Certificate of Approval - Processing Time

[retromelissa]

I was wondering how long it actually takes to get one? I know the site states about 70 days processing time, but someone told me they got theirs in 2 weeks and someone else got theirs in 4 weeks. Has anyone here applied for one and how quick did you get it?

[Shae]

Heya - I'm not sure of the time exactly but I heard about 3 weeks. Are you thinking about getting married here? I'm trying to figure out how to work all the red tape of everything. May go down the route of marriage soon.

[retromelissa]

Yes we're going to get married here and then I'm going to switch to a spousal visa We'd though about going to Canada to marry as you don't need approval there, but with the cost of plane/train tickets we figured it might be better to just take our chances here. The people I've spoken to have said it's not hard to get a COA anyway 3 weeks isn't too long of a wait. I'm getting ahead of myself planning my wedding and I haven't even got the COA yet haha ^_^

[bonnie]

Hoping someone can help me out. I need to get a COA and have heard that it can take anywhere b/w 20-70 working days yet the home office is currently reviewing applications that were submitted in November 2007, almost 6 months ago! Has anyone gone through this application process recently? I'd like to get married in Sept this year and can't really book a venue if it's going to take approximately 6 months

any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Bonnie

[deepa]

Mine took about 4-5 weeks to arrive

[fleur de dune]

Hi,

Im french and live in the uk. my fiance and me are waiting for a certificate approval since june 2009. We are still waiting! we have a sollicitor who said to us that we need this certificate to get married. Actually we are really ..worried!coz it takes a long time!6months now...

[TerryXX99]

Hello I'm British citizen and marrying a foreign national (not a Canadian, but that's not relevant). We applied for our COA in June 2009 also and because of a recent change in the law, many cases are being delayed. It's now January and we have heard nothing.
My fiancee overstayed her visa and is now an illegal immigrant. Of course if you apply and you are within your visa period your application will be processed fairly quickly. For overstayers it takes a lot longer as they need to see you are a genuine couple - living together - and not a fake marriage.
The UK Border Agency has come under a lot of fire recently because of slip ups and high profile mistakes (eg Baroness Scotland case) so we suspect all immigration oficers are ensuring nothing escapes their attention.
We also believe that if they have any doubts they will put the case "on hold" for a specified period and re-visit it. This is done to see if the couple is still together.
We had to submit an affidavit with proof of our relationship. We submitted 7 statements from friends/relatives who state we are a genuine couple and they have known us both for a certain period.
A couple we know were visited by the Home Office before Xmas and interviewed. They arrived at their house unnanounced at 7am, just as they got up. They stayed for an hour and interviewed them in separate rooms. They still have not heard anything.
Unfortunately with the huge number of sham weddings taking place most cases submitted to the Home Office are regarded as guilty until proved innocent.
Good luck all

[jgomez224]

hello, am so interested on the thing you said about your fiance, i overstayed and i dont know what can happen with my status, do you know anything about it? I applied for my COA on september and i recieve a letter on October requesting the affidavits and that things, but in october i received a letter refusing my student visa, since then i decided with my fiancee stay together and wait for it, she is german and we have 1 year living together already, do you think we can have any problem to get the COA. tnks for any information