UK Spouse Visa Processing Time 2024 Guide | What You Should Know & Expect

in this video we will discuss the UK spouse visa processing time in 2024 as an oisc regulated UK immigration law firm that has helped more than 3,000 partners with their UK partner Visa applications we're very well placed to discuss this we will discuss the processing time for both out of country applications in other words applications made from outside the UK as well as in-country applications which are applications made from inside the UK well I'll use the word spouse visa throughout this video If you apply as a civil partner fiance or married partner this video will be relevant and this is because whether the applicant is applying as a married partner civil partner fiance or unmarried partner does not affect the current expected processing time rather as we will discuss by far the biggest factor is whether the application being made from outside or from inside the UK since we always try to be as helpful as possible this video will also address whether your application will be or has been made from outside or from inside the UK the priority service and who may not be suitable for the priority service when and how you can follow up on an application the decision as well as numerous other important things that you should know or expect about the UK spouse visa processing time will we be applying from outside or from inside the UK since the processing time and process differs depending on whether the application was made from outside or from inside the UK let's very quickly address this firstly if the applicant the person applying does not have any UK visas the application must be made from outside the UK If the applicant is in the UK as a visitor the application must be made from outside the UK to apply for a UK spouse visa from inside the UK the applicant must be in the UK when the online application is submitted on a Visa issued for longer than 6 months which is not a visitor Visa an exception here are those in the UK on a fiance or proposed civil partnership Visa if you're still unsure about this point you can watch our spouse visa requirements and process YouTube video where we discuss this in more detail the first half of this video will discuss the processing time for outof Country applications as well as numerous frequently asked questions about the process and considerations that you should make if you're sure that your application will be or was an in-country application feel free to skip this section we've included timestamps in the YouTube video which will hopefully allow you to easily skip to the parts that are relevant to you f out of country applications the UK spouse visa processing time in 2024 is currently 2 to 3 months on average yes it is the case that some applications take much quicker than this for example last week one of our clients got their non priority application back after 11 days but 2 to 3 months is the average this figure is based on the many UK spouse Feer applications that we deal with every day of the week the processing time generally starts when the applicant attends the biometric appointment at the visa center and ends on the date that the home office decides the outcome of your application now there are a few things that are worth discussing here firstly the gov.uk website currently states that you should get a decision within 24 weeks which is 6 months however it seems that it's just a matter of time until this gets updated back down to the 12 weeks figure fig secondly the country the application was submitted from does not change the expected processing time the gov.uk website used to have a tool where you can search the country that the spouse viser application is being submitted from and it will then list useful information relating to the percentage of applications processed within certain time frames however since the home office have changed the way that spouse Fe or applications are processed processing times do not substantially vary from one country to another secondly regardless of whether the gov.uk website lists a 12 or 24-week figure this time frame is not a guarantee rather it is a time frate that the home office aims to meet so if your application takes longer than this unfortunately this does not necessarily mean that you're entitled to a refund of the home office fees nor does it mean that you can demand that the home office processes the viser application within this time frame for an up-to-date account of the current standard processing times based on the many spouse fees or applications that we personally deal with every day of the week you may want to check out our spouse visa UK processing Times article on our website www.my.org let's now discuss the priority service the priority service reduces the expected processing time to 30 working days as we discussed in our past Visa fees YouTube video and article on our website mgr. org.uk this incurs an additional cost of £500 on average per applicant when the priority service is available this can be purchased at three different stages of the UK Spas Visa process firstly in the past partners used to be able to purchase the priority service on the home office fee payment page on the online application form as of shooting this video the priority service is not being offered here but since the online application form is ever developing I would not be surprised if it was available for purchase here later on in the year secondly if it is not listed on the home office fee payment page on the online application form if available it would normally be available for purchase on either the TLs or VFS website thirdly it sometimes can be purchased at the TLs or VFS Center during the applicant's visa center appointment we discussed TLS and VFS in our UK SP Visa process YouTube video but in short TLS and VFS are commercial partners that work with the home office to facilitate the Biometrics appointment and the submission of the documents they each cover different parts of the world and you can find out more information about the process by visiting VFS global.com and TLS contact.com you will know which one covers the country the applicant is submitting their application from by visiting these two websites only one of the websites will allow you to select the country in which the application's being made from which lists the UK as a destination for example here you can see that applications made from the US are processed with the help of VFS rather than TLS it should also be noted that there are some circumstances where even if the priority fee is paid that you may not receive a decision within 30 working days the circumstances can be found here notably it states that if the applicant has previously had a UK Visa refusal the application may not be deemed straightforward and may therefore take longer than 30 days for those who had a previous UK Visa refusal overturned it should be more likely than not for the priority service application to be decided within 30 days let's now discuss what you can do if your standard application is not decided within 3 months or if your priority application is not decided within 30 working days there are three main ways Partners go about this firstly by Googling contact homeoffice gov.uk and then contacting the home office that way alternatively you may decide to contact the sponsor's local MP in the UK which tends to be the most effective way to find your local MP's contact details you can Google find local MP in UK and then enter the name of the m P or the sponsor's postcode or location finally for some Partners normally when they've exhausted the other options complain to the home office however none of these methods are by no means guaranteed to help as the home office does not guarantee application turnaround times what about standard applications that have not exceeded the expected processing time well for standard applications that have not exceeded the 3month period and priority applications that have not exceeded the 30 working day period if you contact the home office via the web form contact your local MP or complain your app apption is likely only going to be expedited if they are extremely compassionate or compelling circumstances such as a medical emergency Partners tend to find that this threshold is rather High and the Practical