The British Consulate in New York has recently made an announcement that all UK settlement visa applications, including UK marriage visa, UK fiancee visa, UK unmarried partner visa and other relevant categories, made in the US will now be processed by the UK Border Agency office in Sheffield, UK. The changes only apply to settlement applicants who provided their biometric information on or after 21 December 2012. All other applicants who provided their biometrics information prior to this date will still have their applications processed in New York.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) have made it clear that the change of location will not have any detrimental effect on customer service standards and that the time needed to process applications will not be increased because of it. The actual UK marriage visa application process itself for settlement applicants has not been changed. Decisions regarding settlement applications will be made in Sheffield and then relayed to the applicants back in the US. Thus, with the UK settlement visa process from the US remaining the same, there should be no additional concerns about the time it takes to process a UK marriage or partner visa application, nor actual decisions made, despite the fact that the processing will be done elsewhere.

The premium service is still available to applicants based in the USA.