Tips for booking a Public Enquiries Office appt?

[litzie132]

I am American and have been in the UK for almost five years, for the last two years on a probationary spouse visa, which is set to expire on 3 September. I travel a lot for work and so had always planned to make a premium appointment to submit my indefinite leave to remain application, but I thought from the instructions about not having an appt 'before 28 days before the end of your visa' that I couldn't book an appt until then. When I went to book the appointment, I discovered there are no appointments available before 3 September, anywhere in the UK.

But it seems like there are no appointments available after 3 Sept either! I checked to see if I could book an appointment further in advance, but nothing was available. I called just to make sure the system was working, and the (very bored and annoyed) UKBA person on the phone told me that they are just very busy, and no appointments are available at the moment at any location, and that I should just keep checking online for cancellations or make my application by post.

It would be hugely professionally embarrassing for me to have to do the application by post because I'm already meant to be travelling in November (tickets booked - just never had any trouble getting an appt in my previous visa shenanigans, it never occurred to me that I might not be able to apply in person), but I'm resigned to the idea that I may have to do that.

However! I am still checking the website constantly for any cancellations, and looking into the Settlement Checking Service.

So! My questions:

1) Anyone have any advice about how best to get one of these mystical cancelled appointments? I'm willing to travel to any location, I check them all regularly, and any time until the 31st August because of course the 3rd is a monday and it seems reckless to actually leave it to the very last day. Are there any times of day/night it's best to go for an appt?

2) Has anyone had any experience with a Settlement Checking Service? Does it make the application get processed any faster?

3) Did everyone know that there's such a thing as a 'Super Premium Appointment'? The UKBA woman offered it to me when I wouldn't get off the phone and kept asking if there wasn't anything I could do to improve my chances of getting an appointment. - she said I could have a Super Premium Appointment if I was willing to pay over SIX THOUSAND POUNDS. This was news to me as they certainly don't mention such things on their website! So basically, the rich can just throw their money around and not worry with the rest of us...I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

T

[cs95tdg]

1) Appointments (new & cancellations) get released 42 days in advance at around midnight. As there is a very high demand for these, they disappear quite quickly. In addition to this the UKBA appointment booking system is rather primitive, by that I mean it throws error messages quite frequently & also doesn't lock a timeslot until you actually fill your details and submit the form. So it is literally a race against anyone else who has logged in at the same time as you & who may have also selected the same timeslot. The person who submits first, wins!

So what you'd have to do is first decide the appointment date you want, then count 42 days backwards from that date, then login a few minutes before midnight on the day with everything ready to book your appointment. Hopefully you'll find one... User experiences are mixed on this forum... So I think luck comes to play here as well.

2) I've not personally used this, so will leave this one for someone else to comment on.

3) Yes, there is such a thing... While the price does sound exorbitant, from what I gather some have made it work, by gathering a group of 10 people to apply at a single location on a agreed day. The reason being that the £6000 premium can be split amongst a maximum group of 10 applicants. http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/about ... r-premium/

[Casa]

Bear in mind that in addition to the £6,000 fee there's also the cost of the visa.

[litzie132]

Thanks so much for the info.

So there are no cancellations released at any other time than midnight? I just want to make sure there's no point in checking randomly during the day.

Unfortunately I missed the 42 days previous option, because I thought I couldn't book an appt until 28 days before my visa expired. Any tips on specifically getting cancellations?

And final question - there's no way to extend my visa for like two weeks or a month, is there?

Thanks!

[Casa]

Log-in every day just before midnight as the system's only updated then. There's no extension for what you need. An FLR(M) extension would require the same booking process. Legal reps have slots, and can submit an application in person for you, but they now require 5 weeks notice to be able to secure one as the procedure for this is not a flexible as it was in the past.

[themember]

+1