**** COVID19 and UKVCAS Appointments **** (ONLY discuss here)

[hobba2008]

Are these new centres to open to expand service delivery or are they re-opening centres that closed due to pandemic?

I am waiting patiently and hoping that we will get biometrics invitation email soon.

However, by analysing all situation, it seems that many people have opted out and UKVCAS fell into another trouble. They asked people to optout by sending emails which looks like a manual process and is only appropriate for few people.

If few thousand or even few hundred people opted out at same time then it's not easily possible to process that list manually. Getting details from emails and marking in system manually is a bit of work. According to my opinion, if they don't have any automated system and they are trying to use manual approach this may be the reason of this delay.

Hi,
I agree that the manual approach may be the reason for the delay. But whether it is manual or automatic approach, they should stick to the commitment of allowing people who opted out to book online at least by Friday night this week. Thanks. Regards.

They are using manual approach, it's now confirmed by UKVCAS as reported by other member in following post:

https://www.immigrationboards.com/briti ... l#p1923017

I think there could be one other reason as well for this delay, following service points were scheduled to open from 10th August and 17th August. The services point which were announced to open from 10th August are already delayed and as a result this caused delay for offering appointments to people who opted out until 10th Aug deadline. I hope as soon as these service points are opened they will start inviting people.

They failed in many of their commitments so far, no body knows how much delay will be there for IDV app, that is technically bigger challenge as compared to other issues.

Service Point Forecast to open during
Gloucester w/c 10 August
Hemel Hempstead w/c 10 August
London - Stratford w/c 10 August
Reading w/c 10 August
Wolverhampton w/c 10 August
Aberdeen w/c 17 August
Coventry w/c 17 August

The above details is taken from following UKVCAS official page:
https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/flash-message- ... geId=56249

[Enrique1]

Hi Cullinan,

So question is can I travel in the meantime as there are different views on this

Hello, no you can NOT travel. You most probably would have read my comments in the British Citizenship (BC) forum. Note, ILR falls under the immigration rules and British Citizenship falls under the Nationality Law.

If you have applied for ILR or any immigration application, you can NOT travel even if you have the originals. The previous user rightly pointed it out. If you do, your application will be considered withdrawn.

Anyone who ALREADY has ILR and has applied for BC, has no restrictions to travel.

Hope it is clear now.

Thank you Cullinan and Typhoon,

I knew about this detail for travel from my memory but the guy in the help call center for CIH-Covid at 0800 681767 told I can travel so thought "Is there any new procedure as goodwill support for immigrants who are in difficult situation. May be expecting too much considerate behaviour from them .
I wish they had done this... but an not take a risk unless I receive an email reply to my enquiry on this resent yesterday after 3 weeks wait with no reply... as this call center agent did not want to send this information to me by email.
This is a bit shame on them now as they are not giving correct advise in this critical period then... £2400 fee and this is the service for better tax payers than many passport holders since birth!!!

This is what I received from CIH help line:
""" Thank you for contacting the Home Office Coronavirus Immigration Team.

The UK Immigration Rules make provisions to prevent migrants from becoming overstayers, by extending their leave while they are:

·     awaiting a decision on an in-time application, i.e. an immigration application was submitted prior to the expiry date of a previously granted period of leave

·     exercising a right of appeal against the refusal of such an application, or within a period when an appeal can be sought

·     pursuing an administrative review against the refusal of such an application, or within a period when an administrative review can be sought.

This temporary extension of leave is known as 3C leave. During 3C leave, migrants are considered to be under the same visa conditions as applied to them during their last period of granted leave.

3C leave ends if:

·     you leave the United Kingdom

·     your outstanding application is withdrawn, rejected, decided or void

·     your appeal or administrative review is concluded

·     (in the case of administrative reviews only) you make a further immigration application

Please continue to check the GOV.UK website, where up to date advice is published. """

So if this is the reason they do not allow travel, then in my case I must be able to travel as my current visa expires in 2022, but again there is no comment referencing my particular case. Not helpful enough as does not give advice on my case.

Any thoughts from anyone?

