If you have not been contacted by the Home Office and are experiencing delays in your application, the first step is to contact UKVI and request an update on your matter; their contact details can be found on their website. Generally they only provide email contact addresses. There is also a service where they charge a fee for asking for an update on the progress of an application. Sometimes using that service provides a realistic and helpful response – often it doesn’t. The most common response received is simply
We are dealing with your application and will be in contact with you as soon as possible.
Unfortunately that is very unhelpful. This is one reason why you may need to seek professional advice from us, especially if the delay is significant or there is an underlying emergency situation and the Home Office are simply not giving you the response you deserve.
If you had paid for a priority or super-priority processing, then you should ask for a refund for the fee; furthermore, requesting for the process to be escalated as a matter of priority may also speed up the processing of your application.
UKVI will generally advise on why there are delays taking place and what steps you can take to reduce this delay; when contacting the Home Office, make sure to keep a record of all communications and note who you spoke with, when you made the call, and what information or advice you were given. Keeping a record of this information is vital in order to be able to take further action to chase your delayed application.
If you post anything to the UKVI / Home Office, always use Recorded Delivery and always keep a record of the recorded delivery number and copies of anything you send to them. These could be vital if your matter needs to go to court.
follow each of these steps, starting from the first, in order. It is important that you take these steps when complaining about the Home Office:
- My Visa Application is Delayed – What Can I Do?
- Home Office Compensation for Delays in Processing Visa & Immigration Applications
- How to Chase a Delayed UK Visa & Immigration Application
- Contact UK Visas and Immigration for Assistance
- Complain about UKVI
- Contact your local MP
- Complain to Parliamentary and health Service Ombudsman
- Pre-Action Protocol Letter
- Judicial Review
