Hi Alish60 & Casnel,
i am also in the same boat,i applied for my wife on 29th January only received the acknowledgement letter on 1st of feb,note the following
1-if you see most the of the approval letter coming after 11 to 12 days through royalmail by 2nd class post,i can not understand why some people received the letter after 3 days and some of after 12 days ?
2-i called the nationality office but they said their call center is closed now & they are not dealing any inquiry over the telephone,he gave me email id which is
NationalityProgress@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk,i sent the email but surprise they are very quick on reply back this email id,if you send email now,you will get the response within 2 working days.
3-they said they deal every application on date order but they are not,they increasing fee every April but not updating the systems.there is also very interesting comments on the following link
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ ... ing_timeli
4-Spain which is developing country of the europe and highest un employement rate,they have very good online tracking system,where you can track your application on every stage.
as this is civil services no one can force them for quicker processing.