[sk1984]

Hi all,

I am currently on Tier 2 General and submitted my application for Set (LR) on 10th July. I opted out of the IDV app on 6th August, well before the 10th August deadline.
I called up the UKVCAS call centre today, waited for almost an hour in the queue only to be told that they have no visibility on when they can send the appointment booking emails. I explained him that I opted out because of the urgency (due to redundancy and unable to apply for any other job based on current visa) and asked him if there is a way to expedite the appointment, to which he declined and asked me to just wait for the email.
I asked if there is any update on IDV app and whether the app way was going to be faster, and he couldn't confirm the same. There is nothing much to do than just wait.. but i could end up being job less for months until i get ILR!

Hope we get the appointments soon. Good luck everyone.

Extremely pathetic, aftermath of covid seems to be worse than COVID. If they have no update, why these paid useless call centre are still open ? This is extreme callousness on display from UKVI and UKVACS.
Regarding app, I still wonder whether they are developing an APP or new version of windows or IOS .

[jameswilliamson6544]

The forecast on when more centres will open keeps changing. This is utter incompetence and total disrespect to the applicants, who are paying customers.

Since UKVI has created a monopoly of UKVCAS, there is nothing an applicant can reasonably do, other than keep getting false & misleading information through the website.

For one particular centre, it was w/c 27th July, then w/c 10th Aug and today it has been marked to w/c 24th Aug

This is very bad that they waited till mid-day Thursday to update that a service centre which was due to open this week will not open for another 2 weeks.

01-Jun to 10-Jun 12 open
11-Jun to 20-Jun none
21-Jun to 30-Jun 5 open
01-Jul to 10-Jul 4 open
11-Jul to 20-Jul 10 open
21-Jul to 31-Jul 1 open
01-Aug to 10-Aug 5 open
11-Aug to 20-Aug 1 open
21-Aug to 31-Aug 6 open
01-Sep to 10-Sep none
11-Sep to 20-Sep 2 open
21-Sep to 30-Sep 4 open

[Parisiana]

Hi all,

I am currently on Tier 2 General and submitted my application for Set (LR) on 10th July. I opted out of the IDV app on 6th August, well before the 10th August deadline.
I called up the UKVCAS call centre today, waited for almost an hour in the queue only to be told that they have no visibility on when they can send the appointment booking emails. I explained him that I opted out because of the urgency (due to redundancy and unable to apply for any other job based on current visa) and asked him if there is a way to expedite the appointment, to which he declined and asked me to just wait for the email.
I asked if there is any update on IDV app and whether the app way was going to be faster, and he couldn't confirm the same. There is nothing much to do than just wait.. but i could end up being job less for months until i get ILR!

Hope we get the appointments soon. Good luck everyone.

they promised emails this week, that is why we decided to opt-out (I applied in April and it is Set O), what does it mean they don't have visibility, in the beginning of the week ukvcas said they are sending emails in a few days, yesterday they told someone that next week and today they have no visibility... this is absurd, it can be going forever...

Agree, they gave an official timeline to thousands of applicants by email saying that appointments will be released this week (which gives them until Sunday). We would have enough grounds for a lawsuit if the appointment email is not sent out by then. Many applicants (including myself) have made plans around this timeline that cost time and money. They should show some respect to our time and commitments.

[jameswilliamson6544]

Agree, they gave an official timeline to thousands of applicants by email saying that appointments will be released this week (which gives them until Sunday).

You should submit a formal complaint at: https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/contact-us/complaint

UKVCAS (as per contract with UKVI must by law) do the following:

• acknowledgement of the complaint being received will be within twenty- four (24) hours () and investigated within five (5) days as to whether the complaint is found to be substantiated or unsubstantiated.
• where a complaint is assessed as being unsubstantiated the Supplier will provide a response to the Customer within five (5) working days advising the complainant of the outcome.
• if the complaint is substantiated a substantive response will be provided to a complainant within twenty (20) working days where a complaint has been Substantiated.

[Thomas_84]

Spoken to ukvcas. And they were not accepting that they sent any email with deadline of 10th August but the only deadline which was given for opt out is 7th. Moreover, they were unable to find my email which I sent to opt out. So I resent these again. No news about when they would allow the biometrics of those who opted out.

