Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they keep records of how often, following a visa application being authorised, the documents are returned to the applicant to allow for travel in time for the start date for which the visa has been sought; if so, (1) how often the authorised documents are returned within this period, and (2) what proportion of all visa applications this represents; and if they do not maintain such records, whether they will do so.

This information is not published.

TLS Contact and VFS Global operate the network of overseas Visa Application Centres (VACs) on behalf of UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). Customers are notified that their visa decision is ready for collection as soon as the decision is received at the VAC.

Decisions on visa applications are made by Home Office officials. The length of time it takes for a decision to be made varies depending on the route in which a customer has applied, however, UKVI aims to process decisions within published service standards. The date the customer puts on the visa application form as the date of travel may be in advance of the published service standard for that route, which may result in the travel date not being met.

UKVI encourages all customers to apply in good time ahead of intended travel dates, and customers can also make use of UKVI’s optional priority visa services in certain locations if they need a quicker decision.