Second application processing times

[rella]

My husband applied last year in April, got approved in November and then couldn't get FLR, due to rule changes in the interim. So, he had to reapply as an out-of-country applicant. He sent this app in on March 22. He's never heard anything back. They didn't even bother emailing that they received it.

He called today, since it's been over 2 months and applications received in March were being processed in a couple of days. He was told that they have a separate pile for second applications. He had not been assigned to a caseworker yet. So, it appears that whether you were an approval or a rejection the first time, you go into this other queue that is much slower than new applications.

The woman offered to move him over to the urgent queue. That is currently expected to take two weeks to be assigned to a caseworker, for any of you who requested urgent treatment.

I have no idea how long the second application queue is taking now, but for us it's been 2+ months.

Hope that helps anyone who is in any of those categories.

[lightpace]

Is it right to conclude now that HO is disposed to placing one on the urgent queue once you call up and make the request even without having a job offer? someone earlier reported same and his case was treated without job offer

[rella]

My husband didn't request urgent treatment, she offered it. Maybe she took some mercy on him since he'd already been approved and he's been waiting over 13 months now.

My husband has a job, but since he's stuck under the student visa rules, he can't work full-time. That was good enough for her. But, I'm not holding my breath that she actually found his application and moved it to the different queue.

There is no consistency in anything they're doing. My husband has been screwed over again and again because they keep changing rules and they don't care how it affects those already in the system who have played by the rules. The latest one where they changed the approval letter to being generic, yet would not allow my hubby to use his approval for EC because it instructed him to get FLR, is just incredibly irritating.

They change rules here and there and they don't care. It's impossible to guess how they'll apply them, who they'll approve and who they won't. I cannot believe that people in the queue since July are just sitting there without anyone processing their applications. WTF? There is just no excuse for that kind of treatment.

If they hadn't moved my husband's application to the urgent treatment group (assuming they did), who knows how long they will let the second applications just sit there? And how many of those people who were rejected the first time around, had more evidence than some they approved? And how many second apps had approval and weren't allowed to use it, like my husband, and are now stuck in a new queue for months on end?

Sorry to vent. It gets so frustrating. I guess we all go along and play the game, because what else are you going to do... It's their country and they set the rules.

[JhonnyECU]

hi all,

sorry Rella to hear that they had not sent not even an email confirming receipt...well, at least your husband managed to get through the busiest number in the UK and get some "valuable" information, right?

To be honest, I am tremendously eskeptical about what people are telling us from Sheffield. i have a few good "evidence" to be so worried about how they handle our futures dreams and hopes...

1. look, back in Aug 04 i managed to speak several times with many members of the HSMP Team. although they were very nice to me, most of the times there were a bunch of very young voices not being able to give me the right information... (i dont know if that made a difference but i was calling from Germany and "MAYBE" they saw the number on their caller ID and picked up immediately. the reason why i say this is because when i have gotten "connected" from ecuador, it rings, rings five, six times and then it gets "disconnected" VERY VERY strange!! )

2. then in jan i came back to Ecuador and it has been NEAR impossible to get through. ive spent over 45 minutes redialing until i get something like explained above... until the 11th Feb when i miracously managed to get through...and even spoke with my caseworker, herself!! yes, somehow i got transfered to her, her VERY young voice (i thought she was one of those new secretaries to whom i got transfered by accident) was telling me that "i will let me know as soon as i make a decision". i then politely asked her if she needed ANY extra evidence i could send to her BEFORE she assess my appl and she said "i will let you know"... then she refused my application on feb 17 and she NEVER wrote any email as i had requested her...

