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TLS Contact UK Visa Application Center is not processing all documents for a settlement visa (spouse, fiance...), and here is the reason why. Documents submission for UK fiance visa and spouse visa is accompanied by numerous documents and evidence of the relationship collecting. In general such a package of documents weighs about 4-5 kilograms. Visa center specialists, most likely, are just tired of handling such cases and placed this duty on the shoulders of the applicants themselves.
What does the applicant need to do when applying for UK fiance visa and spouse visa? You have several options. Your partner sends all your documents to you, you put them together with your documents and send them to the UK (Sheffield Home Office immigration services) by courier. The second option, if you send your documents to your partner in the UK, and he sends them to Sheffield. In any case, it will be necessary to use the courier delivery service. If you chose the first option, you should be prepared that delivery from Russia will cost you about 25,000 rubles per 4-5 kilograms. If you send documents to the UK to your partner and he then use courier service, the cost will be much lower. When using courier service, you must not send your package through Parcelforce since they dont deliver to PO box as used by the Home Office address for Sheffield, otherwise the documents will never reach the visa immigration officer.
The decision for UK fiance visa and spouse visa takes about 3 months. If you decide not to wait so long and are ready to pay about 600 pounds sterling, then the period is reduced to 1.5 months. If you submit your documents in summer, the period of waiting is increased by 1.5 times. Unfortunately during summer, even the priority applications are rarely considered on time because of the large number of applicants and the complexity of the case.
That is why UK.Visas.Consulting does not recommend to pay for wedding events in the UK in advance. Our experience shows that you could not be in time for your wedding, if you plan to marry within a short period of time.
As soon as the documents are considered, the British visa officers return them to the address that was indicated on the envelope you sent (either your fiance in the UK, or yourself in Russia or elsewhere). You will receive your passport in the visa center, where you gave your biometric data.
Despite the fact that the new filling procedure has been running for almost 2 years, there are a large number of applicants for UK fiance visa and spouse visa, who continue to carry all their documents to the UK visa center. This will highly increase the time of processing for your visa.