Spouse visa from USA processing time

[Nicholas7]

Hi everyone,
I am a British citizen, my wife is a US citizen, we have been married for twenty-one years and are both retired, living in USA. She has previously (2002) had ILR (when we lived and worked in London) but we have lived out of the UK for 15 years (8 in France, and 7 in US). We plan to sell our home and move back to be close to our seriously ill daughter. Planned move is October 18th.

We paid for on-line priority service (June 24) and my wife did biometrics on June 28th. Application received in New York July 1st.

Priority service standard is 30 days, but we did not hear anything. We paid for an email enquiry about status on August 22nd and were told: "With regards to your enquiry about your application. I have escalated your case to the Home Office so they may look into this matter for you." our application has been 'escalated to the Home Office. Please allow 15 working days for the escalation to proceed".

On Aug 28th we reveived an email from VISAINFO.SHEFO: "We are continuing to work on your application which is currently awaiting an assessment. I am unable to provide any timescales as to when a decision will be made. However I have escalated your query with the relevant entry clearance team in order to progress this as soon as possible. "

We are getting nervous about the delay and potential impact on our move. Does anyone know if there are extra delays, caused by Brexit, for example? Is it normal to not receive any more information about status? If there is a delay, I do not wish to leave without her, so will have reschedule the move.

[DanaMarie]

During the summer months applications generally take longer due to the influx of student visa applications. Anecdotally, lately there seem to be a decent number of priority applications (from the US anyway) which have not been processed as such and were lumped into a standard pile. If you still haven't heard anything you may want to contact your MP, there has been some success lately with a call or email from an MP to the HO lighting a fire underneath.

[Casa]

If you haven't yet sold your house in the US, how are you meeting the minimum financial requirement?