spousal visa processing times

• i'm a us citizen, married for 2 1/2 years to a british citizen (he's been living in the states with me on a spousal visa issued by the us govt since then). i looked into the processing times that are published on the ukvisas.gov.uk website and determined that (because i believed them to be true) we would be fine if i applied in early feb 09. we have already told our employers that we are leaving our jobs at the end of march, told our landlord that we are moving out, booked passage on a ship that leaves on the 14th of april from new york, etc etc. all of our paperwork SHOULD be in order. we have 7,300 pounds in savings in the uk, i am an attorney and have an extensive cv, my husband and i have other savings in the us, he can teach in the uk, we sent cvs, job offer letters he got, marriage certificate, our leases, letters from friends and our landlords stating they know we live together and are a genuine couple, about 400 photos from our years of marriage, letters sent to us at our address, all of our bank statements, print outs and letters from our employers showing income for at least the last six months, birth certificates, a certified true copy of his us spousal visa (so that they would know that the us already went through everything and determined that our marriage was true and genuine), and even more.
  i've been in contact with a solicitor in the uk who deals with this sort of thing and he said that it should take 3-4 weeks. i've read on here that some people's applications are taking 60 days. i know that we put the cart before the horse in our planning but i was trusting the stats that the uk govt published. if it takes 60 days we'll be homeless, jobless and lose the money we spent for travel.
  can anyone tell me how long this REALLY takes? are the people who have been waiting months coming in from somewhere else? are they just problem cases? the waiting is already driving me crazy and the prospect of waiting 60 days has me so full of anxiety i'm ready to throw myself into oncoming traffic.
  please, someone tell me how long a straightforward (i think it is) settlement spousal visa from the us to the uk should take (it went to the LA office).
  thank you so much.
  even if it's bad news, i just can't handle the not knowing.
  n

  nola 21 Feb 2009, 07:01 - Report

Spouse Visa