Settlement Visa from India : Timeline

[Amneet]

hiiiii Geet and snehal thanks for your wishes.Today I got my visa APPROVED.
Hope your wait wont be long and you will get ur visas.
Best wishes to you guys.


GeetL dnt wry about the 'no current status'.Emailing to ukvi is waste of time. But i hope you will get processed message soon.

[snehal125]

hiiiii Geet and snehal thanks for your wishes.Today I got my visa APPROVED.
Hope your wait wont be long and you will get ur visas.
Best wishes to you guys.


GeetL dnt wry about the 'no current status'.Emailing to ukvi is waste of time. But i hope you will get processed message soon.

Thanks for your wish amneet. and congratulation once again.
I hope mumbai ukvi process soon as per their processing date.

[GeetL]

hiiiii Geet and snehal thanks for your wishes.Today I got my visa APPROVED.
Hope your wait wont be long and you will get ur visas.
Best wishes to you guys.


GeetL dnt wry about the 'no current status'.Emailing to ukvi is waste of time. But i hope you will get processed message soon.

Thanks Amneet, that's really very wonderful news for you! Really pleased the wait is finally over. I hope to God that our wait isn't too long.

I called the helpline yesterday and they had no record of our application but they've escalated and seems like they have foun it and I've now had an email to say it's under processing. Really hope they grant it soon. We are on week 9 from next Monday so have my fingers crossed.

Best of luck with your travel and future life to the UK. Welcome for when you arrive here

[VJ143]

Hello all,

i'm a keen follower of this thread , I'm on ILR and my wife is on ILR dependent, we have applied for Settlement visa for our son. Here are the details.

Date of Application in VFS Center : 20 May, 2015
VFS Center : Chennai
Received at High Commission on : 26 May,2015
Visa Category : Settlement (child)
Any interview date : No interview.
Received 'not straignt forward mail' on : 11 June 2015
Received 'Pay IHS' mail on : 11 June 2015
IHS Paid on : 11 June 2015

Sent to blue dart/ VFS center:
Passport collected on:
Visa Approval Status:
Total time take :


Today we have received a mail stating

"As part of your application for Entry clearance you have made a payment of £ 600 in respect of the Health Surcharge. The amount you have paid for health surcharge will now be refunded, as this is not applicable for your application.

The refund will happen automatically. Payment will be made to the card used to pay the Health Surcharge"


I'm not sure what to make of it and bit confused. , does this also mean our application is concluded ?

[miss_uk98]

hi everyone im keen follower,

British citizen applied for my husbands visa and got refused after being on hold for months last year.

reapplied fresh application on 27th may 2015. received message that it has been forwarded to bhc. no news yet and its been 19 working days so far. i know its too early to expect results.

every1 here iam following your timeline. it seems some people are getting visas faster than others. wonder what could be the reason?

[miss_uk98]

Hello all,

i'm a keen follower of this thread , I'm on ILR and my wife is on ILR dependent, we have applied for Settlement visa for our son. Here are the details.

Date of Application in VFS Center : 20 May, 2015
VFS Center : Chennai
Received at High Commission on : 26 May,2015
Visa Category : Settlement (child)
Any interview date : No interview.
Received 'not straignt forward mail' on : 11 June 2015
Received 'Pay IHS' mail on : 11 June 2015
IHS Paid on : 11 June 2015

Sent to blue dart/ VFS center:

Passport collected on:
Visa Approval Status:
Total time take :


Today we have received a mail stating

"As part of your application for Entry clearance you have made a payment of £ 600 in respect of the Health Surcharge. The amount you have paid for health surcharge will now be refunded, as this is not applicable for your application.

The refund will happen automatically. Payment will be made to the card used to pay the Health Surcharge"


I'm not sure what to make of it and bit confused. , does this also mean our application is concluded ?

probably yes, i think because its a child application the surcharge may not apply thats why its been refunded. hope for the best.

[snehal125]

hi everyone im keen follower,

British citizen applied for my husbands visa and got refused after being on hold for months last year.

reapplied fresh application on 27th may 2015. received message that it has been forwarded to bhc. no news yet and its been 19 working days so far. i know its too early to expect results.

every1 here iam following your timeline. it seems some people are getting visas faster than o
others. wonder what could be the reason?

