What to do when experiencing a delay with your UK visa
There is nothing more disheartening than passing the estimated decision date for your visa without receiving any communication. I had a delay on one of my three visas, and it caused me a tremendous amount of stress.
Though you won’t find this information on the Home Office website, there are a few ways that you can enquire about a visa delay.
Check your application first
The first thing I recommend doing is to carefully review your visa application. Can you identify any mistakes or information that you left out? Are there dates that are entered incorrectly or documents that you failed to provide? It’s best to have a look and anticipate any issues that the Home Office may require clarification on.
Understanding the potential issues with your application can also help you when appealing for additional help from other sources.
Stay aware of any issues causing general delays
There are times when the Home Office experiences a backlog due to a surge in applications or other unforeseen circumstances. Staff shortages due to Covid-19 created delays in 2020 and 2021 and, of course, the prioritization of Ukrainian refugee applications has meant that visas for other foreign nationals have taken a back seat.
There are also peak times during the calendar year when the Home Office finds itself experiencing significant increases in applications, in particular the summer, when international students are making their applications ahead of the start of university courses in the autumn.
In these circumstances, I recommend taking a deep breath and exercising a little bit of patience.
Contact your member of parliament (MP)
If you are applying for a spouse or other family type visa and have family already living in the UK, you or your sponsor can contact your MP to enquire with the Home Office on your behalf.
If you’re planning to relocate to Scotland, Northern Ireland, or Wales, let me clarify that it is important you contact your MP for the UK parliament and not your intended country’s parliament representative, such as your MSP.
The Home Office makes visa decisions for all four nations within the UK and your UK MP will likely have more contacts within and experience in dealing with the Home Office. The Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish parliaments don’t dictate how the Home Office makes decisions and thus, their representatives are unlikely to provide any meaningful assistance.
Contacting your MP isn’t always going to have an impact. He or she can only make enquiries on your behalf and there are limitations to what they can do.
Ask media outlets for help
Media outlets often have contact pages or e-mail addresses available for members of the public seeking assistance.
The Home Office is far from the most popular government entity and negative stories about it result in clicks, such as this recent Guardian story about a man struggling to get his passport back.
Contact several. Be honest and factual about the details of your application and the length of the delay, and express your feelings as well.
How likely are they to help you? I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot, and I know from experience, that it feels better to try than do nothing.
Contact the Home Office
This is the absolute last thing I would recommend you do, and I’m not saying that to be funny. As I’ve said before, the Home Office is not helpful.
No one from the Home Office is going to ring you or hold your hand if you made a mistake. You will either be denied or receive a dreaded letter that they need more information. -Paige Bowen
I have personally called their phone number, paying extra per minute for it, and received no information that wasn’t already on their website.
They will not speak to you about your case, but they will ask for your application reference number, so have it ready before you call. If you really want to go this route, you can learn more about contacting the Home Office here.
Best of luck to you with your application. I hope that you are successful and enjoy your new life in the UK!