NOW, the mission for all the refused members who have already sent the new more complete applications or 2nd applicators is the following:

just to double check this information given to rellas husband, i encourage you all to call HO and try to get their applications put on the first queue (if there is any) or simply ask about current processing times.

has any of the refused (applying again) or second time applicators gotten a receipt confirmation email? i got one email like this ONE day after they charged my CC on may 25th in which this guy from costumer relations answered in detail every question i had asked the hsmp team . he even suggested me to fax them a letter explaingin that "i would like to be informed as soon as a decision is made so that i can make arrangements for a courier to collect the decision letter and my documents"

why are they treating us differently?

talented people like Rella, her husband and many more incredible prepared people are getting so much trouble or even being rejected and some who doesnt sound that strong candidates are being approved in a few days, can anyone explain that? can ANYONE do anything to intercede for july 04 applicants?

oh, i just remembered that in that of the emails sent to me within these days from HO said that they claimed to be working on july applicants. the funny part is that ALL of us know that fresh applications even some from april have been ALREADY answered.

hope we can all work together as a team and get deeper into this annoying situation we are all involved now!!

best

jhonny

[rella]

I am always shocked if they pick up the phone. I have tried to call for HOURS, hitting the redial immediately when I get a busy for hours and hours. I have tried all day before -- a two hour stretch in the morning and a two hour stretch in the afternoon and not gotten through at all. Sometimes, they pick up within 15 or 20 tries. Today, I expected it to take a couple of hours, if we could get through at all, and they picked up within 5 or 10 minutes of calling.

My husband has never been able to speak directly to a caseworker or a manager. After all the rule changes that affected his entire case, we could never get anyone in authority to talk to him about options at either the HSMP team, Work Permits Cust Service or the FLR-IED team.

Someone here said that after they loosened the requirements and lowered the point total for acceptance to 65, that they don't feel that people are all that special anymore and so don't feel obliged to make any special effort. They have also been swamped with applications since the lower point level came in and they haven't had the personnel to handle the huge caseload.

I don't think there are any answers to this. If the people who applied in July who've retained lawyers can't get their applications looked at, people who've submitted a second application really have no legal recourse and I don't think a lot of complaining will do anything except aggravate them.

The best thing to do is submit the very best and most complete application you can -- like you have Jhonny. And then politely and respectfully ask for info after waiting for a reasonable time if you don't hear anything back. If you feel you were unfairly rejected, contest it. Lots of people here have done that successfully and deserved it, as well.

The main thing is to keep each other informed with any info that might be helpful. That's the most valuable thing we have to offer each other, outside pointers with putting together a decent application.

[lightbringer]

Hi rella and Jhonny,
First of all I wish you all the best and hope you'll finally get your cases approved. You both have been struggling very hard, I think you deserve it.

And I also want to share my bit of information regarding processing time for june-october poor fellows. I've heard one interesting theory that HO has divided the backlog by countries and processes them separately.
But regarding my country this probably doesn't work either cause I found on one local forum persons who had their cases approved without any urgent treatment forms sent. And their cases were received somewhere in the middle of september whereas mine belongs to the end-of-august. So I guess they do not adhere any clear sequence processing the backlog... That's a pitty.

I've recently got an email from them saying that my 31-august-04 case will approximately be processed in 12 weeks time... Wow, after 9 months they've put it in the longest category of all available according to their standards!!! As for the urgent treatment requests, I feel that it is possible to require urgent treatment even without a job offer in your hand, I beleave many people have done so. So the idea is may be someone would like to send them this form to move his/her case out of that backlog stupor. Hope that helps!

Personally I am not going to send any urgent treatment requests, leaving it as it goes. Immigration is not a simple matter, I need some time to get prepared and save more money and all, so if they delay my case for 3 more months, that won't kill me, but this is not fair, and not professional.

This is what I think about this.
Good luck to all other HSMP-seekers

[rella]

You know, what's so screwy about the whole thing is that a bunch of people in the Jan/Feb group of applicants were caught completely off guard and unprepared, when they were expecting a long wait of up to a year and got approval in a week or less. Some people must have been in a blind panic, trying to get all their affairs in order before their EC window was lost. So, those people kind of were treated unfairly in a way too, since many probably were not ready to leave within this unexpected time frame.