Please post your timeline and the vfs location.
Thank you.
And we also couldnt underst and on what basis some application accessed very early. we just have to stick to their 60 working days and if you are lucky hopefully your decision comes very soon.

[miss_uk98]

Date of Application in VFS Center : 27 May, 2015
VFS Center : delhi
Received at High Commission on : 28 May,2015 ( message received)
Visa Category : Settlement (husband)
paid health surcharge when made application.

[sid939245]

Hi,
I have made the application on May 18th at VFS Hyderabad.

I have requested for the status of application today (23/06/2015) and got a reply like this

"We understand that you would like to know about the current status of your
visa application. I have tracked the status (xxxxxxxxxx) and date of birth
XX/XX/XXXX) and found that there are no current updates. This could be
because your application was submitted recently or the details that you
have provided above are incorrect."


I have checked it last Monday (15/06/2015)as well where they mentioned

"We understand that you would like to know about the current status of your
visa application. I have tracked the status of your application and found
that your application has not yet been assessed by an Entry Clearance
Officer (ECO). Each application is assessed individually and processing
times may vary, hence applicants are requested to be patient whilst
processing is completed. Your visa application centre or the entry
clearance officer (ECO) will contact you once a decision has been made or,
if necessary, during the consideration of your application.

I am really confused on what they are saying. I have seen previous posts where GEETL and some other people have a similar issue. Does anyone know what does it mean?

[VJ143]

missuk_98 , it seems to be the case, Today we have received a mail saying documents have been sent to VFS, Fingers crossed !!


Date of Application in VFS Center : 20 May, 2015
VFS Center : Chennai
Received at High Commission on : 26 May,2015
Visa Category : Settlement (child)
Any interview date : No interview.
Received 'not straignt forward mail' on : 11 June 2015
Received 'Pay IHS' mail on : 11 June 2015
IHS Paid on : 11 June 2015
IHS refunded- not required : 22 June 2015
Sent VFS center : 23 June 2015
Passport collected on:
Visa Approval Status:
Total time take :

[GeetL]

Hi Sid939245,

I don't think any one knows what these responses mean. I had to call them because I kept getting the no updates email for three weeks continuously. My gut feeling is that they hadn't even touched our application until Friday. Based on some other people who have got that email below, that "could" mean that they are working through your application but they don't have anything to update you about. You could call and check to see what they say as that's what I ended up doing. They contacted me by email to ask for more details, upon replying I got a message later in the day as follows:

We understand that you would like to know about the current status of your
visa application. I have tracked the status (GWFxxxxxxxxxx and date of birth
xxxxxxx) and found that application is currently in progress. Your visa
application centre or the entry clearance officer will contact you once a
decision has been made or, if necessary, during the consideration of your
application.

Though we try our best to complete the visa application process in 15
working days, each application is subject to an individual assessment and
processing times may vary, hence applicants are requested to be patient and
wait for the processing to be completed. You can check how long you'll have
to wait for a decision on your visa application in your country (if you
applied from outside the UK) by entering your details at the following
link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisat ... on/about/a
bout-our-services

Please note that the actual processing times may vary depending on a range
of factors.

It is written differently to the responses I have seen in this thread from others but based on what others have said, there is no point in trying to read into what the email could mean. It's 40 days for us now and overall the process should be completed in 60 days so we just have to wait and see what they say.

Hi,
I have made the application on May 18th at VFS Hyderabad.

I have requested for the status of application today (23/06/2015) and got a reply like this

"We understand that you would like to know about the current status of your
visa application. I have tracked the status (xxxxxxxxxx) and date of birth
XX/XX/XXXX) and found that there are no current updates. This could be
because your application was submitted recently or the details that you
have provided above are incorrect."


I have checked it last Monday (15/06/2015)as well where they mentioned

"We understand that you would like to know about the current status of your
visa application. I have tracked the status of your application and found
that your application has not yet been assessed by an Entry Clearance
Officer (ECO). Each application is assessed individually and processing
times may vary, hence applicants are requested to be patient whilst
processing is completed. Your visa application centre or the entry
clearance officer (ECO) will contact you once a decision has been made or,
if necessary, during the consideration of your application.

