Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken is for UK Visas and Immigration to process a visa application.

UKVI offers a range of service levels for applications which include Standard service (15 working days), Priority service (5 working days), and Super Priority service (next day) after a customer has provided their biometrics.

UKVI made a decision to prioritise the Ukraine Schemes following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Resources are now being returned to focus on visa routes impacted by these prioritisation decisions which will reduce average processing times in due course.

We continue to prioritise any urgent compelling or compassionate cases across all workstreams and are working to reduce the current processing times as quickly as possible.

For Standard applications lodged outside the UK, the current average processing time is as follows:

• Visitors – 6 weeks
• Students – 5 weeks
• Work – 5 weeks
• Joining Family – up to 24 weeks

Further information can be found at Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and this is regularly updated.

For Standard applications lodged inside the UK, the current average processing times are not published though all routes are currently within the published service standards which are:

• Switching/Extending a Student, Family, Ancestry, Work, Visitor, or Graduate Visa – 8 weeks
• Switching/Extending a Hong Kong British National (Overseas) Visa – 12 weeks
• Applying for Settlement - within 6 months

Further information is published at Visa decision waiting times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)