Spouse visa delay while previous application is investigated

[bob123a]

I'm hoping someone could advise on what we can expect in these circumstances.

My wife is from Tanzania and was living in the UK for 8 years. She had applied for leave to remain on the grounds of ancestry in 2005, yet was still waiting for a decision this summer.

We wanted to get married but couldn't do so here in UK as she had no visa, so we decided to travel to Tanzania and got married there in September. Before leaving the UK she withdrew her application.

After the wedding we applied for a spouse visa in Tanzania and were expecting to recieve it this week, but when she went to the UK high commission she was told there is a delay because they had asked the home office in the uk to check the details of the previous (withdrawn) application.

I phoned the visa section at the high commission and they couldn't give me an expected time for a decision to be made. (I asked if it was likely to be days or weeks and was told to expect it to take weeks).

Given that they sat on her previous application for over 2 and a half years with no decision we are worried that this could take a long time. Could anyone suggest what we can expect to happen now?

Many thanks.

[estell47]

hello there, sorry to hear about your situation. i am also facing the same situation, i was an overstayer, i had made an application with my british partner to the home office in 2006 outside the rules, we withdrew this application shortly before i travelled to uganda in august, where i submitted an entry clearance application as an unmarried partner, was interviewed on 15th october, and i was told my application would be reffered to home office to investigate previous application... i found this confusing because once you exit the country it should be withdrawn any way, i also handed in copy of withdrawal letter.... they obviously love to frustrate...we left the uk to avoid the so called back log and they did exactly that, send our applications back there.... do let me know what happens as i will. i am also anxiously waiting, hopefully for a positive result!

[bob123a]

Thanks estell47 for your reply. My wife had her interview around the same time, although it was more of an appointment to hand over the documents etc as they didn't really interview her.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?