London (United Kingdom) VFS Passport Submission Timeline

[mimi234]

Hi Mimi, in a similar position to you! Wondering if you can help.

Received PPR, but confused by next steps given that the PPR letter says to upload some docs to the account...
So I think I am just going to send the filled out PPR letter, photocopies of our passports, and the physical photos that we had taken.

Did you just mail the above to:

Visa Application Centre
66 Wilson Street, London, Greater London, EC2A 2BT, United Kingdom

And that's when you received the email asking you to pay etc.?

So paranoid I'm going to do something wrong... applied in November 2020 so it feels very surreal to get to this point!!

Thank you

Hi,

Yeah just send it to that address using signed delivery if possible so you can track it. Once they have it they will email you because your email should be on the form you have to fill alongside copies of your passport, pictures etc etc.

Awww I know the feeling, it's such a stressful process - I called the visa centre like 3 times to confirm the address and the process before I did it too lolol.

Wishing you all the best, I'm sure it will get sorted much faster than you expect.

 

[wings149]

Hi,

Yeah just send it to that address using signed delivery if possible so you can track it. Once they have it they will email you because your email should be on the form you have to fill alongside copies of your passport, pictures etc etc.

Awww I know the feeling, it's such a stressful process - I called the visa centre like 3 times to confirm the address and the process before I did it too lolol.

Wishing you all the best, I'm sure it will get sorted much faster than you expect.

Hi Mimi,
Did you notice any update on your portal before you received the final decision? I submitted mine in person on Friday and had confirmation they arrived at the VO but my better half and kids are flying out on 05th April so hoping we have it back by then or it’s going to mean her leaving and flying back in with the COPR. .
it was only photocopies of passports we had to send it and I’ve heard that’s quicker than actual passports but not sure. Thanks

 

[wings149]

Y

Thanks for your feedback. I’ve logged into my EE profile and there’s still no update. I’ll just have to keep waiting for the EE update or when we get the passports back.

Did your portal update in the end? Seems strange to get your COPR and no update on the system. Also,, when you submitted your documents to VFS, How long did it take for you to get an email telling you of your decision envelope being dispatched? I see @AndyUK Managed to get his in about 10 days.
When I submitted mine the guy at VFS laughed and said "Wow, there are 6 of you in total, this could take a long time to process, maybe 4 weeks." Consequently, I didn't find this news as funny as he did. haha.

 

[oppositeofaproblem]

Did your portal update in the end? Seems strange to get your COPR and no update on the system. Also,, when you submitted your documents to VFS, How long did it take for you to get an email telling you of your decision envelope being dispatched? I see @AndyUK Managed to get his in about 10 days.
When I submitted mine the guy at VFS laughed and said "Wow, there are 6 of you in total, this could take a long time to process, maybe 4 weeks." Consequently, I didn't find this news as funny as he did. haha.

I'm frustrated with the PPR process so far, although I begrudgingly feel I should be grateful to get to this stage (after 27 months!!!).
I was debating taking my docs in to VFS, but when my spouse went to give his biometrics last month, they were loudly turning away anybody who didn't have an appointment for biometrics. I didn't want to trek to London to be turned away at VFS... so I sent mine recorded on Monday. Have received no email from them yet, so no way of knowing if what I've sent is correct or not.

What was your experience like when you took your docs to VFS? Did you have an appointment booked before hand? I don't understand why they think it will take a long time to process... surely all they do is courier the documents to IRCC and then courier them back to us once received from IRCC? 4 weeks for 6 people?!

 

[wings149]

I found the PPR process really confusing and the VFS site was really unhelpful. Wow, 27 months? That is a really long time. It got the better of me so I took them in myself. It was a bit of a chance as could have been turned away but luckily wasn't. I arrived and went to the front desk and said I was dropping off documents for Canada. I was provided with a ticket and sent to the relevant floor. There was about a 30 minute wait which I didn't think was too bad. I was called into one of the rooms and the agent there was great. He took my documents, checked them, checked the photos and asked for the Biometric stickers to show proof we had them completed at that VAC. (This was to avoid charges). He booked them all into his system and got them ready to send to IRCC London. By the time I got home, I had an email confirming the documents were on their way to IRCC. This was a Friday Afternoon. On Monday morning, I received an email to say they had arrived and were being processed. I haven't heard anything since. I found the staff there all super helpful and happy to explain anything.

The agent I was speaking with did say that people who sent their documents via Royal Mail, the week before Christmas was only just arriving the week before (25th January) Seems there is a delay with Royal Mail. Maybe this is why you haven't heard yet but hopefully will in a day or two.

I understand that from 06th Feb, you cannot just turn up to drop off the documents anymore, you have to now book an appointment, so seems I got there on the last day as a walk-in. Biometrics is by appointment only.

Hopefully you will have yours soon. Did you include a photocopy of the stickers on the back of your passports to prove you had your Bio's taken there? I was also told the courier fee on their website is per person as all documents are couriered separately. The whole thing was fairly confusing but I am hopeful now that I just need to wait for the COPR to be sent out.

 

[mimi234]

Hi Mimi,
Did you notice any update on your portal before you received the final decision? I submitted mine in person on Friday and had confirmation they arrived at the VO but my better half and kids are flying out on 05th April so hoping we have it back by then or it’s going to mean her leaving and flying back in with the COPR. .
it was only photocopies of passports we had to send it and I’ve heard that’s quicker than actual passports but not sure. Thanks

Hi,

When i received the 'Ready for visa' email from IRCC my application was still showing as processing lol they didn't update it for a longggg time. When the visa office sent an update saying that my COPR was on the way to me via DHL, a few hours later I got an email saying my status had changed, then I logged in and saw it said complete. Hopefully it comes in time for her, it shouldn't take long so hopefully you have nothing to worry about.

