Spouse Visa Processing Times

[kevinleesmith]

My wife is waiting for her Spouse visa to be processed in the Philippines. Each week we email VFS to ask the status (we know it's pointless but...) they give us some stats for the previous week e.g....

Manila Week 2 10/08/2012-10/14/2012
Settlement Visas 5 days 10 days 15 days 20 days 25 days 30 days 60 days 90 days 120 days Total decisions made
Settlement 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 57% 100% 100% 7

Manila Week 1 10/01/2012-10/07/2012
Settlement Visas 5 days 10 days 15 days 20 days 25 days 30 days 60 days 90 days 120 days Total decisions made
Settlement 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 12% 94% 100% 100% 17

Manila Week 4 09/24/2012-09/30/2012
Settlement Visas 5 days 10 days 15 days 20 days 25 days 30 days 60 days 90 days 120 days Total decisions made
Settlement 10% 10% 15% 15% 20% 20% 90% 90% 100% 20

Manila September
Settlement Visas 5 days 10 days 15 days 20 days 25 days 30 days 60 days 90 days 120 days Total decisions made
Settlement 2% 2% 2% 8% 11% 23% 94% 94% 100% 34


I am collating these each week to track their processing which I am also willing to share with all here.

Now what can you do to help? to improve that information that all will be able to see?

I would like to get a list of all those people who have applied for a SPOUSE VISA and are still waiting for a decision. The names of the people are irrelevant, what will be useful is the date you applied for your spouse visa.

Once I get that information we will then know (generally) how many spouse visas are currently BEING processed which I can augment the HAVE processed data with.

Many thanks if you decide to take part.
Kevin.

[Steve.r]

Anybody can look at the figures you quoted, it wont make your waiting process any easier knowing how long others have taken. Each one is processed on it's own merit.
A bit of a pointless exercise tbh.

But good luck with your application.

[Arthur Little]

Thanks for the thought, Kevin ... but - as my friend and fellow Moderator has pointed out - there is, unfortunately, no set pattern to the waiting times.

here and best wishes with your wife's application.

[Mrs.P]

Hi kevin. Mine is still waiting for the decision. I submitted my application on august 28.

[bigmarco]

Hi Kevin and welcome to the forum .
Don't get to stressed with all this collating as it wont change anything. You can search this forum and find people who got their visa in a couple of days and some myself included who had to wait a hell of a lot longer.
Stay positive and we all wish for a positive outcome asap

[vernier caliper]

Hi Kevin.

Please be reminded that VFS Global is not involved in the decision-making process and cannot influence the decision on your spouse visa application. Once your application has been forwarded to UKBA, VFS is no longer in control. UKBA will directly send email to you (or your wife) incase decision has been made on your application. Likewise, sending email to VFS in relation to the above stats is good for nothing since the same data is available and updated on their website. See attached link for reference. http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/co...ultTableAnchor

On my personal opinion, approval rate depends on three things
1. application form has been completely accurately
2. original/authentic AND enough documents as evidence have been provided
3. the ratio of the application/staff available in the UKBA Office

Good luck on your application. Enjoy the Philippines while waiting

[vernier caliper]

Hi Kevin.

Please be reminded that VFS Global is not involved in the decision-making process and cannot influence the decision on your spouse visa application. Once your application has been forwarded to UKBA, VFS is no longer in control. UKBA will directly send you (or your wife) email incase a decision has been made on your application regardless of the outcome. Likewise, sending email to VFS in regards to the above stat is of no use since the same data is available and updated on the UKBA Philippines page. On my personal opinion, decision is made faster according to three things:
1. application form has been completed accurately
2. original/authentic AND enough documents as evidence have been provided
3. sufficient ratio of the application/staff is available in UKBA Office

Good luck on your application. Enjoy the Philippines while waiting

[Terpe]

Hello Kevin, welcome to the forum.

Hope your wife's visa will be granted soon.

Please don't think members are being negative to your idea's.
It's really just that there is no 'natural' pattern to the process.

Since the introduction of the new immigration rules there are a number of new contributing factors entering the mix of controls used by the Visa Sections in terms of the processes, perfomance monitors and service standards.

I haven't checked out the statistics provided to you by VFS so I've no idea where they originate.
But we do know that the Visa Section at the British Embassy is part of the so called Manila-Hub. This is the regional centre for UK visa processing and handles visa applications from around nine countries.
Historical statistical data on visa processing times are available on the UKBA website. Don't forget that staff get moved around the different sections (eg Student Visa / Settlement Visa etc) in line with work loads and work-list items.
Sometimes staff will work overtime to help maintain service standards and minimise backlogs. It's a complicated process that can often self-generate work-list activities depending on the quality of the applications and the availability of ECO's and ECM's.

Most of the hard data is available within the public domain from the tables published in the various Home Office reports.
I think you'd need a significant amount of free time available to build your own analytical model, which most likely would yield the same historical data as that on the UKBA website.

It's just another example where the nature of the historical data is not entirely suitable for predictions about the future.

[lastlid]

On my personal opinion, approval rate depends on three things
1. application form has been completely accurately
2. original/authentic AND enough documents as evidence have been provided
3. the ratio of the application/staff available in the UKBA Office

Having been a bit of an "anorak" on these stats and someone who is currently actively involved in the processing of submitted papers, my feeling is that there is a little bit of luck involved too as to how quickly a particular application is processed. I get the impression it can be quite random.

I know someone for whom it took a day. And there has been an example on the forum where this has happened also. For others it has taken a lot longer. For us it took 2 weeks which was slower than most at that time, but quicker than most at other times.

[Mrs.H]

hello everyone...

im just new here, Can somebody help me,about the processing time for spouse visa here in philippines. Its been more than 6weeks waiting now, since i submitted my application, and still the vfs global said it was still in process when i track my application...what is the maximum time i have to wait.. because its nearly December and want to join my husband in Christmas..

thank you so much for help...

[melovesengland]

hello everyone...

im just new here, Can somebody help me,about the processing time for spouse visa here in philippines. Its been more than 6weeks waiting now, since i submitted my application, and still the vfs global said it was still in process when i track my application...what is the maximum time i have to wait.. because its nearly December and want to join my husband in Christmas..

thank you so much for help...

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/co...ultTableAnchor

all you can do is wait. its a waiting game Im afraid, provided you a link for you to have a look. the settlement section is at the very bottom of the page.