Time frame for legally staying in the United Kingdom

[mr and mrs 187]

where is the gd passport? i am pleased to hear about the interview date for the 12th of may. glad that got settled!

[MARM 7]

where is the gd passport? i am pleased to hear about the interview date for the 12th of may. glad that got settled!

I guess it is on its way...taking its sweet time, knowing NOTHING of how much stress it has already caused us !!!

We have plenty of time for it to show up now, it is just a matter of getting here by post, whatever method the Home Office is using.

[blue123 0]

where is the gd passport? i am pleased to hear about the interview date for the 12th of may. glad that got settled!

I guess it is on its way...taking its sweet time, knowing NOTHING of how much stress it has already caused us !!!

We have plenty of time for it to show up now, it is just a matter of getting here by post, whatever method the Home Office is using.

Maybe you need to start pushing again now to find out how they sent the passport, even 2nd class post doesn't usually take this long, but if it doesn't arrive soon maybe it's lost in the post and you can then get an emergency passport from embassy. keeping fingers crossed for you.

[MARM 7]

Maybe you need to start pushing again now to find out how they sent the passport, even 2nd class post doesn't usually take this long, but if it doesn't arrive soon maybe it's lost in the post and you can then get an emergency passport from embassy. keeping fingers crossed for you.

Of course we are continuously pushing and in fact have never stopped, the Home Office customer service is not very good at giving straight answers about when they dispatched the passport. But even if they sent out the passport on let's say Thursday of last week (as the Home Office told my fiance on Tuesday that they would dispatch his doc in a 1/2 days) then it should be here by today or any other time this week...the usual system is that the passport and doc arrive and then within 7 days the biometric card arrives...we are thinking they did it the other way around for us...the biometric card arrived last Thurs so we should give it until Friday for the passport/doc to show up. Even though, we are still in the process of trying to make sense of why it is not here yet. I highly doubt it is lost in the post, as it is always sent recorded delivery and the office from where his doc are being sent is literally 4 blocks away from his residence...so same street literally that the post is going to. We are continuously on our toes...will post an update as soon as we know anything. Thanks for the best wishes!

[MARM 7]

Update: no passport as of today so we called the home office to ask if he can pick it up in person...they said no, write a letter to blah blah address and they will mail it out to you ASAP...it's like we need to shake the home office every step of teh way..."um hello? where is the FLR(S) approval?" and then "ummm....yeah I received the ID card but no passport? " and then "ummmm yeah its been 1 week since I got my ID card, when the heck is the passport going to show up????" and now they tell us write a letter ASAP, so that is what we have done today...posted a letter to the address the Home Office has given us and we have also faxed to the places he faxed the expedite request for his FLR(S) to a while ago...just in case! You never know with the home office...just please send us the passport! We need to poke them to do anything and everything, there is no procedure no information, nothing that they can offer!!! :angry:

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

"Update: no passport as of today"

ARGHHH!!!

[MARM 7]

"Update: no passport as of today"

ARGHHH!!!

^^^ditto for today :angry:

Honestly, I don't know what more we can do. The letter my fiance sent requesting his passport back ASAP was delivered to the HO on Friday at 12:45 PM (as Royal Mail tracking shows). We sent it to the address of the office the HO customer service people told us. We highly stressed we need his passport back immediately/asap/urgently. I guess we wait again till this Friday (May 08) and then we have no other choice but to ask for rescheduling of the interview if we do not have his passport in hand by then. Oh and they said that they do not send passports back by special delivery (next day,etc), they just send them back standard recorded, which means that even if they have by some miracle already dispatched the passport, then it will take 2-3 days to get to him, even though he is in the same vicinity as the HO where he wrote the letter to for dispatching of the passport ASAP. We have exhausted all possible ways for him to get the passport....we have tried everything!!! I am literally on the edge because of this whole mess...but we can't do anything except wait now. They wont even give us a straight answer if we call and ask whether the passport has been dispatched or not!!!

*sigh* :wacko:

Oh we also had a question. Our NOA2 expires June 03, 2009. If for some reason he does not get his passport in time for an interview before June 03, 2009, how do we go about asking for an extension on our NOA2? Or should we leave it to the embassy to automatically extend the validity of the NOA2???

Edited May 5, 2009 by MARM

[MonkeyJuice 3]

sheesh..so the extended student visa was approved 2 weeks ago?! Wot the hell are they doing with the damn passport?

Marm..so sorry & I hope you get it back soon. You still have another week.

[MARM 7]

sheesh..so the extended student visa was approved 2 weeks ago?! Wot the hell are they doing with the damn passport?

Marm..so sorry & I hope you get it back soon. You still have another week.

Congrats on your approval!!! When I look at your time-line, I am encouraged by the strength that you two have to pull through the whole 12 months! So happy that you finally have your visa!!! Welcome to Chicago!

