Does Case officer deals on One file at a time or mutiple

[saigirirajsaggu]

Hi Folks,

I was just wondering that does a case officer conducts verification over one file at a time in his/her queue or multiple applications at a time. Because the reason being I have applied for my Residency ages ago and recently two weeks back CO has been assigned to my Case and a questionnaire sent to my employer and that's been sent back to CO on next day.

However does it still take 3 weeks to verify the document to make decision or do you think my file is still in CO's queue!! I'm so nervous of waiting time it is almost been like 6 months I have applied for my residency.. Does anyone know how CO's work on their cases?..

[JandM]

Everything at INZ works by managed queues. When your ITA was received, it would join the end of the queue of other ITAs, according to the date order. Each Case Officer has a certain workload - a number of cases that are theirs to deal with. The newly arrived ITAs have to wait till one of the COs has finished with some of their cases, and can take on some more. When an ITA is eventually assigned to a CO, it will again join the back of THAT queue for the CO's attention, as s/he takes the top file, does what s/he can actively do, puts that file to the back, works everything s/he can on that case, goes to the next, and so on.

About the CO - many of them don't reply to queries if they haven't anything specific to say. All COs have to work their allocation of cases in rotation. They take the first, do everything they can for the time (sending out queries, or ticking off replies), then put that to the back and take the next, then the next, then the next, and so on. They don't take any file out of order. Any replies go to your file wherever it is in the queue, and the CO won't see them until it's your file's turn to be looked at again. INZ officials' job focus is to process cases - they are not meant to send 'empty' emails (e.g. 'Dear Mr Applicant, I have not yet had a reply from your university so I have not been able to do anything new with your case, and it is waiting in the queue') as this takes up time when they should be working something that HAS arrived and CAN move someone's situation on. Therefore, quite often, you don't hear anything for some long time (and it always SEEMS long to the person waiting).

[desmondo84]

Do the case officers contact your current employer? I haven't told my employer I am leaving yet as I only need to give 1 month notice and didn't want to tell them in case for some reason the visa application got rejected.... (if that makes sense?) but it sounds like I better let them know!

[JandM]

If you have claimed some points for your current employment as being skilled work experience, you will have to prove the details, and very likely this would be by a letter from your employer, or questions from the CO to the employer. You might be able to use the original job advertisement, for instance, as evidence of the skill level and qualifications required, if for some reason you still didn't want to inform your employer of what you're doing, but that would depend on what you can show - INZ would also need to see exactly what your responsibilities are, your level of pay, and your hours of regular work.

[saigirirajsaggu]

Thanks J and M... so meaning that my application will be in the normal queue like others and there is no timeframe for CO to make a decision on particular case until and unless they verify each and every document provided by us. However if a applicant contains 10 documents to verify and if each document takes 4 weeks then it will comes around 40 weeks for verification and also before allocating CO again it will in the queue for atleast 12 weeks or so...

Therefore, the conclusion is that applicant have to wait for atleast 1 year in worst case scenario to make decision. Furthermore, I have seen many of them had problem with their Job's been redundant or left for some reason within processing time will they be given any certain time to find another job in the market so will the decision be "Declined".

[JandM]

However if a applicant contains 10 documents to verify and if each document takes 4 weeks then it will comes around 40 weeks for verification

This is very pessimistic and not a normal way of working. Usually, on getting a new file, the CO will send off queries on all items at once. When the documents come back will depend on how quickly the various people reply. As the file goes through the rotation process, each time the CO sees it s/he will tick off anything that has come back, and there may be several replies there at once.

I don't understand the last part of your comment, if it relates to someone still in their home country. Even if they are made redundant, the work they have already done still counts for their application. Nobody can take away the fact that they have worked for - say - four years in a skilled job, even if that job has since ended.

[desmondo84]

Got an email to say that the case officer had been placed on the application so fingers crossed it goes smoothly! I submitted every document known to mankind in relation to job offer, job experience, qualifications and marriage....

[JandM]

All the best.