I am really confused on what they are saying. I have seen previous posts where GEETL and some other people have a similar issue. Does anyone know what does it mean?

[sid939245]

Hi GeetL,

Thanks for the quick response.

I was thinking of giving them a call in a week or 2 and c hows things go from there. As u mentioned your application is in progress, I hope u get a quick response. Coz last time I applied I got the status msg saying the application is in progress and in less than 2 weeks got the application processed. Of course it was a bad result, and I have to blame myself for not including all the documents.

Hopefully you'll get ur visa soon.

[GeetL]

Thanks Sid,

It's been a long wait if I'm honest and patience has been wearing thin over the last two weeks especially since people who applied around the same time have now got a response. The only thing I wish for is that I hope that after such a long wait, the outcome is positive so that my husband can finally come down.

Good luck with your application - hopefully you will get a positive result and that too soon!

Hi GeetL,

Thanks for the quick response.

I was thinking of giving them a call in a week or 2 and c hows things go from there. As u mentioned your application is in progress, I hope u get a quick response. Coz last time I applied I got the status msg saying the application is in progress and in less than 2 weeks got the application processed. Of course it was a bad result, and I have to blame myself for not including all the documents.

Hopefully you'll get ur visa soon.

[K_Singh]

Hi all,

british citizen and my wife is from india. Been reading some interesting timelines and wanted to share mine.

28th May 2015: Visa application+all documents sent in person at VFS Centre New Delhi
29th May 2015: Health Surcharge payment made and confirmation sent via the email that they provided. (this health surcharge thing was a bit of a surprise!)

All we have is a receipt we were provided on the day of submission (28th may) which we need to surrender once we claim our documents back. There has been no correspondence since then.

I tried tracking the visa application and got the response which goes along the lines of
"I have tracked the status of GWFXX and date of birth xx and found that your application has not yet been assessed by an Entry Clearance Officer (ECO). Each application is assessed individually......processing times etc..."

I dont know if this is a cause of concern or normal?

Hoping they did not just misplace our document and ignore it.

[PariJ]

Hi all,

british citizen and my wife is from india. Been reading some interesting timelines and wanted to share mine.

28th May 2015: Visa application+all documents sent in person at VFS Centre New Delhi
29th May 2015: Health Surcharge payment made and confirmation sent via the email that they provided. (this health surcharge thing was a bit of a surprise!)

All we have is a receipt we were provided on the day of submission (28th may) which we need to surrender once we claim our documents back. There has been no correspondence since then.

I tried tracking the visa application and got the response which goes along the lines of
"I have tracked the status of GWFXX and date of birth xx and found that your application has not yet been assessed by an Entry Clearance Officer (ECO). Each application is assessed individually......processing times etc..."

I dont know if this is a cause of concern or normal?

Hoping they did not just misplace our document and ignore it.

that is standard response ..

[miss_uk98]

[quote="K_Singh"]Hi all,

british citizen and my wife is from india. Been reading some interesting timelines and wanted to share mine.

28th May 2015: Visa application+all documents sent in person at VFS Centre New Delhi
29th May 2015: Health Surcharge payment made and confirmation sent via the email that they provided. (this health surcharge thing was a bit of a surprise!)

All we have is a receipt we were provided on the day of submission (28th may) which we need to surrender once we claim our documents back. There has been no correspondence since then.

I tried tracking the visa application and got the response which goes along the lines of
"I have tracked the status of GWFXX and date of birth xx and found that your application has not yet been assessed by an Entry Clearance Officer (ECO). Each application is assessed individually......processing times etc..."

I dont know if this is a cause of concern or normal?

Hoping they did not just misplace our document and ignore it.[/quote

we have same timeline and location. fingers cross visa gets aprroved at same time. i wont worry if i was you its too early to expect anything. iv been through this twice trust me no need to worry they are asessing every case differently. goodluck

[miss_uk98]

missuk_98 , it seems to be the case, Today we have received a mail saying documents have been sent to VFS, Fingers crossed !!