inconvenience of the application being processed later is not something that will normally suffice as a sufficient reason other commonly asked questions in relation to the spouse visa processing time often arise when applicants receive this email here the first question that normally arises tends to be something along the lines of we have already submitted the supporting documents does this mean that they were not received the answer is not necessarily if you've already submitted the supporting documentation there is nothing further that you need to do when you receive this email the second question is does this email indicate what stage the processing is at the answer here is also no as this email is sent out rather sporadically based on the thousands of spouse feeser applications that we've been involved with it's clear that the time that this was sent out has no indication as to when you should expect a decision you will normally receive an email once the spouse Feer application has been processed depending on the email service provider in particular hot mail and Outlook email accounts these can sometimes land in your spam or junk folder so don't be afraid to check there every so often the email will sometimes contain a decision letter whilst in other instances it will just say that a decision has been made on the UK spouse fees or application if you receive an email that only States after the decision has been made please do not take this to mean that the application has been refused if the email does not contain a decision letter you will likely find out the outcome of the spouse viser application once the applicants pass what has been returned so that is our discussion on the processing times as they relate to out of country spouse visa applications if you have not already You may wish to watch our spouse visa UK requirements and process YouTube video as it's incredibly in-depth if you found this video helpful and would like to see more of its kind feel free to like the video subscribe and let us know in the comments the second half of this video will discuss the spouse visa processing time for in-country applications in other words applications made from inside the UK for in country applications the UK spouse visa processing time is currently 6 to 8 weeks on average it should be noted that this time frame of up to 8 weeks is not a guarantee rather it is a time frame the home office aims to meet so if your application takes longer than this unfortunately this does not necessarily mean that you're entitled to a refund of the home office fees nor does it mean that you can demand that the home office processes the application within this time frame if you want to pay for the Super priety Service the processing time can be reduced to one working day the super priority service will cost an additional £1,000 per applicant and for the those who are making an in-country application with dependent children the words per applicant are important here because like outof country applications the home office fee immigration Health sech charge and priority fee will also need to be paid for each dependent CH application if you do want to pay for the super priority service please note that this service can only be purchased when you reach this payment page on the flrm online application form it cannot be purchase later therefore if you reach this stage and you only see the standard option if the applicants current Vis are expiry date permits you may decide to check back on this page to see if the super priority service is available importantly the date the standard or super priority home office Fe is paid on this page is incredibly important to know for in country applications it is known as the date of application the date of application is important to know because of two reasons in particular firstly the date of application which again is the date that the standard or super priority home office views page is the date that the requirements must be met for example Rob's UK spouse visa expires on the 1st of August 2024 Rob submits the application by paying the home office fee on 20th of July 2024 Rob meets the financial requirement by combining employment income with cash savings on 21st of July 2024 one day after submitting the application he quits his job and spends all of his cash savings this should not affect his spouse viser application because him quitting his job and losing his savings happened after the date of application which was the date that the home office fees were paid on the online application website secondly if the date of application is before the the applicants leave or VISA expires the Visa or leave the applicant has at that point will be automatically extended until a decision has been made on the new spouse visa application for example using the same example of Rob Rob's UK spouse visa expires on the 1st of August 2024 he submits the application on the 20th of July 2024 Rob's UK spouse visa will be automatically extended until a decision has been made and he can therefore continue to live and work in the UK this rule applies to other types of visas that allow an in country application to be made for example Rob can also be on a youth Mobility scheme Visa here or a skilled worker visa this is worth pointing out because there'll be some Partners who decide to pay extra for the Super priy Service just because they incorrectly think that the new spouse visa application must be decided before the expiry date of the Visa that they're in the UK on if you have an employer who's unfamiliar with the UK immigration rules and is worried about the applicants Vis are expiring due to the processing time of the spouse visa application tell them to Google section 3C leave guidance gov.uk they should find this document here which which should explain as we've been saying if the visa application is submitted before the applicant's Visa or leave expires the applicant's Visa will be automatically extended until a decision has been made on the application do not leave the UK whilst the in-country spouse visa application is being processed knowing what to expect regarding the processing time is important because the immigration rules state that the application will be withdrawn if the applicant leaves the UK so if you anticipate that the applicant will need to leave the UK within an 8we processing period or SL longer if you wish to ear on a side of caution You may wish to consider the super priority service and again please bear in mind that the super priority service can only be purchased when the online application is submitted so the possibility of the applicant having to leave the UK is something that should be considered before submitting the application let's now discuss when and how you can follow up on the application the first thing to note here is that if 8 weeks have not passed if there are not extremely compassionate or compelling circumstances like a family illness trying to chase the home office will likely be a waste of time if you've been waiting for longer than 6 weeks there are three ways that you can try to follow up on the application firstly by Googling contact homeoffice gov.uk and then contacting the home office that way alternatively you may decide to contact the sponsor's local MP in the UK which tends to be the most effective way to find your local MP's contact details you can Google find local MP in UK and then enter the name of the MP or the sponsor postcode or location finally for some Partners normally when they've exhausted the other options complain to the the home office however none of these methods are by no means guaranteed to help as the home office does not guarantee application turnaround times if you found this video helpful and want us to release more videos discussing UK spouse visas feel free to like the video subscribe and provide your feedback in the YouTube comments for a detailed account of all of the spouse visa requirements you can watch our incredibly in-depth UK spouse visa requirements video by clicking the video here

Channel: Migrate org uk - Spouse Visa UK Specialists

Views: 5,282

Keywords: uk spouse visa processing time, spouse visa uk processing time, uk spouse visa processing time 2024, spouse visa uk processing time 2024

Id: cJ5uPBaFGTw

Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 23 2024