Sheffield Visa Section - EEA FAMILY PERMIT

[Zuly1820]

Congratulations Ammara, so glad for you - you were in my duas yesterday

Haha definitely have a break from all this visa drama and enjoy your time with the hubby!

All the best!

[ammara_talhi]

Congratulations Ammara, so glad for you - you were in my duas yesterday

Haha definitely have a break from all this visa drama and enjoy your time with the hubby!

All the best!

That's nice of you, thanks

Good Luck with your application, please do post on here when you hear back, I will keep an eye out!

[honglefresh]

Can anyone help. Going off my nut here. Waiting for EEA1 for my wife. Did bio in Madrid, in April and flying out end of June. I know, foolish, cutting it so tight, but anyway, here we are. Phoned Sheffield today and got it escalated. They say 48 hours for a response but can’t imagine it will be ‘oh yes, all fine, with you tomorrow’ It will surely take weeks still. If no passport before we fly we are well and truly UTTERLY screwed. As in on the street. Does anyone know a) where the passport is (Madrid or Sheffield) and b) how fast we can get it back?

[ammara_talhi]

Can anyone help. Going off my nut here. Waiting for EEA1 for my wife. Did bio in Madrid, in April and flying out end of June. I know, foolish, cutting it so tight, but anyway, here we are. Phoned Sheffield today and got it escalated. They say 48 hours for a response but can’t imagine it will be ‘oh yes, all fine, with you tomorrow’ It will surely take weeks still. If no passport before we fly we are well and truly UTTERLY screwed. As in on the street. Does anyone know a) where the passport is (Madrid or Sheffield) and b) how fast we can get it back?

Hi,

is your wife still in Madrid?

When did you get it escalated?

I got my husband's application escalated and I received all the supporting documents submitted with the application within 10 days at my UK address.

The passport along with all the documents goes to Sheffield, the new process ( im saying new because as far as I know im the only one whose documents got send to the UK) sends the documents to UK address if any, and the passport goes back to where the application was made.

unfortunately there's no way to fast track an application.

Hope this helps.

[Tufail101]

Hi Ammara!
congratulations for the good news .could please share if u do not mind
where did you submit the application ?did you send the supporting documents from Uk or applicant submitted on the day of finger prints and application submission day ?

Kind Regards
Eid Mubarak in Advanced

[OSH]

Hello Everyone,

I have applied for Non-Settlement spouse visa and on
7th April I gave my biometric. My husband is a EEA
national and is residing in UK from last 4yrs. I'm yet awaiting the reply.

We have escalated the matter last week i.e on 7th Jun
But no response received yet. I have applied for the 1st time
from Mumbai VFS.

[Jgadeep]

Dear Ammara and other friends,

Ammara, I am really happy to hear that you have received the EEA Family permit and wish you loads of love & happiness and EID Mubarak. (you got your gift

I am writing on behalf of my husband. We applied for his EEA visa from Bangalore, India by VFS global. Following are the info

Application online - 22nd April,17
Bio-metrics - 27th April,17
Received email - 28th April,17 (reached Sheffield office, UK)
Straight forward email - 16th May, 17

Till now we haven't heard anything back from them. However, I did call them on 6th June and they said it would be 15 working days. But as of now, no response yet. We are planning to write them an email. What do you think ??

As you have also mentioned that you received some documents, if you could kindly advise what doc. did you receive at your UK address because my husband's all doc. were scanned and he was asked to give bio-metrics on the same day.

We are very eagerly waiting on the results

Please if you could give me some suggestions. I await hearing from you or anybody else.

Love Heena

[ammara_talhi]

Thanks Heena and Tufail101, eid mubarak to you too.

@Tufail, my husband submitted all of the documents in islamabad, pakistan, everything including the supporting documents were submitted by my husband in islamabad.

We submitted the application online on the 24th of March and booked the bio metric appointment for the 30th, due to most of the documents being my documents from here(UK).

@Heena, there's not much you can do in terms of finding out about the application, I did several times and all I got told was that it is being processed, they never told me what was going on, they are really useless with the amount of information they give you.

I would suggest calling them when it has been well over the time it is meant to take, I would follow the guidelines given on the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/visa-processing-times

When I rang them I refered back to those times and said that it's unacceptable bla bla bla, I did have a very well deserved rant at them!


Wish you both the best of luck!

[Tufail101]

Thanks Ammara,
i had the same process for my wife .
she submitted all documents in vfs Islamabad .
i applied 3rd time as was refused twice and got reply with in 2 weeks both times .i did not get any of my document back here in Uk .
Ammara you said u got some document back in uk what were those ?
did HO contact you about the application as i was contacted once in my 2nd application .