Date of Application in VFS Center : 20 May, 2015
VFS Center : Chennai
Received at High Commission on : 26 May,2015
Visa Category : Settlement (child)
Any interview date : No interview.
Received 'not straignt forward mail' on : 11 June 2015
Received 'Pay IHS' mail on : 11 June 2015
IHS Paid on : 11 June 2015
IHS refunded- not required : 22 June 2015
Sent VFS center : 23 June 2015
Passport collected on:
Visa Approval Status:
Total time take :

goodluck!!!! let us know plz

[GeetL]

Hi K_Singh,

I don't think there's anything to worry about. You've applied quite recently so it can take some time. We applied for my husband's visa on 27th April and are still waiting for a response if that makes you feel any better. Some people have had a turn around in about 30 days but we are just expecting it in 60 days realistically. Saying that we did apply from Jalandhar VFS and you've applied from Delhi so you may get a response sooner. Hope it's sooner rather than later.

Hi all,

british citizen and my wife is from india. Been reading some interesting timelines and wanted to share mine.

28th May 2015: Visa application+all documents sent in person at VFS Centre New Delhi
29th May 2015: Health Surcharge payment made and confirmation sent via the email that they provided. (this health surcharge thing was a bit of a surprise!)

All we have is a receipt we were provided on the day of submission (28th may) which we need to surrender once we claim our documents back. There has been no correspondence since then.

I tried tracking the visa application and got the response which goes along the lines of
"I have tracked the status of GWFXX and date of birth xx and found that your application has not yet been assessed by an Entry Clearance Officer (ECO). Each application is assessed individually......processing times etc..."

I dont know if this is a cause of concern or normal?

Hoping they did not just misplace our document and ignore it.

[VJ143]

Date of Application in VFS Center : 20 May, 2015
VFS Center : Chennai
Received at High Commission on : 26 May,2015
Visa Category : Settlement (child)
Any interview date : No interview.
Received 'not straignt forward mail' on : 11 June 2015
Received 'Pay IHS' mail on : 11 June 2015
IHS Paid on : 11 June 2015
IHS refunded- not required : 22 June 2015
Sent VFS center : 23 June 2015
Passport collected on: : 24 June 2015
Visa Approval Status: : Approved
Total time take : 35 days ( 25 working days)

we are so happy that we got the VISA so quick !!!

Lessons learned - When you receive ' your case is not straightforward' mail , don't worry.
have a watertight application to get it done quickly

[sid939245]

Date of Application in VFS Center : 20 May, 2015
VFS Center : Chennai
Received at High Commission on : 26 May,2015
Visa Category : Settlement (child)
Any interview date : No interview.
Received 'not straignt forward mail' on : 11 June 2015
Received 'Pay IHS' mail on : 11 June 2015
IHS Paid on : 11 June 2015
IHS refunded- not required : 22 June 2015
Sent VFS center : 23 June 2015
Passport collected on: : 24 June 2015
Visa Approval Status: : Approved
Total time take : 35 days ( 25 working days)

we are so happy that we got the VISA so quick !!!

Lessons learned - When you receive ' your case is not straightforward' mail , don't worry.
have a watertight application to get it done quickly

Congrats VJ143.

That's really quick. I have applied for my Wife settlement on 18th May but at VFS hyderabad but still waiting. Hopefully we get the decision quickly as well.

[heyheyheyguys]

It's ridiculous...a tier 2 dependent visa takes 10 days and a settlement visa takes 60 days with a settlement visa not having any extra privileges such as benefits..and both take 5 years for ilr!

[ARG]

Dear Group

Me and my wife have been following all the posts as we applied for a settlement visa also. My wife is in India and I sponsored her from the UK as a director of a limited company. I thought I would just post our timeline and experiences, so people who are still waiting anxiously can have an understanding of what we went through and hopefully it would put your mind at ease and you will find the post helpful.

Date of Application in VFS Center : 14th April 2015
VFS Center : Chandigarh
Received at High Commission on : 15 April 2015
Visa Category : Settlement
Decision email received: Thursday 25th June 2015
Passport collected on: Friday 26th June 2015
Visa Approval Status: Visa Settlement GRANTED
Total time taken: 50 working days (exclude bank holidays)

Throughout this 'painful wait game' we emailed them on a few occasions and also called the premium number to see where things had got to.

