find any slots, could you please tell me which URL should I put on monitoring?
Thanks & regards

[rangers]

HI all,

I've been trying to book two slots for me and my girlfriend since July 22nd, till now I finally got them! it's being a very very frustrate journey like you guys.

For the past month, I've been using the same method(refreshing the page on 00:00 am every day), when I looked back, it's not really working, slots always gone too fast(like seconds), and even if I landed any slot, the website will crash at any seconds makes me want to kill myself, after such painful experience I finally found the most efficient way today, hope it will help you guys(the method only needs one chrome browser):

so I recommend newcomer try your luck at 00:00 like others because it indeed releases a huge amount of slots at that time, but due to the traffic is too much, it's more like a gamble.

if you don't get your slots at 00:00, don't give up, use a chrome extension called distill (https://distill.io/), it refreshes the page and monitor the page changes for you automatically, go to the website and it easy to use, you can set a Email and SMS alerts,or for me I use a ringtone on my computer and set refresh timer at 20 secs, if new slots available it will let you know immediately, it's such great tool I got my two slots within 20 mins at around 2pm today.

it's great relief for me and I hope you all free from this booking nightmare, good luck!

Hi, I am new member to this board and I really appreciate your help for others. I am trying your method but unable to find any slots, could you please tell me which URL should I put on monitoring?
Thanks & regards

Hi,
Can you please tell me how to set up distill properly?its on my laptop buzzing almost every 10/15 minutes, but somehow i cant get any slot?i might be wrong setting it up...
regards
rangers

[filliou]

Get distill to monitor the page that says 'Choose an appointment'... 'We do not have any appointments in the next 45 business days at your selected location.' I used Chrome.

[joeallen123]

Hello, I am new to the forum.
If I ask same questions people have asked before, apologise.

Can I book an appointment first then reschedule?
Can I reschedule both time and locations?
Can I check the avaliable time slots for other centers before I reschedule?

[eastwood]

Hello, I am new to the forum.
If I ask same questions people have asked before, apologise.

Can I book an appointment first then reschedule?
Can I reschedule both time and locations?
Can I check the avaliable time slots for other centers before I reschedule?

Yes
Yes
Nothing is confirmed until you pick new time slot and save, so yes.

[nawaid]

Get distill to monitor the page that says 'Choose an appointment'... 'We do not have any appointments in the next 45 business days at your selected location.' I used Chrome.

Hi, Do we have to monitor the whole page or a section?

[filliou]

Set for monitoring the whole page. But from my experience, this has to be done over the span of weeks. It's fishing in waters with not many fish. Nothing happens for long periods of time, and then finally there is a bite. Or just go the postal route.

[Miithu18]

Hi everyone,
I have been trying to book premium Service for last 3 weeks . Finally i have managed to book one last night! But it wasn’t completely done! Here i am needed your help.
After selecting date and time I entered my card details and clicked saved and continue. I haven’t set any security for my card payment so it was pass through worldpay and a dialbox appears showing processing......
and its kept processing 15 min. I lost my patience and logged in my ukvi acc through another mobile and it showed payment successful.
The page was like payment successful
But bottom of this page there was written “you have few steps to complete
To complete click save and continue.”
However, when I click save and continue it says “The time you have taken for payment was too long and your application for appointment was expired” !!
I got an email with successful payment confirmation and ukvi ref number. But they said applications was expired and i must rebook appointment. They have taken money from my account as well.
Please help me in this situation. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks all

[Miithu18]

I have been trying to get a PSC appointment for the last 4 weeks. It was so stressful and frustrating experience that I started to lose hope of getting an appointment.

All my attempts were failing until this morning today. I got an appointment on 09 August at Croydon. Entirely based on my personal experience I would like to share what I observed.

My observations:
1. Slots for the day just after 42 days are released each day (except Saturday night) at 00:00. For example, on 31 July at 00:00, HO released appointment for 11 September 2018.
2. Most of the cases after selecting the date and a slot, and before proceeding to payment it becomes unavailable. The whole webpage sometimes becomes unavailable.
3. Luckily if the payment is successful, it doesn’t guarantee that a slot has been booked. I had this experience and was informed that I took too long, so the slot is not available and I need to rebook. I received an email about successful payment but not for the date. In this type of case, it is better to contact e-support team. If they provided any Booking Refe. Number, it is better to check the BRN matches with name and payment reference number.
4. Mobile phone browsers are faster than laptop/PC browser. I tried with both laptop (a very fast one with high speed LAN) and mobile phone and observed mobile browser shows the slots before the laptop browser.
5. As I work in computer whole day, during day time, I used chrome and Mozilla browser where I downloaded ‘Easy Auto Refresh (Chrome)’ and ‘Tab Auto Refresh (Mozilla)’ add on so that the browser refreshes the page periodically based on my set time in seconds. I could not find any add on like this for Internet Explorer.
6. Available slots appeared during day time are the ones that have been cancelled (or changed) by someone. Usually they are not the dates after 42 days. Nobody knows when they are going to appear. Due to periodic refresh by ‘Easy Auto Refresh (Chrome)’, I noticed an available slot while working this morning at 09:35 and grabbed that without delay.