Regards

[Raheela samar]

Hi ammara,
can u give me the fon number?because my husband called them and they said that they could not tell any thing more then that is written on their website.i escalated my application on 17 may but do not get any responce.still wait for their decision.and one more thing,my all documents were submitted onlineon the biomatric day here in madrid spain.
thanks in advance

[ammara_talhi]

Hi,

HO didnt contact neither me or my husband.

I submitted every single document I could to support the application, I used the guide online.

a certified copy of my passport
a letter from my employer to confirm my employement
bank statements
wage slips
my husbands university letter confirming his studies
his certified passport copy
his certified ID copy
his passport
my parent council tax statement showing who lives in the house
my parents mortgage letter
a letter from solicitor to show that they have seen the house and that it can accomodate for the husband
pictures from the wedding/engagement and more of us two
whatsapp chat log
marriage certificate certified copy
passport sized pictures
cover letter (i wanted to submit this but when the husband went for the bio metrics they said no)

Thanks

[Jgadeep]

Dear Ammara,

Thank you for your response...

I did call them again and this time that lady at first could not find my husband's application...which got me so worried

But she managed to find it and has escallated it again for me this is really a sickening wait...

Has anyone else heard about their application !!

Love Heena

[Zuly1820]

Hi all,

Just checked the Visa Processing Times for EEA Family Permits from Mumbai and they have updated for decisions made in May 2017. Compared to February HO is taking longer to process applications:

Number of days to process application 15 days 30 days 60 days 90 days
% of applications decided 44% 55% 66% 100%

Before 100% of applications were processed within 60 days - so if you are over that period now expect up to 6 more weeks of waiting!

I called on 12/6 to ask for an update... 9 working days since the call have passed and still waiting...

Post here if you hear anything back.

All the best

[Tufail101]

Dears Heena/ Ammara
thanks a lot for keeping the forum updated.
i want to escalate the process for my wife's application .what would i need o do ?
whats the number i need to call and what would i say ?
update me please .
Regards

[Jgadeep]

Hey,

You just need to check the number on the gov.uk give them a call and ask about your application....They will give you the details as well as a few information...nothing much

Love Heena

[Zuly1820]

Hi guys!

Any news on pending applications?

I called HO again and was told a decision has been made on the 13/06/2017 - so I just need to wait 15 working days for it to be processed plus a couple days for courier service. Let's hope it's positive
My process was escalated on th 12/06/2017 so that was quite quick! Overall it has been 67 working days since biometrics.
It's strange how for both my applications my husband never received an email informing him that a decision has been made.

Anyhow I'll keep you guys updated.

[ammara_talhi]

Oh, it shouldn't be long now!

my husbands visa had the date of issue as the 6th of June and he collected his passport on the 14th.

It should only be a matter of days now!

Good luck!

[Jgadeep]

Hey,

Wish you luck and stay positive....i m happy for you

I hope to also hear soon on my husband's visa as well...we have already escalated it twice and still waiting

Anyways keep us posted on your result ....

Good luck ....

[Bollox]

Hello All

well i have been following this post for last two months. Congratulations to those who have got their permit and good luck to all of us who are eagerly waitng!

I have few questions in regards to escalating the application.

I have applied for EEA permit from Mumbai on 03/04/2017 and still havent heard anything yet apart from an email on 20/04/2017 saying my application is not straight forward and they are continuing working on it. Yesterday I made a call to international inquiry number and asked for an update and requested to speed up my application. The lady over the phone said UKVI started my application process on 20/04/2017 (on that day i received an email saying my application is not straight forward) so timeline starts from there. She said I need to count 90 working days (this is updated processing time from May 2017, applications from Mumbai) from that date and still I do not receive the answer then I can escalate the case. I told her that I applied on 03/04/2017 and my biomatric was also done on the same day so timeline should start from there. ( I also received an acknowledgement for Sheffield section on the next day). She rejected my claim and said its upto UKVI when they want to start the process and timeline applies from that day. Considering what she has said I am just half way of that 90 working days timeline. I think that she was just avoiding to escalate my application by any means and giving all these excuses.

while reading this thread, I have noticed that those who have applied around same time as me are getting their decisions now and they are able to escalate their application. Was i just unlucky to get my calls answered by that lady who seems not to be competent enough in considering my request?

