Time taken to get UK settlement visa when applying in Algeria

[EnglishBeth]

Hi all

I'm from UK and recently got married to my husband who is Algerian. We're currently preparing the application for his UK settlement which we will submit in September in Algiers after our wedding reception. I'm interested to hear from others who have recently applied for settlement and how long it has taken to get the visa. On the UKBA website it looks like they process them pretty quick - most recent figures are decisions made on 75% of settlement visas within 2 days - see Guide to visa processing times.

But I phoned up Worldbridge in Algiers about something else and asked them as well how long they take on average and they said 3 months minimum.... Now i'm not sure if they get told to say that to everyone so people don't expect to get them too quick, but the prospect of waiting that long is not appealing :-((( I know of others who did get them within a few weeks but that is going back to the start of the year or earlier, so not sure if they've tightened up the process recently meaning it takes longer.

Anyway i'll stop rambling, would be great to hear from anyone who's recently got a visa (especially if got it quick!)

Many thanks

Beth

[Tizi]

I know of 2 people who applied at the beginning of June...1 got their visa in about 2 weeks and the other is still waiting to hear.

[kenzie]

salam all!!
me and my husband are going to be submitting visa application soon.
Just wondering how other ppl got on? Are the visa ppl tough??

Please help, i want to know everything.

[EnglishBeth]

Thanks Tizi, is good to know that weeks not months is a possibility..

Good luck Kenzie, hope you get it quick, keep us posted!! I suppose if they are issuing visas within a week or two they can't be checking every single detail though we're erring on the side of caution and making it as watertight as possible, don't want to give them any reason to doubt anything, inshallah we get them without any probs..

[Tizi]

English Beth ...Inshallah all will go smoothly for you...I do know that they make background checks - they telephoned the employer of one of my friends and asked questions about their employment.

[algerio]

has anyone has any luck with the visa?

i have been waiting over 3 months now and nothing yet, on the website visainfoservices.com they say anyone who applied for visa before december will get a reply by 21st of jan, and today is the 23rd and i still didnt hear anything.
i have heared many cases of refusal and all for silly reasons,

[EnglishBeth]

My hubby finally got his visa 10 weeks to the day after we submitted it - applied on 20th September and got it on November 29th (and the date stamp on the visa said 24th Nov). Despite numerous emails / calls to worldbridge and embassy during that time they would not give any update, so was beyond frustrating. I understand all applications submitted in Algeria are now processed in UK.

Having kept an eye on the visa processing times for the last 6 months unfortunately they seem to be getting slower. Last summer they were processing about 60% within 2 days but looking at the most recent stats for December it says 100% of applications were processed within 60 days (that's 60 working days - so 12 weeks in reality) You can see them at Guide to visa processing times.

Good luck, hope it comes through for you quick.

Beth