Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what percentage of settlement visas were processed within 12 weeks in each year since 2005.

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.