Here's the latest on QA. Because we're getting married at the end of July, we told them we could not afford to leave our passport and risk a postal delay. We asked how soon we could have the visa. This is the reply we got:
Assuming that the RPRF payment has been received and processed by the date of your interview AND that there are no concerns raised by the officer at interview, we should be able to finalize your application and issue your visas within a day or two of your interview, if not on the day itself.
It looks like they'll do like for Edupolo, give us some sort of code or a way we can skip the passport queue since this is quite urgent.
So that's the answer to my question about the different PPR letters (the QA interview letter we got doesn't mention RPRF). I suppose normally they would wait until after the interview to request RPRF (you know, in case you failed... not that it's really an option for QA since they're only making sure your documents are genuine.)
I know the email above does insist on the AND, but the guy on the phone was reassuring: unless you've forged or lied about something, why would they raise a concern now!? They ask for payslips for past 3 months but my fiancée hasn't worked since March; well we'll be honest about it, and bring payslips for the past year and explain why she's been out of work.
We're sending the Banker's draft to London as soon as we get it (we've been given a name, could it be our VO?), with a letter explaining this and politely asking to make sure the visa is ready for the day after the interview at the latest.
We don't normally drink alcohol but I went and bought a bottle of Canadian ice wine to celebrate!
Will let you know after the 5th!