OLD FLR(M) waiting times Thread

[essexb]

essexb, thanks for continuing to share your information after you've received everything back successfully!

Did you have to go into detail about your wife's job offer(s) on the phone with the UKBA, or send them proof of any kind? I just want to be prepared for if/when I try this route. Am going to interviews in a few weeks and want to be able to call them up immediately if I do get an offer.

Thanks!

No problem, I know how stressful the whole situation is.

They didn't ask for any proof at all. The reason we knew to do it was because my wife's employer tried to use the Employer Checking Service which failed miserably to do what is was supposed to do. So we spoke to them who mentioned we could request her documents back. So we called the standard UKBA line and after 30mins got through to a lady, explained it to her and she said it was fine and our documents would be with us in 20 days. We were then supposed to send them back (with an attached letter), but luckily for us they made a decision instead.

Good luck with the interview and definitely give them a call should you be successful.

[sk2885]

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p ... ing-311921

Is it possible for UKBA to return the applicant's passport back for travel purposes without withdrawing the application? Maybe that could be a suggestion to our MPs, so that when UKBA comes to our application they can request our passports back. This will avoid a lot of pain to both the applicant and UKBA with a million applicants chasing them every day.

No way. You BRP is a proof of your immigration status. If you don't have it you can't prove what is going on with you, and they would never let you back in the country. It would just be against the law.
For example, they are considering someone's application, that person goes to it's domestic country, commits a crime, comes back to the UK, and gets BRP. That is just one of the examples of why that would never be possible.

I have been waiting 27 weeks...

There is one solution for you though. I presume you still have fiancee visa valid? Well if you do, and if you can afford it, withdraw your application, and re-apply again using premium service. I would do the same, but my fiancee visa has expired so I won't do that. Trust me, I know it seems expensive, but in the end it will be much cheaper the waiting for over 6 months.

I thoroughly advise that you do not do this, the premium service is a complete waste of time.
My partner was on a tier 2 sportsperson migrant and we decided to switch to a FLR(m). He is a motobike racer and is required to travel in to Europe etc alot, so we decided that the premium service was the best option so that he was without his passport for a minimum amount of time.
We had our 'premium' service appointment booked for 25/07/2012 at 1:20pm. We were not seen by a case worker until 6:10pm and then we were told that they couldnt process our application, as we hadnt provided all of the correct documentation. Nothing to do with the fact we were the only people left in the building and they wanted to get home for their dinner.
They gave us a letter and told us we had 2 weeks to submit the outstanding paperwork and it would be sent up to their shefield office.
The documents infact were not missing at all, we had abided by the guidelines, so i sent a letter and some more documents to shefield which arrived on 30/7/2012.
It has now been 7 weeks and we still have nothing.
I try to ring and they will not help us, we just get fobbed off, so we have contacted our MP who has been very helpful and understanding and chased this for us, and for the passed 2 weeks all they will tell him is that a decision is being finalised.
If a 'premium' application can apparently be processed on the day in 45 minutes then why has ours been in that status for over 2 weeks?
The whole thing is an utter joke, and we are at a loss as to what to do next.
My Partner needs to return to Australia in November to race, and we have no confidence that this will be solved by then, if we withdraw the application to get the passport back then we loose our money.

Does anyone know if withdrawing an application affects your rights to apply again?

If you are going for a premium service, then try and get the first appointment of the day to avoid massive delays.

Good luck to you all on your quest for Visa's, lets hope one day they understand what we are going through.

[bgs]

Hi everyone

Our timeline:
FLR M App Sent: 15/06/12
Ack Letter: 22/06/12
Biometric Letter: 08/08/12
Biometrics taken: 13/08/12
Waiting!

Like everyone else here, we are so sick and tired of:

a) the excessively long wait times and;
b) the disgusting customer service (or lack of) from UKBA enquiry line (0870 606 7766).

As many other forum members have pointed out this is an expensive service costing the applicant a minimum of £561. As such, the "customer" is entitled to:

a) accurate and complete information
b) helpful customer service staff

The freedom of information request submitted, as you can see, is in response to a telephone call I had with UKBA this morning.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i ... nsion age!

