Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for settlement visas were received using the priority service in each year since 2005; and what average time was taken to process such applications.

The Home Office publishes visa application data, including the number of settlement applications made, online at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2017 (under ‘list of tables - 2. Visas’).

Data on visa processing times, including the percentage of visas processed within published service standards, is also published online at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data (then listed by publication date under ‘UK Visas & Immigration’)

UKVI’s published timescale for processing standard visa applications is 12 weeks (60 working days) for settlement applications, and three weeks (15 working days) for non-settlement applications. Applications made under the priority visa service will be placed to the front of the processing queue and expedited, however timescales for decision are not guaranteed. If there is a problem with an application or it is complex and expected to take longer than the standard processing timescale, UKVI will write to the customer within the standard processing time and explain what will happen next.