I would like here from those who have successfully escalated their application and got the reply.
How they made a request? via email or call? what reasons they used to request for an escalation. any of those who successfully managed to get their application escalated, have applied from Mumbai?

thank you so much in advance.

[sidkapure]

Hi Bollox,

I am in the same situation as you. I have exactly same dates of application and received "case not straightforward email on 20th April"

I called them on 25th May and they escalated my case and sent me confirmation on 30th May. After reading your email I called them today and they said they will re-escalate my case and the service standards have changed now from 12 weeks to 90 working days Basically 18 weeks.

He seemed to be in no information at all now knowing anything and just said something to keep us waiting more. These Inquiry desk has no control over Visa and no contact with the case worker. The whole setup is just to give us some hope and make us waiting.

I spent nearly £50 calling them in last 12 weeks.

Good Luck to all. And please sue UKVI after you get your visas. Drop an email to complaints about how your case has been treated and go to Ombudsman for compensation.

Regards

Sid Kapure

[faisal3100]

Hi guys!

Any news on pending applications?

I called HO again and was told a decision has been made on the 13/06/2017 - so I just need to wait 15 working days for it to be processed plus a couple days for courier service. Let's hope it's positive
My process was escalated on th 12/06/2017 so that was quite quick! Overall it has been 67 working days since biometrics.
It's strange how for both my applications my husband never received an email informing him that a decision has been made.

Anyhow I'll keep you guys updated.

Hi Zuly,

Inshallah you will get a positive decision.

I am also waiting. I got an email from Visa info Sheifield on June 8, 2017, stating that my visa application has been made and Your application will be dispatched shortly from the Decision Making Centre in Sheffield, UK.

Now It has been almost three weeks. I have not heard anything. And by the from this link you can check that when your application decision was made. https://contactukvi.homeoffice.gov.uk/a ... visastatus

I hope we will get positive decision. Inshallah!

[ashram]

hi all
its been interesting reading through all the stress all of you are going through. I'm in similar boat. I applied for my wife in india first on 17th may and it got rejected within 15 days as they said they were not convinced i was exercising my EU rights.

we re-applied on 16th June via VFS but didn't get a email from sheffield HO saying they received the application. it was a tense time as during first we got a confirmation in 5 days.

I emailed the UKVI and they escalated it. got a reply saying the have escaped and wait 10-15 days before enquiring again. thankfully 29th june, today got the confirmation.

does this mean the clock only starts ticking now or did the HO just forgot to email the confirmation of receipt?

I'm praying this time around there should be nay problems. has anyone else applied on 16th june?

[Tufail101]

hi all,
i requested for escalation of my wife's visa application and i got the reply below !!!!!! :
Dear!
Thank for your inquiry dated on the 29/06/2017. I understand you would like an escalation for you wife Application. Unfortunately an escalation is granted after 18 weeks as Family Permits applications are processed within 90 days.

Please refers to the link below for further guidance on query being answered.

https://visa-processingtimes.homeoffice ... ly-permits

Please note priority service does not guarantee that you will receive a decision within certain number of days.

It only means that your application would be put in front of the queue.

We aim to complete priority applications as soon as possible however it may get delayed due to several factors,

however as your application is already in process you would not be able to pay any additional payment to fast track this.

************************************************

Once the decision is made on the application if you have requested a return courier service you can track

the location of your documents on line, however if you have opted to collect your decision from Visa Application Centre,

then the documents will be sent to the Visa Application Centre then they will notify you once they have the documents.

UK Visas and Immigration
so we need to wait longer then we expect ..
all the best all
REGARDS
Tufail

[Zuly1820]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the good wishes

We haven't received our documents yet! Frustrating how long it takes!

I think processing times will depend on where you are applying from as well. I applied from Mumbai and looks like many of you did too and are experiencing delays.

Funny how rejections are dealt with quicker!

Faisal - thanks for that visa status checker link! It says decided on 12 June for me! I'll give it a few more days before chasing back. Where did you apply from?

All the best everyone!

[Tufail101]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the good wishes

We haven't received our documents yet! Frustrating how long it takes!

I think processing times will depend on where you are applying from as well. I applied from Mumbai and looks like many of you did too and are experiencing delays.

Funny how rejections are dealt with quicker!

Faisal - thanks for that visa status checker link! It says decided on 12 June for me! I'll give it a few more days before chasing back. Where did you apply from?

All the best everyone!

WHERE DID U CHECK THE STATUS AND WHAT REFRENCE NUMBER WAS LIKE .I HAVE LIKE GWF123456789 BUT NOTHING SHOWN .