[bgs]

Hi everyone

Our timeline:
FLR M App Sent: 15/06/12
Ack Letter: 22/06/12
Biometric Letter: 08/08/12
Biometrics taken: 13/08/12
Waiting!

Like everyone else here, we are so sick and tired of:

a) the excessively long wait times and;
b) the disgusting customer service (or lack of) from UKBA enquiry line

As many other forum members have pointed out this is an expensive service costing the applicant a minimum of £561. As such, the "customer" is entitled to:

a) accurate and complete information
b) helpful customer service staff

The freedom of information request submitted, as you can see, is in response to a telephone call I had with UKBA this morning.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i ... to_ukba_cu

Making the excuses of "increased number of applications" and "short staffed" is no answer. Clearly they are under staffed, therefore need to employ more!

Hopefully everyone will get their visa's before pension age!

[Xcape_24]

Hi
Is there anyone on this forum who voted for the conservative party,if yes i dont think you should have any complain because you lot kept this government in power. I never had this troubles in the past,i haved renewed my visas twice and the longest was 28days,that was when we still had the labour in power. I have got use to looking trough my window every morning for the post man if there there would be any news from the ukba but left dissapointed,am in my 5months and 2weeks and no news from this useless organisation.

[Merianz]

Called the UKBA today and they tell me it is still under consideration ,8 Months now and they are still considering it ,guess this is the worst agency that i have known ,used to think back home 3 weeks is a long time but now i understand what is a long time ,SHAME ON SUCH AGENCY WHICH IS IN THE DEVELOPED COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ak145m]

May be we shouldn't call this country developed any more, As UKBA has demonstrated they are definitely NOT developed, worse than third world countries.

Correctly pointed out above I have been renewing visa for last 10 years and never had issue until Labour was in government. Now I know which party to vote next election. Not voting rich tory thugs.

Called the UKBA today and they tell me it is still under consideration ,8 Months now and they are still considering it ,guess this is the worst agency that i have known ,used to think back home 3 weeks is a long time but now i understand what is a long time ,SHAME ON SUCH AGENCY WHICH IS IN THE DEVELOPED COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Flrm agony]

I find it hard to believe that we are not able to do anything at all.

I feel like I am imprisoned,cant work or travel.
Can't we all group up and send a request for the media to make our situation public?
It is hard to make a difference when we are acting individually,but it will be easier if we all have one voice.

They should at least give us the passports back to get on with our lives and they can take all the time they need to come to a decision.

Please if you think we can make a difference together, pleas repost this message so every member can get the chance to read it.

Regards,

[kid13]

We all know that changing from a fiance visa to FLR(M) is agony - not allowed to work, not allowed to take a course and fill your time/improve your skills, not allowed to volunteer for free even in a charity shop, etc etc etc.

But are you allowed to apply for a provisional driving licence and take lessons??? Or do they class this as study?

It's disgusting that more guidelines and information are available on this forum than on the UKBA website.

[sk2885]

Hi everyone

Our timeline:
FLR M App Sent: 15/06/12
Ack Letter: 22/06/12
Biometric Letter: 08/08/12
Biometrics taken: 13/08/12
Waiting!

Like everyone else here, we are so sick and tired of:

a) the excessively long wait times and;
b) the disgusting customer service (or lack of) from UKBA enquiry line

As many other forum members have pointed out this is an expensive service costing the applicant a minimum of £561. As such, the "customer" is entitled to:

a) accurate and complete information
b) helpful customer service staff

The freedom of information request submitted, as you can see, is in response to a telephone call I had with UKBA this morning.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i ... to_ukba_cu

Making the excuses of "increased number of applications" and "short staffed" is no answer. Clearly they are under staffed, therefore need to employ more!

Hopefully everyone will get their visa's before pension age!

I too have had this problem today. The advisor I spoke to refused to help me or take a reference number and said that they are unable to check as it had not been over 6 months, and that if I did not finish the call then she would terminate it, which she then went ahead and did.

[ak145m]

As far as I know there is no restriction to take driving lessons and apply for licence obviously you need to have your current passport to apply. they won't mind you paying more money into the market indirectly helping economy. They want you to spend your money but they would like you not use any services.

