How long a spouse visa decision takes
UKVI aims to decide partner visas within 12 weeks from abroad and 8 weeks inside the UK, counted from your biometrics appointment. Enter that date to get your expected decision day.
Spouse visa decision date from your appointment
Decision expected by
5 January 2027
UKVI service standard: 12 weeks.
| Contact UKVI if no news after | 6 January 2027 |
Counted from the day you prove your identity (app or appointment), not the day you pay. Working days skip weekends and bank holidays in England and Wales. Abroad, faster services depend on the visa centre: their timing is given when you book.
Calculated in your browser: nothing you type is sent anywhere. Not legal advice; not affiliated with the Home Office.
Published by Radif Partners · How we calculate · Home Office fees of 8 October 2026, rules checked 13 October 2026
Partner and spouse applications are measured against service standards that UKVI publishes and updates; the tables read on 9 September 2026 give 12 weeks for applications made outside the UK and 8 weeks for those made inside it, provided the applicant meets the minimum income and English language requirements. In-country partner cases that rely on the private life exceptions, without meeting those requirements, take about 12 months and have no service standard. The clock starts when you prove your identity, either at a visa application centre or UKVCAS appointment or through the ID Check app, not when you pay. Weeks are counted in UK working weeks, which include UK public holidays but not holidays abroad. Inside the UK, super priority costs £1,000 and normally brings a decision within about one working day of the appointment. Settlement applications that follow, five years later, take up to 6 months.
Three standards, depending on where and how you apply
The Home Office does not promise a date. It publishes how long most applications of each type take once they are complete, and contacts you within that time if yours will run longer. For partners there are three published figures, taken from the GOV.UK tables updated on 9 September 2026.
| Application | Published time | Appointment on 2 November 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partner or spouse, from outside the UK | 12 weeks | 25 January 2027 | outside the UK |
| Partner or spouse in the UK, income and English met | 8 weeks | 28 December 2026 | inside the UK |
| Partner or spouse in the UK, private life exceptions | about 12 months, no standard | 2 November 2027 | inside the UK |
| Indefinite leave to remain as a partner | 6 months | 2 May 2027 | ILR, family |
The first two figures apply to fiancé applications, to children applying with a parent and to extensions. The third is the waiting time for couples who cannot meet the financial requirement or the English test and ask to stay under paragraph EX.1 of Appendix FM, for example because of a British child. Parents applying in the UK on the parent route wait the same 12 months or so.
When the clock starts and what stops it
Paying the fee and submitting the form does not start the count. UKVI starts when your identity has been verified: at a visa application centre abroad, at a UKVCAS service point in the UK, or through the UK Immigration: ID Check app if you are told you can use it. GOV.UK warns that the visa application centre may be in another country, so the real wait from submission includes the time to get an appointment and travel to it.
GOV.UK lists the usual reasons a case falls outside the standard: information that does not match, documents that need verifying, a request for further evidence such as proof of funds, an interview, a criminal record, very high demand or a technical outage. If the standard has passed and nobody has contacted you, you can then contact UKVI; before that, enquiries are not answered.
Buying a faster decision
Inside the UK, super priority costs £1,000 on top of the fee and surcharge; the calculator above places the decision 1 working day after a weekday appointment, as GOV.UK describes for in-country super priority. It is available on extensions and switches and on the later settlement application, but not to adult dependent relatives.
Outside the UK, the Home Office fee table lists a priority service for settlement-type visas at £500 and super priority at £1,000. Whether you can buy them depends on the visa application centre; where a centre offers neither, 12 weeks is the realistic minimum. Paying for speed does not change the requirements, and UKVI warns that a complex case can still take longer, for example when documents need verifying.
Plan around the end of your current permission rather than the standard alone. Applying in the UK before your visa expires lets you stay lawfully until the decision, so a late decision does not leave you without status. The extension page explains when to apply, and the processing times for every route compare partner visas with work and study routes.