Has anyone else contacted ukvcas to check if they have received your opt out emails?

This is not fair, if they don't send biometric invitation emails in this week than all members should make complain on whatever appropriate platform about this unfair and unprofessional attitude. We have evidence in the email, where they clearly mentioned 7th and 10th Aug deadlines and that invitation will be sent in week starting from 10th Aug.

This may make some impact and this may improve things in future or at-least they may stop giving false and misleading information.

Has anyone opting out with deadline of 7th got the invitation yet? Bcz that's what they are stressing on and not admitting that theres any deadline given of 10th?

Nothing yet.

[Thomas_84]

Do not trust anything a customer representative says on the phone. They have no idea what is going on, and usually make up stuff or are not up to date with their knowledge.

But yeah, if UKVCAS fails again with optout emails then they deserve a lawsuit.

Spoken to ukvcas. And they were not accepting that they sent any email with deadline of 10th August but the only deadline which was given for opt out is 7th. Moreover, they were unable to find my email which I sent to opt out. So I resent these again. No news about when they would allow the biometrics of those who opted out.

Has anyone else contacted ukvcas to check if they have received your opt out emails?

I will call this afternoon, but I really now lost the hope that there is at least 1 competent person there, always lie, misleading and false information. I opted out on 5 August, and yes, the week commencing 10 is almost over

Yes, one more day to end this week.

[Thomas_84]

Do not trust anything a customer representative says on the phone. They have no idea what is going on, and usually make up stuff or are not up to date with their knowledge.

But yeah, if UKVCAS fails again with optout emails then they deserve a lawsuit.

Spoken to ukvcas. And they were not accepting that they sent any email with deadline of 10th August but the only deadline which was given for opt out is 7th. Moreover, they were unable to find my email which I sent to opt out. So I resent these again. No news about when they would allow the biometrics of those who opted out.

Has anyone else contacted ukvcas to check if they have received your opt out emails?

I will call this afternoon, but I really now lost the hope that there is at least 1 competent person there, always lie, misleading and false information. I opted out on 5 August, and yes, the week commencing 10 is almost over

Yes, 1 more day to end this week.

[gc362952246]

The forecast on when more centres will open keeps changing. This is utter incompetence and total disrespect to the applicants, who are paying customers.

Since UKVI has created a monopoly of UKVCAS, there is nothing an applicant can reasonably do, other than keep getting false & misleading information through the website.

For one particular centre, it was w/c 27th July, then w/c 10th Aug and today it has been marked to w/c 24th Aug

This is very bad that they waited till mid-day Thursday to update that a service centre which was due to open this week will not open for another 2 weeks.

01-Jun to 10-Jun 12 open
11-Jun to 20-Jun none
21-Jun to 30-Jun 5 open
01-Jul to 10-Jul 4 open
11-Jul to 20-Jul 10 open
21-Jul to 31-Jul 1 open
01-Aug to 10-Aug 5 open
11-Aug to 20-Aug 1 open
21-Aug to 31-Aug 6 open
01-Sep to 10-Sep none
11-Sep to 20-Sep 2 open
21-Sep to 30-Sep 4 open

Any grocery shops can do better than UKvcas

[Thomas_84]

Hi all,

I am currently on Tier 2 General and submitted my application for Set (LR) on 10th July. I opted out of the IDV app on 6th August, well before the 10th August deadline.
I called up the UKVCAS call centre today, waited for almost an hour in the queue only to be told that they have no visibility on when they can send the appointment booking emails. I explained him that I opted out because of the urgency (due to redundancy and unable to apply for any other job based on current visa) and asked him if there is a way to expedite the appointment, to which he declined and asked me to just wait for the email.
I asked if there is any update on IDV app and whether the app way was going to be faster, and he couldn't confirm the same. There is nothing much to do than just wait.. but i could end up being job less for months until i get ILR!

Hope we get the appointments soon. Good luck everyone.

Yes, no point in calling them. All we can do is just sit & wait forever. I will also lose my job offer soon if they don't send me an email & end up being jobless this whole year .

[AnILRApplicant]

I agree 100% with everything that's being said. I dont think Sopra Steria should be able to renege on something so vital. We need to be given access as promised since we've opted out.