We all know that changing from a fiance visa to FLR(M) is agony - not allowed to work, not allowed to take a course and fill your time/improve your skills, not allowed to volunteer for free even in a charity shop, etc etc etc.

But are you allowed to apply for a provisional driving licence and take lessons??? Or do they class this as study?

It's disgusting that more guidelines and information are available on this forum than on the UKBA website.

[ak145m]

Some good places to request help in publicising our hardship:

http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/
http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/

These website are migrant supportive but be aware of discriminative migrant watch org which wants to deport all migrants and keeps brainwashing MP's to implement ani immigrant policies they are responsible and behind all discriminatory policies UKBA has applied in recent years.

I find it hard to believe that we are not able to do anything at all.

I feel like I am imprisoned,cant work or travel.
Can't we all group up and send a request for the media to make our situation public?
It is hard to make a difference when we are acting individually,but it will be easier if we all have one voice.

They should at least give us the passports back to get on with our lives and they can take all the time they need to come to a decision.

Please if you think we can make a difference together, pleas repost this message so every member can get the chance to read it.

Regards,

[DBI31]

Hi everyone,

Finally I received my documents with a letter saying I was granted the visa and my BRP card will follow in 7 - 10 days. 6 weeks after biometrics were taken.

I didn't applied by post, I had a premium appointment on 3 August but we were missing some payslips and my job contract so my case was sent to Sheffield and the case worker gave us two weeks to send these documents and said that it would take maximum 2 weeks to be processed once they received the documents.

Documents were received in Sheffield on 8 August but didn't receive an acknowledgment letter nor hear from them at all after that. As soon as three weeks had passed I sent an email to complain, I mentioned the case worker and my timeline, I have not received an answer for that but 20 working days have not passed.

I am not sure if it was luck to get my documents back or it was because I asked for my payslips to be returned two weeks ago. In my mind if I asked for my payslips at least I would know the caseworker had seen them and they were not lost in a pile of papers.

Next time I will hire a lawyer so someone else is stressed about this, unfortunately under new rules my visa is only valid for 30 months so will need to start saving!

I just received my BPC! same day as my documents and it was issued two days ago.

[badger111]

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p ... ing-311921

Is it possible for UKBA to return the applicant's passport back for travel purposes without withdrawing the application? Maybe that could be a suggestion to our MPs, so that when UKBA comes to our application they can request our passports back. This will avoid a lot of pain to both the applicant and UKBA with a million applicants chasing them every day.

No way. You BRP is a proof of your immigration status. If you don't have it you can't prove what is going on with you, and they would never let you back in the country. It would just be against the law.
For example, they are considering someone's application, that person goes to it's domestic country, commits a crime, comes back to the UK, and gets BRP. That is just one of the examples of why that would never be possible.

I have been waiting 27 weeks...

There is one solution for you though. I presume you still have fiancee visa valid? Well if you do, and if you can afford it, withdraw your application, and re-apply again using premium service. I would do the same, but my fiancee visa has expired so I won't do that. Trust me, I know it seems expensive, but in the end it will be much cheaper the waiting for over 6 months.

I thoroughly advise that you do not do this, the premium service is a complete waste of time.
My partner was on a tier 2 sportsperson migrant and we decided to switch to a FLR(m). He is a motobike racer and is required to travel in to Europe etc alot, so we decided that the premium service was the best option so that he was without his passport for a minimum amount of time.
We had our 'premium' service appointment booked for 25/07/2012 at 1:20pm. We were not seen by a case worker until 6:10pm and then we were told that they couldnt process our application, as we hadnt provided all of the correct documentation. Nothing to do with the fact we were the only people left in the building and they wanted to get home for their dinner.
They gave us a letter and told us we had 2 weeks to submit the outstanding paperwork and it would be sent up to their shefield office.
The documents infact were not missing at all, we had abided by the guidelines, so i sent a letter and some more documents to shefield which arrived on 30/7/2012.
It has now been 7 weeks and we still have nothing.
I try to ring and they will not help us, we just get fobbed off, so we have contacted our MP who has been very helpful and understanding and chased this for us, and for the passed 2 weeks all they will tell him is that a decision is being finalised.
If a 'premium' application can apparently be processed on the day in 45 minutes then why has ours been in that status for over 2 weeks?
The whole thing is an utter joke, and we are at a loss as to what to do next.
My Partner needs to return to Australia in November to race, and we have no confidence that this will be solved by then, if we withdraw the application to get the passport back then we loose our money.