Email 1: 1st June 2015 - we got a response 'application is delayed due to further enquiries' - however they did not request anything extra from us to add to the application
Email 2: 16th June 2015 - we got a response 'application is still in progress'
Email 3: 23rd June 2015 - we got a response 'no current updates'
Email 4: 25th June 2015 - we got an email out of the blue 'decision has been made and passport dispatched'

During our wait, I called the premium rate number a few times but to be honest found it a waste of time and money as I was just told to wait and they could not tell me at 'what phase' our application was at, which was useless to me because that's the reason for calling! They say the only time they can actually help is when you haven't had a decision after 90+ days. However I called again on the 50th working day in the morning and the gentleman I spoke to was very helpful and said he would email the ECO officer in charge of our case directly and find out where our application is up to and inform the ECO that this is a stressful time for us; however by this time our passport had already arrived at the Chadigarh centre, so this advisor on the phone was just being helpful. Prior to that when I called I was told the application would most likely take over 60 days, so to be honest, they will not tell you anything specific about your application and they are trained in this way, no matter how hard i tried to twist my questions and these type of responses are just robotic. Ignore the whole 90 days, 120 days etc - you will get an answer within 60 working days!

I would say that if you are confident that you have submitted a strong application, as much stressful as the situation is just be patient, keep yourself busy and you will get a positive decision within the 60 day period and most probably towards the end of this period. Some people get an answer really early but try not to compare against others as every case is unique.

Wish everyone all the best with their applications and now I am looking forward to spending some much needed quality time with my wife!



ARG

[heyheyheyguys]

Hi ARG,

Do you have any idea of what sort of enquiries they were conducting? Were they on your wife?

[ARG]

Hi HeyHeyHey

Unfortunately not. I am not sure if the 'further enquiries' were on my wife or on me? They do not tell you anything which is really annoying.

[GeetL]

Hi Arg,

Thanks for sharing your timelines. This gives me a bit of hope as we've been waiting about 44 days now and indeed the wait is painful and really tests your patience.

Enjoy quality time with your wife, I wait for the day I'll be able to do the same with my husband!

Dear Group

Me and my wife have been following all the posts as we applied for a settlement visa also. My wife is in India and I sponsored her from the UK as a director of a limited company. I thought I would just post our timeline and experiences, so people who are still waiting anxiously can have an understanding of what we went through and hopefully it would put your mind at ease and you will find the post helpful.

Date of Application in VFS Center : 14th April 2015
VFS Center : Chandigarh
Received at High Commission on : 15 April 2015
Visa Category : Settlement
Decision email received: Thursday 25th June 2015
Passport collected on: Friday 26th June 2015
Visa Approval Status: Visa Settlement GRANTED
Total time taken: 50 working days (exclude bank holidays)

Throughout this 'painful wait game' we emailed them on a few occasions and also called the premium number to see where things had got to.

Email 1: 1st June 2015 - we got a response 'application is delayed due to further enquiries' - however they did not request anything extra from us to add to the application
Email 2: 16th June 2015 - we got a response 'application is still in progress'
Email 3: 23rd June 2015 - we got a response 'no current updates'
Email 4: 25th June 2015 - we got an email out of the blue 'decision has been made and passport dispatched'

During our wait, I called the premium rate number a few times but to be honest found it a waste of time and money as I was just told to wait and they could not tell me at 'what phase' our application was at, which was useless to me because that's the reason for calling! They say the only time they can actually help is when you haven't had a decision after 90+ days. However I called again on the 50th working day in the morning and the gentleman I spoke to was very helpful and said he would email the ECO officer in charge of our case directly and find out where our application is up to and inform the ECO that this is a stressful time for us; however by this time our passport had already arrived at the Chadigarh centre, so this advisor on the phone was just being helpful. Prior to that when I called I was told the application would most likely take over 60 days, so to be honest, they will not tell you anything specific about your application and they are trained in this way, no matter how hard i tried to twist my questions and these type of responses are just robotic. Ignore the whole 90 days, 120 days etc - you will get an answer within 60 working days!

I would say that if you are confident that you have submitted a strong application, as much stressful as the situation is just be patient, keep yourself busy and you will get a positive decision within the 60 day period and most probably towards the end of this period. Some people get an answer really early but try not to compare against others as every case is unique.

Wish everyone all the best with their applications and now I am looking forward to spending some much needed quality time with my wife!



ARG