It's farcical and I too had set expectations around a timeline of getting an appointment over the next 2 weeks. Their behaviour got unfunny a few weeks back and now it's downright cruel. People are losing jobs, being made redundant, not able to see family, trapped and they pull a trick like this?! It's madness and unacceptable.

[Parisiana]

Agree, they gave an official timeline to thousands of applicants by email saying that appointments will be released this week (which gives them until Sunday).

You should submit a formal complaint at: https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/contact-us/complaint

UKVCAS (as per contract with UKVI must by law) do the following:

• acknowledgement of the complaint being received will be within twenty- four (24) hours () and investigated within five (5) days as to whether the complaint is found to be substantiated or unsubstantiated.
• where a complaint is assessed as being unsubstantiated the Supplier will provide a response to the Customer within five (5) working days advising the complainant of the outcome.
• if the complaint is substantiated a substantive response will be provided to a complainant within twenty (20) working days where a complaint has been Substantiated.

Will do if we don't receive anything by Sunday.

[Ptnbbr]

Agree, they gave an official timeline to thousands of applicants by email saying that appointments will be released this week (which gives them until Sunday).

You should submit a formal complaint at: https://www.ukvcas.co.uk/contact-us/complaint

UKVCAS (as per contract with UKVI must by law) do the following:

• acknowledgement of the complaint being received will be within twenty- four (24) hours () and investigated within five (5) days as to whether the complaint is found to be substantiated or unsubstantiated.
• where a complaint is assessed as being unsubstantiated the Supplier will provide a response to the Customer within five (5) working days advising the complainant of the outcome.
• if the complaint is substantiated a substantive response will be provided to a complainant within twenty (20) working days where a complaint has been Substantiated.

Will do if we don't receive anything by Sunday.

I will do too, we all should quote their timeline from official email and complaint, I just think do the UKVI and HO not care about this circus at al?..

[atao]

It's apparent that people who weren't in reuse category were lucky enough to get appointments and decisions. People who are in the reuse category and applied in March-May effected the most. It feels like now to clean that mess up, they will need to pause on all August applicants (regadless of reuse or not) and they will be the new unlucky March-May people who probably will need to wait until October. Good example on how not to handle distruption to business.

[usernameswan]

Called UKVCAS this afternoon, asked questions similar to others, no useful information at all. they either told me 'don't know' or 'can't see it from the system'. Not sure how this could be called as 'support line', what are they supporting?

[ap1410]

Lets just hope the emails go out latest by tomorrow , the biometric IDV App emails were mostly sent on Friday ( end of week ) and Saturday...

[tbp]

It is clear as a daylight that UKVCAS (Sopra Steria) can't handle this job. UKVI did not need this company to run a service like this.

Instead of uploading files to UKVCAS website, we could simply upload everything on a UKVI webpage and go do biometrics at a postoffice just like in the past. There wouldn't be any backlog whatsoever if that was the case as the UKVI caseworkers continued to work and postoffices were open all this time.

UKVI awarded a corrupted company and that added another layer of bureaucracy to all this mess.

[iamawonder]

It is clear as a daylight that UKVCAS (Sopra Steria) can't handle this job. UKVI did not need this company to run a service like this.

Instead of uploading files to UKVCAS website, we could simply upload everything on a UKVI webpage and go do biometrics at a postoffice just like in the past. There wouldn't be any backlog whatsoever if that was the case as the UKVI caseworkers continued to work and postoffices were open all this time.

UKVI awarded a corrupted company and that added another layer of bureaucracy to all this mess.

Post office was much more efficient. Not sure why Home Office decided to fix something which wasn't broken.
Sopra Steria is simply profiteering over the fate of hapless immigrants. Even in non Covid times, there were several criticisms published in the media (an example below).
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... vate-firms

The way this whole business of visa runs needs to be investigated!!