Does anyone know if withdrawing an application affects your rights to apply again?

If you are going for a premium service, then try and get the first appointment of the day to avoid massive delays.

Good luck to you all on your quest for Visa's, lets hope one day they understand what we are going through.

I am sorry to hear this. I guess there is no rule. My friend's partner got here from Taiwan, they have entered civil partnership, phoned them, got an appointment in 3 weeks, went there, everything was perfect, service great.

[aditipritam]

AS they were telling me anything on Phone, I wrote them a letter asking the status of my application.

They replied in a letter saying that "they can not tell how long it will take and there are loads of applications. And that they are processing these in the order they received it.".

They also send me a form to fill in case I want to withdraw my application.

f*** ar***.

[Roadmaster]

Just a quick update on my timeline....very interesting - after nearly 10 weeks after payment was taken and without a biometrics letter I phoned the 087 number to request my spouse's passport back. 2 days later I received my biometrics letter dated the day of my phone call. Not sure this is coincidence...

From - Tier 2 (Valid till 30th Sep 2012)
FLR(M) applied online – 3 July 2012
Payment out of the bank: 3 Jul 2012
Acknowledgement letter dated: 13 July 2012
Biometric letter received: 14 September 2012
Biometrics letter dated: 12 September 2012
Biometric submitted: 14 September 2012
Decision Made: Waiting
Documents returned: Waiting

[Flrm agony]

[quote="Roadmaster"]Just a quick update on my timeline....very interesting - after nearly 10 weeks after payment was taken and without a biometrics letter I phoned the 087 number to request my spouse's passport back. 2 days later I received my biometrics letter dated the day of my phone call. Not sure this is coincidence...

From - Tier 2 (Valid till 30th Sep 2012)
FLR(M) applied online – 3 July 2012
Payment out of the bank: 3 Jul 2012
Acknowledgement letter dated: 13 July 2012
Biometric letter received: 14 September 2012
Biometrics letter dated: 12 September 2012
Biometric submitted: 14 September 2012
Decision Made: Waiting
Documents returned: Waiting[/quote]

The same thing happened to me as well, when I told them that I have been waiting for more than 8 weeks. They said they will send a request to the Sheffield officet for the Biometrics letter , I received the letter today. dated the 11th " which the day I spoke to them".
This surely is not a coincidence. I'm starting to get the feeling that they could have issued the letter much earlier.

Application sent : 6th July
Ack letter : 16 July
Biometrics submitted : 14th sep

[findshakil]

Here is my sad story if anyone can guide me or help me to release this stress. I applied on 6th of july to avoid new rules but after one month on 17th of august when i was expecting biometric letter, UKBA send my application back as invalid saying that they couldn't take money out of my account. I send new application on 24th of august, my solicitor wrote them please deal my case under old rules coz i send application on 6th of july and its not my fault i gave them correct card detail and i had enough money in my account (i attached bank statement and copy of old application where i put my card detail, i also attached image of my card so they can verify that its not my fault. as my wife is not earning enough money, i am afraid that if they will consider my application according to new rules then our application will be rejected after waiting so long. can anyone give me any advice.

here is my time line so far:
FLRM applied: 6th July
Ack Letter 17th July
Application Sent as invalid: 17th August (reason payment issue)
Applied again on new Form: 24th august
Ack Letter: 30th august
Switch from Tier-4 (no work allowed)

[findshakil]

here is my time line so far:
FLRM applied: 6th July
Ack Letter 17th July
Application Sent as invalid: 17th August (reason payment issue)
Applied again on new Form: 24th august
Ack Letter: 30th august
Switch from Tier-4 (no work allowed)

[mrsclc78]

Just a quick update on my timeline....very interesting - after nearly 10 weeks after payment was taken and without a biometrics letter I phoned the 087 number to request my spouse's passport back. 2 days later I received my biometrics letter dated the day of my phone call. Not sure this is coincidence...

