Rio embassy processing times....

pauldm21 · Post by **pauldm21** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 12:02 am

Hi folks,

Anyone out there have any recent experience with the embassy in Rio De Janeiro and Spouse Visa App? My wife submitted hers at the beginning of March and we are still patiently waiting. It's only in the 8th week and they claim 95% are processed within 12 weeks. However in their stats posted (based on January) 2 out of the 3 spouse apps were processed within 4 weeks and the 3rd within 6 weeks. We have a friends wedding to attend in Italy at the end of June so am beginning to get worried about that. That would be around 16/17 weeks from her application date though, I never imagined there would be any danger of that becoming an issue! Anyway, If anyone has gone through this recently, I'd love to know how long it took......

I thought our application was fairly solid and well laid out so I expected a quicker response.... possibly naive on my part. My one concern was my wife's certificate of no impediment. Although we got all of her docs (marriage cert, birth cert, Uni docs etc) translated into English, we forgot to included her certificate of no impediment.... So we included the original and a photocopy, both in Spanish. I know all docs are meant to be in English and we are required to prove that we were both legally entitled to marry. Any know if this is likely to be a major issue??

Post by **Lucapooka** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 10:38 am

A non-impediment is not necessary for a UK visa application. Furthermore, if you are already married it would be superfluous as it's something that one uses before the actual marriage to show that one if free to marry.

The thing is, in the past, the Rio visa post used to turn around straightforward settlement applications in a matter of days. Now, after recent changes, it seems to take much longer. Rio is now the visa processing hub for all of South America so handles many more applications. Also, the new immigration rules require very close scrutiny often with database searches performed in the UK on the applicant and sponsor. I can see that in January they hit a performance target of completing everything (100% of applications) in under 2 months but the majority would have been emitted much sooner than that. There is really nothing you can do at this stage other than wait.

Also, yesterday was a public holiday and so is next Wednesday!

ellingham84 · Post by **ellingham84** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:54 pm

Hi,

I am in a very similar situation - my wife applied for her visa at the Rio hub in February (biometrics issued on the 28th) and we are still waiting. It will have been 38/39 days at the end of today for us.

I aso presumed that it would be a very fast process and straightforward as I/we meet the criteria and the financial requirement is not an issue.

I notice on the UKBA website the stats for March are up and it isn't great news, 2 people received their response in less than 15 days (probably paid the priority service), 1 person then got their response within the 40 days and then the other 6 before 60 days. The way I see it is that you are almost certainly going to receive a response between 40 days and 60 working days.

I wasn't aware of the priority service at the time of application but if I had been I would certainly have paid the R$600 fee, although expensive they suggest a service standard of 15 days (found out retrospectively...)

It is a completely rubbish situation but as Lucapooka says there is nothing you can do but wait. As you applied at the beginning of March, your 60 days runs through to the beginning of June so the date should not be an issue.

Best of luck!

pauldm21 · Post by **pauldm21** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 10:45 pm

thanks folks.

helps a lot to know I am not the only one in this situation and eases my slightly irrational fears of our application being lost/forgotten about!

Luca - I included the certificate of no impediment as I was under the impression we had to demonstrate 'we were both free and legal to marry' before our marriage took place (or words to that effect). Thanks for the clearing that up though!

M999 · Post by **M999** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 5:45 pm

I've done my application in Rio and it too less than 1 month. But it last year before they became hub for south america applications.
Good luck.

ijamesf · Post by **ijamesf** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:41 pm

My wife has recently submitted her application in Rio. Submitted it 20 working days ago (early april) and as you've guessed it, we are also yet to hear anything.

I will keep you posted on when we receive a decision

ijamesf · Post by **ijamesf** » Thu May 02, 2013 1:19 pm

Im assuming everyone that applied in Rio applied online before hand, and paid online too?

The VISA fee hasnt yet appeared on our statement and all the documentation recieved after submitting and completing the application form says payment successful etc, nothing to say otherwise.

Has anyone else found the same?

Post by **Lucapooka** » Thu May 02, 2013 4:16 pm

It's likely that Visa will have approved the payment locally but it can take a long time for your statement to show the purchase. In extreme cases, sometimes I get statements that show items I purchased more than 2 months ago.

ijamesf · Post by **ijamesf** » Wed May 08, 2013 8:59 am

Does any one know when roughly each month the UKBA website processing times for decision is updated? The april ones must be out soon?

ellingham84 · Post by **ellingham84** » Wed May 08, 2013 4:37 pm

It can vary but in the past it is around the 2nd week of each month, although the statistics were never published for February.

