Visa processing times for UK applicants

[timw]

I am a UK citizen and am being sponsored by my Canadian wife. We got married in January and we sent off an outland application, although I am currently in Canada as a visitor. There are two stages to the process. First my wife gets assessed as a sponsor and then I get assessed as an applicant. When we looked prior to Christmas it was 41 days to assess the sponsor and 11 months for the applicant. To apply inland by contrast was 13 months for the sponsor and 8 months for the applicant. Since then the sponsor stage has gone up to 62 days for the sponsor and from 11 months to 29 MONTHS!! to assess the applicant.

The consensus at the time seemed to be that applying outland was way better as amongst other things it was quicker, but that seems to be no longer the case. In addition inland applicants can apply for a new open work permit.

Is anyone else here experiencing the same thing or have any advice? Does anyone know too why there has been such a sharp increase in processing times for UK applicants?

 

[scylla]

If you search this forum you'll see many threads that explain the increase. Islamabad applications were recently transferred to London and this is why overall processing times have increased. However the actual processing times for UK applicants hasn't changed.

As for first stage, this processing time regularly fluctuates due to application volumes.

 

[SchnookoLoly]

Check out the first part of the FAQ linked in my signature, including the bit about "how long will it take". There's also a spreadsheet linked in my signature which should give you a much more realistic view of processing times.