From - Tier 2 (Valid till 30th Sep 2012)
FLR(M) applied online – 3 July 2012
Payment out of the bank: 3 Jul 2012
Acknowledgement letter dated: 13 July 2012
Biometric letter received: 14 September 2012
Biometrics letter dated: 12 September 2012
Biometric submitted: 14 September 2012
Decision Made: Waiting
Documents returned: Waiting

The same thing happened to me as well, when I told them that I have been waiting for more than 8 weeks. They said they will send a request to the Sheffield officet for the Biometrics letter , I received the letter today. dated the 11th " which the day I spoke to them".
This surely is not a coincidence. I'm starting to get the feeling that they could have issued the letter much earlier.

Application sent : 6th July
Ack letter : 16 July
Biometrics submitted : 14th sep

The same happened to me. The bio letter was dated the day after my husband called to request his passport.

The simple reason is in order to return a document, we need to be in their database; and when your application is entered into the database, the bio letter is automatically generated.

I missed a parcel sent Recorded Delivery yesterday. Nearly had a heart attack walking to the post office and it was a flipping tshirt I ordered for my husband. Who sends tshirt Recorded Delivery?! *sigh*

[TnT-FreaK]

The same happened to me. The bio letter was dated the day after my husband called to request his passport.

The simple reason is in order to return a document, we need to be in their database; and when your application is entered into the database, the bio letter is automatically generated.

I missed a parcel sent Recorded Delivery yesterday. Nearly had a heart attack walking to the post office and it was a flipping tshirt I ordered for my husband. Who sends tshirt Recorded Delivery?! *sigh*

In this series of tense posts, it was good to see some light humour. Was it a custom made "I hate UKBA" tshirt?

[mrsclc78]

The same happened to me. The bio letter was dated the day after my husband called to request his passport.

The simple reason is in order to return a document, we need to be in their database; and when your application is entered into the database, the bio letter is automatically generated.

I missed a parcel sent Recorded Delivery yesterday. Nearly had a heart attack walking to the post office and it was a flipping tshirt I ordered for my husband. Who sends tshirt Recorded Delivery?! *sigh*

In this series of tense posts, it was good to see some light humour. Was it a custom made "I hate UKBA" tshirt?

Ha. No, but that's an idea. We could mass-market them and make a mint.

[Still.Waiting]

I missed a parcel sent Recorded Delivery yesterday. Nearly had a heart attack walking to the post office and it was a flipping tshirt I ordered for my husband. Who sends tshirt Recorded Delivery?! *sigh*

lol this had happened to me couple of times as i am pretty active on ebay and i get parcels all the time. i guess one of these days we will get a parcel with our docs in em

[tigerB]

Hi everyone, looking for a bit of advice.

My wife came to the UK on the 3rd July on a fiancee visa. We got married on the 25th August and want to submit our FLR (M) application this week.
Can someone please advise which version I would apply under, the new rules or old rules?

I have no idea which form to use, as I can only find the latest (Version 09/2012) online.

Also, has anyone had difficulty on the website trying to book a premium service appointment? I've been trying every day for 2 weeks and cannot seem to get any appointment at all, in any of the 6 available offices across the country!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Still.Waiting]

Hi everyone, looking for a bit of advice.

My wife came to the UK on the 3rd July on a fiancee visa. We got married on the 25th August and want to submit our FLR (M) application this week.
Can someone please advise which version I would apply under, the new rules or old rules?

I have no idea which form to use, as I can only find the latest (Version 09/2012) online.

Also, has anyone had difficulty on the website trying to book a premium service appointment? I've been trying every day for 2 weeks and cannot seem to get any appointment at all, in any of the 6 available offices across the country!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

you would have to apply under new rules as the new rules came under effect in July. And a word of advice keep trying for appointments for premium service and get your visa the same day. It would save you hell of stress and time trying to do it by post!