I don't think it's too bad of an idea to group by country IF there is no discrimination due to nationality and if the caseworkers handling various countries learn something about the education, workplace and marriage customs of the particular group of countries they are handling applications from. It would improve the process greatly if a caseworker understood which universities from the country they were dealing with specialized in and what the degree equivilancies were. They also need to understand the documentation for earnings that are customary, as well as the types of references people can obtain from companies. Other problems I've seen have to do with differences in how couples live in various countries, where they don't have the evidence the HO asks for to prove they're a couple living together. If the HO could do this intelligently, they could save themselves a lot of work, because every person who is rejected due to their evidence not being understood properly by the caseworker, results in bigger backlogs and longer waiting periods.

It really makes no sense in how the June to Oct folks are being treated. All along, people in Aug, Sept, Oct and so on, have had cases processed w/out requests for special treatment. How those few got plucked out is a mystery....

I think you have the right attitude, Lightbringer. Immigration is a long, arduous process. For those who really want to start a life in a new country, it's worth the hassles.

Good luck to everyone!

[Chess]

Light Bringer, Rella, Ecquadorian etc

It is very frustrating indeed - hoever dont lose hope. Good things come to those who wait!

good luck. It will all b e over pretty soon...

[bani]

rella, i thought you would have gotten the second approval by now. it really sucks how much the rules, queueing times, even the approval letters have changed against you since the time you first applied. has your first HSMP approval expired? can you not used this for FLR since they've reworded the approval letters recently? good luck!

jhonny, good luck to you too! i hope you get approval and soon.

between these inconsistencies and worse, reading about applications getting lost, i'm really disappointed with the HSMP team. they really should be more organised than this. people have been willing to wait months to get processed but the inconsistencies and unreliability have been alarming.

[rella]

rella, i thought you would have gotten the second approval by now. it really sucks how much the rules, queueing times, even the approval letters have changed against you since the time you first applied. has your first HSMP approval expired? can you not used this for FLR since they've reworded the approval letters recently? good luck!

The first HSMP approval expired in mid-May. By the time we found out that they were giving out generic letters, the new app had been in for 2 months, so we decided to just wait for it to be processed and not hassle with it. The FLR-in country team has been completely resistent to the idea of processing anyone under the old rules. So, we have no choice but going back to home country for EC.

I've learned to assume nothing. Just because my husband was approved before, does not mean he will be approved again. He has salary points this time, that he didn't have before, but they may still find some reason to deny the application. And even it's approved, I'm very nervous about EC, since they've changed the rules so many times, I think we may have a hard time making our case that we were here legally the entire time. sigh..... Just because you are told something by two or three different people at the HO that leads to believe a certain thing, doesn't mean that it's the case or they won't change it all later and not care what the situation was at the time you applied months and months previously.

[JhonnyECU]

Hi all,

thank you for your nice wishes for the ones of us who are trying hard to get accepted in this hsmp visa programme. it is just a bit ironic that hsmp applicant WILL be helping the UK economy, but sometimes they treat us like delincuents or something, you know?

rella, you are right, you can NOT assume one thing when it comes to HO burocracy. as an active immigrant in some countries now, i have gone through few lucky moments and many bitter ones... sometimes i have been treated abroad even better than nationals or like a drug dealer in my own country! there is no "logic" to how you could be treated by people with authority! this could be applied to anyone out there: from hsmp team, while getting your EC, arriving into a UK airport, or even later during the job search... you get the idea!

from what i ahve gone through so far, i can say:

it really depends on the person who is dealing with you. it is tremendously amazing how you get some one kind of treatment or information from one person and then you go back the next day and someone else acts completely different, in better or worse ways!

maybe the "only" thing regarding the hsmp application process would be to fire all that you have at one time, no hold bars! then, you know, EC is different, arriving into Heatrow would be another thing, and job seach is even harder...bottom line here is that there are somethings that DO depend on us but many othere dont...so i suppose that is life and we can only fight tenaciously for our dreams, right?

i wish you all the best with this UK plan and hope we get the "nice ones" to assess our applications!!

cheers

jhonny

[EdgeHillMole]

good luck. It will all be over pretty soon...

Chess, how do you know this? Unfortunately, I don't think we're seeing much information recently out here on this board to prove this theory....