UK Settlement Applications 'Pause'

[athousand]

On the VFS website it is stated as follows : 

 

"Following a Supreme Court judgment, the Home Office has paused decision-making on some applications – in particular, those failing to meet the minimum income threshold for British citizens sponsoring a non-EEA partner and non-EEA children. The reason for this pause is to enable the Home Office to consider the implications of the judgment. All other applications will continue to be processed and decided as normal."

 

I'm really unclear on what this actually means. I've read elsewhere that some applications are on 'pause' where the applicant clearly does meet the minimum income threshold. 

 

Does anyone have any experience or more information about this?

 

Does it affect those using other means to satisfy the financial requirements, such as savings? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 20, 2017 by athousand

[theoldgit]

As far as I'm aware it's only some applicants who failed to meet the financial requirements are on hold, I am aware of applications from those who have met the requirements have been processed.

 

Where did you read otherwise? 

[athousand]

There is some discussion about it on the  'immigrationboards' forum.  There are several reports of applicants who say they easily clear the financial requirements yet have received the email stating their application is on hold. I have no further information than that. All just hearsay at the moment I guess. The situation is certainly not helped by the vague and open-ended wording by the HO, and lack of a good quality channel of information to them. Hopefully some more clarity will emerge. Below is a request for information awaiting a reply.

 

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/spouse_settlement_applications_o

It seems like the recent change of process (assessing the applications in Sheffield rather than locally) and the court decision are slowing things quite a bit. However at the moment, there is no clear indication what is actually going on or why so I guess the only thing to do is proceed as planned and see how it pans out. 

 

It will be interesting to see what kind of processing times we see here in Thailand now. The last data available shows February which was before the new system was introduced.