Yeah, the extension of the student visa was approved 2 weeks ago, he received his biometric Resident permit ID card but not the passport. Yes, we are really banking on this week!!!

[MARM 7]

Just tracking our situation here...

we emailed the US Embassy today asking for advice...the Home Office is of no help at all. They had my fiance on the phone for 25 minutes exactly and all they say to him is that in our system your application is "still under processing" and all they can advise him to do is write a letter which he did. And they also went on to say that if my fiance wants to "withdraw" the supposed "under processing application" in hopes of getting his passport back ASAP, then they might stamp a declined extension notice on his passport even though he has his biometric card with approved extension written ALL OVER IT!!!

Also, the MP got back by mail to my fiance, and he said the Home Office tells him his case is still "under processing" and that they are to inform the MP of any updates...blah blah blah....

So now we are waiting on an email from the US Embassy advising us what to do. It would be more than awesome and we would be more than grateful if he could at least go to his May 12 interview and maybe send in his passport later as soon as he gets it back from the Home Office.

Let's see what the US Embassy has to say....

[MonkeyJuice 3]

Just tracking our situation here...

we emailed the US Embassy today asking for advice...the Home Office is of no help at all. They had my fiance on the phone for 25 minutes exactly and all they say to him is that in our system your application is "still under processing" and all they can advise him to do is write a letter which he did. And they also went on to say that if my fiance wants to "withdraw" the supposed "under processing application" in hopes of getting his passport back ASAP, then they might stamp a declined extension notice on his passport even though he has his biometric card with approved extension written ALL OVER IT!!!

Also, the MP got back by mail to my fiance, and he said the Home Office tells him his case is still "under processing" and that they are to inform the MP of any updates...blah blah blah....

So now we are waiting on an email from the US Embassy advising us what to do. It would be more than awesome and we would be more than grateful if he could at least go to his May 12 interview and maybe send in his passport later as soon as he gets it back from the Home Office.

Let's see what the US Embassy has to say....

Oh no...this is awful! The stress must be unbearable. I hope the Embassy will offer a solution for you. Fingers crossed Marm.

[JeremyR 8]

This is getting bloody ridiculous

First up, if you haven't already, get in touch with the Citizen's Advice Bureau. They're free and immigration matters fall under their remit. They tend to be very overworked though...

If they can't help, perhaps consider asking a solicitor to write a sternly worded letter to the Home Office on your behalf. I have no idea how much it costs but it should make it clear you mean business and want that passport back, now.

[edit] fixed mangled sentence. /me repeats "use the preview function" 10 times

Edited May 6, 2009 by JeremyR

[MARM 7]

This is getting bloody ridiculous

First up, if you haven't already, get in touch with the Citizen's Advice Bureau. They're free and immigration matters fall under their remit. They tend to be very overworked though...

If they can't help, perhaps consider asking a solicitor to write a sternly worded letter to the Home Office on your behalf. I have no idea how much it costs but it should make it clear you mean business and want that passport back, now.

[edit] fixed mangled sentence. /me repeats "use the preview function" 10 times

Thanks for the info JeremyR We have already contacted the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) that falls under the Citizen's Advice Bureau and deal with similar situations...but they have told us that they have had complaints from students who have applied for extensions and months and even years have passed by that they still do not have their passport. The Citizens Advice Bureau offered to do an inquiry like my fiance's MP did, but we did not think it was worth it...their reps were quoting cases where for instance, one student had applied for an extension 7 years ago and he still did not have his passport back ( a very likely case of the passport gone missing, not typical) and were stating that it should already be a huge relief to my fiance that at least his extension has gotten approved within 5 months, the average is 6-8 months for applicants who applied when he did...so they were adding to our stress and we decided not to go along with them. As far as a solicitor, my fiance's stern letter reached the Home Office on Friday May 1st. And a solicitor will take at least the next week to write up a letter, not to mention they are pretty expensive. We will see what the US Embassy has to say to us as that is our main concern, and then go from there.

[MARM 7]

Oh no...this is awful! The stress must be unbearable. I hope the Embassy will offer a solution for you. Fingers crossed Marm.

Thanks for the support We are literally yo-yos in the hands of the UK Home Office...swinging us whichever direction they please...but we have full faith in the US Embassy that they will not let us down and will offer positive advice and plan of action.

[Gemmie 142]

Oh MARM, I'm so sorry that you're having to go through this. You honestly have the strength and patience of a saint.

I know an American girl at my university who applied for her cisa extension and it took them ages to send her passport back to her too, so she couldn't go back to LA to visit family. I don't know how long it took them exactly, I just happened to see many "WHERE IS MY PASSPORT??" status updates on Facebook. It did get to her though, it was certainly not a matter of months, and I hope it's not for you either.

Fingers crossed that it comes very soon. I don't really have any practical advice, other than let's hope the Embassy will understand and be flexible with you.