Premium Upgrade Closed ?

[snoopy01]

Hi, I just sent a request to upgrade my postal ILR to PEO and got the following email:

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your request for a premium upgrade for your application.

Unfortunately we are unable to consider your premium upgrade request as the service is now closed temporarily.

If we have already accepted your request we will be in contact n due course.

Regards
Premium Upgrade Team

Does that mean its end of PEO upgrades?

[ThisisA]

This is very interesting... I was wondering if I could upgrade as well. Is there any indication of how long this "temporary" situation is going to be?

[snoopy01]

Tried again this morning, same message.... I need to travel urgently, very unlucky that the PEO upgraded is closed

[snoopy01]

Any senior members please shed some light on the issue?

Thanks!

[nleow]

I called the information line on Friday and the person said that they have no idea when it will be back up and running. They haven't been given a timeframe.
Tried this morning at 8am and haven't received the automatic reply as of yet - fingers crossed!

[ThisisA]

I think they didn't realise how many people will actually go via that route. Is there any specific time frame by which one is supposed to apply for the upgrade from the day the application was submitted initially?

[KingJAY1]

I am in the same boat.I received the same reply that it's temporarily closed on 5 April 2017, tried again next day,this time no response at all.Please could someone let us know if this service is still "live". The forms are still active on the HO page.

[bruteforce]

They can shut down the service for operational reasons. Its Easter holidays these days, they could be short staffed at PEOs, perhaps.

[Slartibartfast]

I wonder if anyone can help with this. My wife is in the same boat after receiving the message this morning. Has anyone here managed to succesdully use this service this year? (I'm just trying to work out if it is worth us persisting sending this in every day or if it has essentially been closed since January).

If anyone can take the time to respond to this then that would be incredible helpful,

Thanks in advance.

[FractalHaze]

The system does appear to have been shut down, perhaps as part of the immigration changes of April 6, 2017, although I can find no official word. People on these boards claimed to have had successful upgrades from this service in mid-March.

My experience is that I have been trying since the end of March. Each day, up to and including April 3rd, I would get a reply within a few minutes saying "we will let you know by noon if we accept you" and then nothing... On April 4th and 5th, I got an immediate "out of the office" type reply saying "We are temporarily closed" and from then on, absolutely nothing. I have tried 4 or 5 times since then and I get no response at all. I asked my employer to look into it, and they are getting no response from their contacts either. They seemed to have shut down this program and not bothered to tell anyone.

I will keep trying in hopes they re-open and will update if anything changes.

[Oli]

Just got an reply saying my application is provisionally eligible for an upgrade. Looks like they have reopened the service.

[hhe]

Hi Oli:

After reading your post I called HO and got replied that premium upgrade service is still closed.
How did you apply ?
HO customer service may not aware of it ?
It's been 5 months of my ilr application.

Thanks.

[Oli]

I emailed them at 8 every morning

[Oli]

You might as well wait for another month then. Ive applied for ilr for 3 months and need to travel urgently x

[hhe]

Hi Oli:

I called again HO in afternoon and the man on other side was helpful. He hold me for a min and than he confirmed that premium upgrade is on again.
Can you please let me know the process of premium upgrade.
Do I have to email first ? What's the email address ?
And how to pay the money etc.

Thanks.

[Oli]

It's all on here:
https://www.gov.uk/faster-reply-visa-application

It's likely​ to still take quite a while because they need to have ur case file sent to them before they start working on ur case. And that's when they take the money out of ur account.

[Vegeta]

I applied ILR(tier-1 route) on post in June 2016, sent out self employment questionnaire in April 2017(had an amendment for 2010-11). If I upgrade to premium, do you guys think there is a chance of quick decision?