Hi Morshed,
Thanks a million for sharing your observations and experience with us. Unfortunately i am into the same trouble you were !! which is payment went through bt no slot . They send me confirmation email that payment successful but i need to rebook again coz took too long to pay.
However I wanted to know what did you do after getting e-support? Where did u get HO e-mail address ?
I am in a big trouble honestly coz don’t remember the book ling date ! If it is within 1 week, i am gonna miss it for sure. Please help me out of this situation.
Thanks again

[Mystarch89]

There have been glitches on the ukvi appt booking system from what i was informed last.

The booking is there , but unfortunately u get timed out of it. U can email support and ask them to verify and send u the confirmation reference for it , or what most other people do is attempt to book another one (however u would not have to go through the payment page anymore).

[Johnvick]

Hi everyone,
I have been trying to book premium Service for last 3 weeks . Finally i have managed to book one last night! But it wasn’t completely done! Here i am needed your help.
After selecting date and time I entered my card details and clicked saved and continue. I haven’t set any security for my card payment so it was pass through worldpay and a dialbox appears showing processing......
and its kept processing 15 min. I lost my patience and logged in my ukvi acc through another mobile and it showed payment successful.
The page was like payment successful
But bottom of this page there was written “you have few steps to complete
To complete click save and continue.”
However, when I click save and continue it says “The time you have taken for payment was too long and your application for appointment was expired” !!
I got an email with successful payment confirmation and ukvi ref number. But they said applications was expired and i must rebook appointment. They have taken money from my account as well.
Please help me in this situation. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks all

Hi Miithu18,
Even though i have finished my payment in 3-5 mins ,this happened me twice in 4 days .First time i paid on Aug 28 for croydon and i got the same message like you .I quickly took money from my friends and tried again on Aug 31 and selected Belfast and paid in 3-5 mins again .I again got the same message .Contacted HO both times but the response is same .They gave me 2 email id's 1 with ApplyOnLineE-Support@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk and the other techincaPSCAppointmentRefunds@homeoffice.gov.uk.Sent an email to the first one and they said they cannot do anything other than to send an email to the second email id and get a refund . I would say better to pay with credit card so that if we face this kind of problem we can atleast call and cancel the transaction so we dont have to wait for 4 weeks for refund

[Aug01]

Hi massit,

Sorry to hear that man. Did you contact HO to confirm that your appointment is indeed voided? I read a lot people saying that they get one email saying successfully booked appointment but they receive another saying otherwise. But the appointment is actually booked. If you haven’t already, I do suggest you contact HO to confirm.
As for booking for you, I am really sorry but I cannot do that, as having your link means I get access to all your information and privacy, which could be trouble for both of us.

Set the interval for 20 sec, while the distill is refreshing for you, have another tab available as exact same page of distill (same location), that way, once you hear the alarm, refresh the other tab immediately so there will be no delay. Hope this helps and best of luck!

Hi again,
I did contact HO and they said if you have not received any BRN then you have to do it again and there is nothing in our system and we have forwarded your case to our IT team regarding your payment. (Still waiting for their IT team reply)

I am using 2 laptop and 3 browsers and each centre is being monitored by distill but so far I did not receive any changes notification, may be coz I only do it at my work timing like 11 to 7pm, do you reckon that I should leave my laptops on all night? lol even if they get available at night then how am I going to get up with that little buzz tone. when did you get your appointment available?(what time of the day).

I have learnt this over 3 weeks that its impossible to get appointment at 12am coz there is so much traffic on website.
thank you for your interest

Hi Massit,

I have been trying since thursday to get the appointment however, I tried on sun 26 August and I got for 4 oct but my visa was expiring on 1 oct. But today I reschedule my appointment.

So based on my assessment, I would advise you to focus on Cordyon and liverpool from 6:30 Am till 10:00 AM because since Friday they are releasing very limited schedule during midnight but from 6:00 am till 10:00 you can find alot of Appointments. Moreover, keep the following payment details handy cause you have very small window of time to complete your payment:

Credit Card Type, Card no., Card expiry date, Security no., sort code and your address.

They will ask you same information twice.

And ofcourse distill work for me as well. I have installed auto refresh extension along with distill and set auto refresh on 20 sec interval while distill on 15 sec interval.

I hope you will get the appointments

Hi Eastwood and Noorwani,
Thank you so much for your help, I left distill on for whole night and in the morning at 9.10 I got an appointment for 15th of sep in croydon, with additional cost and after 5 minuted I tried again and got normal appointment for 17th sep but now they are releasing from 9th of oct.
thank you so much once again everyone

Hi Massitt

How were you able to leave distill on overnight? The HO system logs me off after 25 minutes. Does distill work even when logged off the HO system?