Parted couples separated by long family visa delays
Partners in limbo as wait exceeds six months
Mixed-nationality partners are being left in the dark on when they can meet in the UK amid a huge backlog of applications for family and spouse visas.
Steven Warner, 24, from Penenden Heath, Maidstone, spent six months fighting to get the travel document for his 22-year-old German girlfriend Carolin, which eventually arrived this week.
Steven said: “We applied in November and completed the biometrics at the end of December so we should have had a decision at the end of March.
“My partner and I both struggle with mental health so not being able to plan ahead has caused us a great deal of stress and has affected us greatly.”
The pair have been in a long-distance relationship for six years and try to visit one another every three weeks.
He said: “We have been travelling for our long-distance relationship but what is putting a huge strain on us is that the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) centre in Dusseldorf has Carolin’s passport and will keep hold of it until we have the visa.”
All passports and identification documents are taken by officials when the application is made, so separated couples or parents either cannot see each other until visa decisions are finalised - or the burden falls heavily on the British person to travel.
Steven added: “We could have paid another €80 to get the passport back immediately but we had already shelled out around £1,500 and agreed that I would do all of the travelling until end of March.”
Families waiting for visas say they are enduring huge emo
tional and financial turmoil because of long delays at the Home Office.
Couples separated because one member is not a British national say the wait for official paperwork has become so long that lives are being left in a permanent state of limbo.
Spouse visas, which are valid for 33 months, usually take around 12 weeks to be determined, but the UKVI said couples, and family members should now expect to wait six
months or more to hear where and when they might be reunited in this country.
A letter to Steven explained: “Due to the humanitarian crisis caused by the invasion of Ukraine, UKVI is prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications. This means that customers applying for other routes will experience some delays in the processing of their application.”
More than 102,000 visas have been issued to Ukrainians fleeing the war.