My wife went to the VAC on Thursday to see if there was anything that we could do to speed things up but there isn't, she was told that average time is between 40-43 days. We have now been waiting 45 days.

Best of luck!

ijamesf · Post by **ijamesf** » Sat May 11, 2013 10:59 pm

Well payment was taken from our account Wednesday 8th May 2013. Not sure if this means they're any closer to looking at our application yet though

ellingham84 · Post by **ellingham84** » Wed May 15, 2013 6:33 pm

Hi All,

Just to give you an update on our situation we are now in day 51 and today my wife received a call from UKBA in Rio.

Apparently we had not issued a photocopy of my passport with the application and requested that I sent this via email within the next 7 days. I had done this and it was recorded when evidence was given but I don't really care too much. I have sent it off and now am waiting a bit more anxiously knowing that the application is properly under consideration.

Just thought this information would be useful as it proves that prior to today they had not opened the application so hopefully this will give those of you waiting some idea of when your application may be considered!

Cheers
Joe

ijamesf · Post by **ijamesf** » Wed May 15, 2013 9:56 pm

Thanks for the update ellingham84, it gives us a date to look forward to now, maybe mid june for us.

Day 30 at the moment

ellingham84 · Post by **ellingham84** » Thu May 16, 2013 6:40 pm

Hi FYI - Today (day 52) we received an email from RIDEJVisainfo@fco.gov.uk stating Your visa has been issued. Your documents will be dispatched the following working day, which means that we have been successful in our application

Still got to wait for Worldbridge, which will hopeully be tomorrow (which would be day 53). With hindsight we would have paid the priority service in a flash but you live and learn!!!!

Best of luck with all of your applications and will post once again once the visa is in our hands!

ijamesf · Post by **ijamesf** » Thu May 16, 2013 11:43 pm

Many congratulations to you Joe!!!

Thanks for the updates

ellingham84 · Post by **ellingham84** » Fri May 17, 2013 11:57 pm

Hi, final update - we received a message from worldbridge yesterday saying that the documents had arrived. My wife went there today and picked up everything including her stamped passport.

In total it took us 53 days which was a lot more than we thought, especially after looking at the statistics from January (most recent when we applied).

Guys, best of luck with your applications, I know how stressful the process is and that you start doubting every piece of evidence you gave. I started to believe that we would have to appeal but thankfully that wasnt the case! It sounds stupid but once you have made the application, if you meet the rules, just trust that will be successful however hard that is!

We didnt use a lawyer either in UK or in Brazil, we just followed the guidance from the UKBA website and supporting documents.

ijamesf · Post by **ijamesf** » Sat May 18, 2013 7:00 pm

Yes we have done very much the same as you ahead of applying. We didnt even know of this forums existence. Just had the UKBA website and its maze of PDF docs to go by.

Many of the same thoughts are going through my mind too after reading the horror stories on here, im just using the same stories and comparing it to our application to ensure we have not made the same mistakes, which gives me some hope at least!

We meet all the fundamental requirements and provided the preferred documents and more, just a matter of the ECO by-passing my wives overstay as we're married.

32 working days gone and waiting, over half way if your wait is something to go by.

All the best and thanks again for your news

ijamesf · Post by **ijamesf** » Fri May 24, 2013 3:31 pm

My wife has just recieved the following email

from RIDEJVisaInfo@fco.gov.uk

Subject: Your Visa Application at Rio de Janeiro (Ref: ******)

Your visa has been issued. Your documents will be dispatched the following working day. We want to hear your views on the service we provided, please complete our Customer Satisfaction Survey at:

Is this the real deal????

ellingham84 · Post by **ellingham84** » Fri May 24, 2013 6:15 pm

That is exactly the same message we received. We then sent an email clarifying this and they said yes it means you have been successful

ijamesf · Post by **ijamesf** » Sat May 25, 2013 1:18 am

I should have scrolled up and read your earlier message!

We were just uncertain having read too many contradicting stories on here which lead us to doubt stupid things to do with the application, but as you said before, being confident in the documents is and was key!

Just a case of the documents being couriered back to my wife in Southern Brazil now!

Really happy and appreciate all the updates to keep us sane!

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