Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her department is taking to expedite the processing of out-of-country spouse visa applications.

The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Schemes applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As such earlier this year the service standard was changed from 60-days to 120-days as a direct result.

In exceptional circumstances, requests to expedite UK Family Visa applications are considered on a case-by-case basis and take a range of factors into consideration.

The bulk of resource has now returned to the route, along with an additional investment of new staff.

We are keeping the service standard level under review.