Extension to spouse visa - help please!

[mhs_UK]

Dear all,

I am new to this forum so would appreciate your help specially the gurus!

My circumstances are: I am UK national (through 4 year work permit + 1 year on ILR) and my wife is dual national (USA/Pakistani). She came to UK on 10th April 2007 and her spouse visa is valid until 24th Feb 2009. We got her visa on 24th Feb 2007 but she couldn't come to UK within 28 days of visa issued due to family reasons and that's why we're applying for the extension.

Now we have applied for the extension using FLR(M) form through post and sent the application on 5th January with all the required documents and got the acknowledgement letter on 9th Jan which is good news indeed. We got another letter just yesterday to book an appointment for biometrics as part of ID card. I have been trying to ring the call center for appointment since I got the letter and everytime I speak to the person on line says that 'unfortunately our system is down and we can't book the appointment at the moment'. This is really frustating and I have wasted almost a day and a half and still no where near booking the system.

I am just getting worried that how long it's going to take before I can book the appointment. We need to travel abroad on 16th March and I am getting more worried if we'll get the extension and our passports back in time at all.

Another question I want to ask is if someone has the similar experience and do you know how long it took to get the visa back after the biometric?

Many thanks and would appreciate your help!

MHS.

[mhs_UK]

And can I also ask if someone has experience of getting extension of spouse visa, how long they got it for? I mean did they just got the top-up to cover two years or it wsas granted for slightly longer?

Many thanks,
MHS