My wife submitted her Set M application throught the Settlement Checking Service on the 5th January 2011. It has been 4 weeks so far. I know 'izzie' who applied on the same category and dates as my wife and they received their passport last week with ILR granted. We are hoping to get something this week if all is well. It was a straight forward application and everything was provided. The officer at the checking service said the application looks fine and he doesn't see any problems.
I've read somewhere that applications are at first looked at by the initial consideration unit and if they find everything valid they issue the ILR and send back in 4 weeks.
If the consideration unit are not sure about something then the applications are passed onto the casework group who make the decision. These applications can take 2-3 months or longer.
Can anyone confirm this? My wife and I are planning to go away this year as we've not been away for 2 years. We're just worried in case things are delayed or we don't hear anything that would cause a delay in our plans.