[saquebahmed]

Hi all,

I am currently on Tier 2 General and submitted my application for Set (LR) on 10th July. I opted out of the IDV app on 6th August, well before the 10th August deadline.
I called up the UKVCAS call centre today, waited for almost an hour in the queue only to be told that they have no visibility on when they can send the appointment booking emails. I explained him that I opted out because of the urgency (due to redundancy and unable to apply for any other job based on current visa) and asked him if there is a way to expedite the appointment, to which he declined and asked me to just wait for the email.
I asked if there is any update on IDV app and whether the app way was going to be faster, and he couldn't confirm the same. There is nothing much to do than just wait.. but i could end up being job less for months until i get ILR!

Hope we get the appointments soon. Good luck everyone.

Yes, no point in calling them. All we can do is just sit & wait forever. I will also lose my job offer soon if they don't send me an email & end up being jobless this whole year .

buddy why would you loose a job offer - your work right is continuous, ask your new employer to raise Employee Checking Service verification online
https://www.immigrationstatuscheck.serv ... employers/
and they should receive positive verification on your work right valid for 6 months. i started a new job post ILR application as well and followed this route for right to work check

[gc362952246]

Hi all,

I am currently on Tier 2 General and submitted my application for Set (LR) on 10th July. I opted out of the IDV app on 6th August, well before the 10th August deadline.
I called up the UKVCAS call centre today, waited for almost an hour in the queue only to be told that they have no visibility on when they can send the appointment booking emails. I explained him that I opted out because of the urgency (due to redundancy and unable to apply for any other job based on current visa) and asked him if there is a way to expedite the appointment, to which he declined and asked me to just wait for the email.
I asked if there is any update on IDV app and whether the app way was going to be faster, and he couldn't confirm the same. There is nothing much to do than just wait.. but i could end up being job less for months until i get ILR!

Hope we get the appointments soon. Good luck everyone.

Yes, no point in calling them. All we can do is just sit & wait forever. I will also lose my job offer soon if they don't send me an email & end up being jobless this whole year .

buddy why would you loose a job offer - your work right is continuous, ask your new employer to raise Employee Checking Service verification online
https://www.immigrationstatuscheck.serv ... employers/
and they should receive positive verification on your work right valid for 6 months. i started a new job post ILR application as well and followed this route for right to work check

You don’t understand.
For current tier 2 holder who applied for ILR, the visa status continues. This means we can’t change employer until a decision is made. Because of this backlog, we are left clueless in terms of when a decision will be made. Therefore we can’t change job! And offers are on limbo because no company can wait us with no indication of starting time!

[saquebahmed]

Hi all,

I am currently on Tier 2 General and submitted my application for Set (LR) on 10th July. I opted out of the IDV app on 6th August, well before the 10th August deadline.
I called up the UKVCAS call centre today, waited for almost an hour in the queue only to be told that they have no visibility on when they can send the appointment booking emails. I explained him that I opted out because of the urgency (due to redundancy and unable to apply for any other job based on current visa) and asked him if there is a way to expedite the appointment, to which he declined and asked me to just wait for the email.
I asked if there is any update on IDV app and whether the app way was going to be faster, and he couldn't confirm the same. There is nothing much to do than just wait.. but i could end up being job less for months until i get ILR!

Hope we get the appointments soon. Good luck everyone.

Yes, no point in calling them. All we can do is just sit & wait forever. I will also lose my job offer soon if they don't send me an email & end up being jobless this whole year .

buddy why would you loose a job offer - your work right is continuous, ask your new employer to raise Employee Checking Service verification online
https://www.immigrationstatuscheck.serv ... employers/
and they should receive positive verification on your work right valid for 6 months. i started a new job post ILR application as well and followed this route for right to work check

You don’t understand.
For current tier 2 holder who applied for ILR, the visa status continues. This means we can’t change employer until a decision is made. Because of this backlog, we are left clueless in terms of when a decision will be made. Therefore we can’t change job! And offers are on limbo because no company can wait us with no indication of starting time!

Aaaah - i didnt read that you have applied under T2, we should seriously consider legal proceeding against UKVI/Sopra Steria.

[cosmictbt]

appointments opened !!!

[CULLINAN]

appointments opened !!!

User “fanta” in BC forum also reported the same. Seems like appointments are open for those who opted out.

[gc362952246]

appointments opened !!!

Are you able to view appointments now??

Omg! Yes! I booked one tomorrow 8am at Croydon! 135 pound!!!