<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>So the British Consulate is only open two days next week, Tuesday and Wednesday. Anyone know an “inside person” at the Consulate in LA?</p>
<p>Thanks for your comments.</p>
<p>The following link has some helpful information on this subject - [Visa</a> and Immigration - Study in the UK - Education - British Council USA](<a href=“http://www.britishcouncil.org/usa-education-visas-entry-clearance]Visa”>http://www.britishcouncil.org/usa-education-visas-entry-clearance) . 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!</p>
<p>For future reference, you can find some good help and info on uk resident dot com or uk yankee dot com</p>
<p>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</p>
<p>Good Lord…DON’T DIRECT THEM TO THE NY Consulate!!!</p>
<p>You don’t have a choice, really, about which consulate you go to. It all depends on your state of residence.</p>
<p>For future reference, I would send in my visa application around 6 weeks in advance, and start the application process at least 2 months in advance. There is a lot of nitty gritty that can make the process extremely time consuming, especially new laws stating that there must be enough money in a bank account under the students name, to last the year (around 6000 pounds).
Here is a good youtube video that Ive put up on my blog <em>really helpful</em> - [Getting</a> the Infamous Visa | The Study Abroad Blog](<a href=“The Study Abroad Blog - Nate Nault”>The Study Abroad Blog - Nate Nault)
And this is a helpful website - [Advice</a> & Help - US Visa, Australia Visa, UK Visa & Canada Immigration | Global Visas](<a href=“http://www.globalvisas.com/]Advice”>http://www.globalvisas.com/)</p>
<p>Great information. My son is in the process of application. Needs to leave Jan.26 for UK. First he has to go to Jacksonville, Fl for the fingerprints etc…then send documents to Chicago. Would it be a benefit to hire an agency to take it through Chicago or would Fed Ex with a return postage paid envelope work just as well? It is stressful as there is not much time left.</p>
<p>My DD had some delays in gathering the requisite documents, especially with the summer long rule changes. by the time she was ready to submit, mid-August, it was only 4 weeks before her planned departure date. We paid about $100 to a service in LA, they reviewed the documents (no corrections needed as we had already done it properly due to obsessive internet research) and had everything back within a week. It was worth it for the peace of mind.</p>
<p>also check out uk yankee dot com and uk resident dot com for info</p>