km5

Son applied by mail from Boston to LA office of British Consulate for 1 year study abroad visa. He is expected to be in London September 13. He received email from them stating that his application was received on August 25 and that it would take 10 business days or more. I just found out that the Consulate will be closed not only on Labor Day, but Thursday and Friday of next week for some sort of equipment change. I also heard that they have 30 boxes of student visas they are processing and are all backed up.
A visa service I called is checking whether the visa is already being processed. If so, they cannot help, and we should just "pray." If it is not yet processed they can withdraw it, and try to run it through themselves in the next three days. Otherwise, no visa.
And, of course, they have his passport too so he cannot leave.
Any bright ideas from the world of CC'ers?
Thank you.

Spriteling

There is really nothing else you can do at the moment; the LA Consulate is ridiculously backed up for visas. Just hope that the agency can help, or you'll have to rebook flights.

Also: Why did your son apply at the LA consulate? If he is from Massachusetts, his visa application should have been directed to New York.

pinkpineapple

NY was ridiculously backed up as well - I went for a walk-in as did several friends headed to St Andrews, UCL and Edinburgh - many had to go back a second and even a third (!) time in one case.

km5

Son applied in Boston because was camp counselor at Berkshires for 10 weeks and that was closest Consulate. He asked for visa to be processed in LA where we live. That delayed things. Apparently he is also missing critical documents. The Consulate did not notify him. He was there again today, and they won't let him go upstairs to the actual offices but sent a security guard to come downstairs and say he has no info. He found out today that one doc is in Indianapolis where Butler University is located, another doc is at visa facilitator that Butler uses in Chicago. Supposedly they are expressing the docs to him this weekend but it is unclear whether he can get them to a live person at the Consulate. It is totally son's fault for being completely out of touch this summer when at camp.

So the British Consulate is only open two days next week, Tuesday and Wednesday. Anyone know an "inside person" at the Consulate in LA?

Thanks for your comments.

jhill97

The following link has some helpful information on this subject - Visa and Immigration - Study in the UK - Education - British Council USA . I believe he may have to wait until it clears to get his passport back and may end up having to rebook his flight. Hope this helps!

somemom

For future reference, you can find some good help and info on uk resident dot com or uk yankee dot com

We used an expediting service and the time it took to get things like the school visa letter and financial proof etc made it a wise choice, had the visa from LA within about 4-7 days

DDrhl

Good Lord...DON'T DIRECT THEM TO THE NY Consulate!!!!!

Spriteling

You don't have a choice, really, about which consulate you go to. It all depends on your state of residence.