 

[wings149]

Hi,

When i received the 'Ready for visa' email from IRCC my application was still showing as processing lol they didn't update it for a longggg time. When the visa office sent an update saying that my COPR was on the way to me via DHL, a few hours later I got an email saying my status had changed, then I logged in and saw it said complete. Hopefully it comes in time for her, it shouldn't take long so hopefully you have nothing to worry about.

Hi Mimi,
Thanks for your reply. That makes sense. I’ve been logging into the portal every couple of hours to see if there is a change lol. Obviously too much time on my hands haha. At least I should just chill a bit and wait for the email to say it’s on its way. Then I need to book an
Appointment to go up and collect it. Just a matter of waiting now. Who knew a week could feel soooooooo long lol.
thanks Mimi. You must be almost ready to depart soon?

 

[AndyUK]

I see @AndyUK Managed to get his in about 10 days.
When I submitted mine the guy at VFS laughed and said "Wow, there are 6 of you in total, this could take a long time to process, maybe 4 weeks." Consequently, I didn't find this news as funny as he did. haha.

Yeah it was really quick which I think it's because I didn't need a visa - it cuts one thing out from the process (but maybe I'm wrong). I was prepared to wait 4-8 weeks based on the posts I saw on this forum.
When I was dropping my docs at VFS I asked about the processing time and the lady said 'there are no processing time estimates for Canada'... very helpful :/
BTW - if you opted for the documents to be returned via a courier, they may arrive on different days (my wife's COPR came one day before mine), so don't be surprised. You should get separate automated update emails for each person.

 

[wings149]

Yeah it was really quick which I think it's because I didn't need a visa - it cuts one thing out from the process (but maybe I'm wrong). I was prepared to wait 4-8 weeks based on the posts I saw on this forum.
When I was dropping my docs at VFS I asked about the processing time and the lady said 'there are no processing time estimates for Canada'... very helpful :/
BTW - if you opted for the documents to be returned via a courier, they may arrive on different days (my wife's COPR came one day before mine), so don't be surprised. You should get separate automated update emails for each person.

Thank you Andy.
I couldn’t believe your quick turn around either. That was excellent.
we are visa exempt also so hoping that works in our favour. It’s been a week today since I dropped them off and forever checking emails but nothing yet. Because there are 6 of us I opted to collect in person as they wanted to charge £34 per person for the courier so it’s cheaper for me to collect. I can check it l while I’m there then too. I have everything crossed we will hear soon. Thanks Andy

 

[AndyUK]

Thank you Andy.
I couldn’t believe your quick turn around either. That was excellent.
we are visa exempt also so hoping that works in our favour. It’s been a week today since I dropped them off and forever checking emails but nothing yet. Because there are 6 of us I opted to collect in person as they wanted to charge £34 per person for the courier so it’s cheaper for me to collect. I can check it l while I’m there then too. I have everything crossed we will hear soon. Thanks Andy

Another member here (CoolUk2) who's also visa-exempt had his COPR done even quicker. And the was between Christmas and New Year, so I think not needing a visa speeds up things quite a bit.
Hopefully you will get yours within the next few days

 

[wings149]

Another member here (CoolUk2) who's also visa-exempt had his COPR done even quicker. And the was between Christmas and New Year, so I think not needing a visa speeds up things quite a bit.
Hopefully you will get yours within the next few days

Oh really? That’s really good to know. I’ve checked about 10 times already this morning and still nothing lol. Do they send an email to you to let you know it’s left the VO AND the courier tracking details of just tracking email? Just wondering as if just tracking email them likely not to be until end of the day when the courier collects them all.

 

[AndyUK]

Oh really? That’s really good to know. I’ve checked about 10 times already this morning and still nothing lol. Do they send an email to you to let you know it’s left the VO AND the courier tracking details of just tracking email? Just wondering as if just tracking email them likely not to be until end of the day when the courier collects them all.

First I got automated emails (one for my envelope and one for my wife's) from 'do not reply' VFS email that the decision envelope has been dispatched from IRCC to CVO.
A couple of hours later got a longer automated email that the envelope is ready for collection at VFS or will be posted if I paid for the courier. And also a separate email from Canada Visa Applications Via International Post asking to provide full delivery address.
The next day got an automated email from CIC that my application status has changes.
2 days later (after the weekend) another automated email from VFS that the envelope has been couriered to me and a second email from Canada Visa Applications Via International Post asking to provide full delivery address. (that's the confusing part - one COPR was sent a day after the other one. If you have any questions/issues you can try asking by replying to Canada Visa Applications Via International Post - in my case they replied very quickly)
The got a text message or email from DHL with tracking info.
And a day later one envelope arrived and got a text message from DHL re other envelope, which arrived the next day.
Hope this makes sense

 

[wings149]

Thanks Andy. That brilliant and made perfect sense. It’s good to know what to expect as it’s just not documented anywhere.
Well, good news for us, I’ve had my two automated emails so the envelope is with the VAC. I’m booked in to collect on Monday morning. Thanks so much for your help and guidance @AndyUK and @mimi234 . You really have helped a lot.

 

[AndyUK]

Thanks Andy. That brilliant and made perfect sense. It’s good to know what to expect as it’s just not documented anywhere.
Well, good news for us, I’ve had my two automated emails so the envelope is with the VAC. I’m booked in to collect on Monday morning. Thanks so much for your help and guidance @AndyUK and @mimi234 . You really have helped a lot.

Oh nice one Congrats!

 

[wings149]

Oh nice one Congrats!

Thank you. I can chill and enjoy the weekend now. Just waiting for the profile to catch up. Lol