The Home Office have announced that ‘Priority’ and ‘Super priority’ visa services have been temporarily suspended for new study, work and family visa applications, as they are currently prioritising Ukraine Family Scheme applications, in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the invasion of Ukraine, and so applications for study, work and family visas will take longer to process.
With the removal of priority services, the Staff Immigration Team have no ability to speed up applications once submitted. Chasing the Staff Immigration Team will not affect this because it is out of the team’s control. Please can we ask that you only chase up a response when the query is urgent, for example an individual’s visa is due to expire in the coming month. Please do not try another member of the team, and only mark as urgent when absolutely necessary. As has been the case for some time now, the team require a 3 month lead time for visa applications. The suspension of the ‘Priority’ and ‘Super priority’ visa services mean that the 3 month timeline cannot realistically be reduced.
