Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how long the average waiting time was for a non-priority family of a settled person visa application decision (a) before VFS Global became an Official Partner of UK Visas and Immigration and (b) after VFS Global became an Official Partner of UK Visas and Immigraiton.

The current contract with VFS was signed in September 2013 and has driven an improvement in customer service. However, the processing of a visa application is always carried out by UKVI staff and the Commercial Partner has no role in the assessment of applications.

The Home Office publishes information on visa processing times, including those of non-priority family members of a settled person. This information can be found online at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-january-to-march-2017/list-of-tables#visas.