# Upgraded to Priority - USA to UK (Settlement)



## mikado (Apr 6, 2014)

Hi all,

I've applied for a settlement visa (USA to UK) and have been waiting for a decision 4 weeks now. My husband and I decided to go ahead and pay the $510 so that we can be processed as priority since wait times are extreme right now. We went ahead and did so today via UK Visa Information - United States of America - User Pay Services, and after paying I e-mailed my confirmation to [email protected]. I used this e-mail address because it's the same one was used to communication receipt of my application/documents but we feel like maybe that's not the right e-mail address for this situation. 

Which e-mail should I use to let them know that I've now paid for priority? On the vfs global site [email protected] is the address listed, but not in the section for settlement applications. Can someone please confirm the correct contact information? Thanks!


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## keemnal (May 25, 2014)

[email protected] is correct.


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## zahab786 (Sep 8, 2014)

Did you manage to get a response back? I am in the same situtation are you. debating on whether or not to pay for priority. Ive been waiting 12 weeks now.


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## mikado (Apr 6, 2014)

Hi zahab- Yes, we just got a reply a couple days ago confirming that my application will be processed as priority.


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## mikado (Apr 6, 2014)

*Settlement Visa Processing Times, Retrospective Priority*

USA to UK
Settlement Visa to join my husband in London

Married - May 23rd
Applied online- July 24th
Biometrics - July 29th
Documents received at Sheffield - August2nd
Upgraded to priority - August 28th
Priority upgrade acknowledged - September 10th

Hi all- Due to long processing times I went ahead and did retrospective priority on 8/28 (week 4 of waiting) and e-mailed Sheffield a screenshot of my payment confirmation. We recently got a reply from someone at Sheffield: "Thank you for your email. I can confirm that your application will now be placed in the priority processing queue." Great news going into week 7 of waiting!

So now we're wondering... does my priority processing time start from now, or from when I paid on 8/28? And are priority processing times still 4-5 weeks? The "processing times" feature is back up and running on the ukba site, but the _settlement_ feature isn't available for applications from New York, USA right now (perhaps they're currently updating it).


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

I believe your waiting time will start from the time of acknowledgement. 4-5 weeks still seems to be accurate.


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## mikado (Apr 6, 2014)

*Thanks..*

Hi Nyclon 

Thank you for the information, definitely feel much more reassured now.
Also if you had any idea on the following, that would be greatly appreciated as it's very odd! :
So now that the Gov website is operational again, I've naturally tried to check approx. processing times, but am unable to select "settlement" as an option from USA to UK. 
I've replicated the search on the two other countries that the Sheffield office handles (Nigeria , Canada) and am able to select "settlement" each time.

Any ideas you could hazard as to why this is..?

Thanks again,


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## Rices (Sep 15, 2014)

mikado said:


> Hi Nyclon
> 
> Thank you for the information, definitely feel much more reassured now.
> Also if you had any idea on the following, that would be greatly appreciated as it's very odd! :
> ...


I had also noticed that the processing time page had been unavailable about a month ago. I did though check it a week ago and it showed 100% of applications from NYC were processed within 60 days, as of July 2014. That makes me think that if you submitted your application by May that it should have been processed by July. After reading your post just now, I checked again and sure enough as you said, it doesn't allow me to select the processing times for settlement visas from NYC. You can choose the DHS VAC, USA option. It has different times listed than what was displayed for settlement visas on the NYC page. I'm not sure what DHS VAC stands for or why there are only two US locations available??? So frustrating!


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## Pallykin (Mar 30, 2014)

60 days means 60 business days, so 12 weeks. However they were actually taking about 16 weeks in the peak of the summer rush.

Priority applications were taking 5 weeks, and now seem to be taking only 4.

I looked at some of the stats for Canada, and the times seem really long. Nothing to celebrate there.


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## zahab786 (Sep 8, 2014)

Pallykin said:


> 60 days means 60 business days, so 12 weeks. However they were actually taking about 16 weeks in the peak of the summer rush.
> 
> Priority applications were taking 5 weeks, and now seem to be taking only 4.
> 
> I looked at some of the stats for Canada, and the times seem really long. Nothing to celebrate there.


Hi pallykin,
Where did you get your timeline from?


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## Pallykin (Mar 30, 2014)

zahab786 said:


> Hi pallykin,
> Where did you get your timeline from?


Just from observing people's timelines here on Expat Forum. So not a scientific sample, but it does give one a general sense of what's going on.


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