Bdtyktl

Today 04/02/2019, my family had an appointment at USCIS ASC Washington location, we are told that ASC has suspended processing of UK visa biometric until further notice. We have Schengen visa appointment date on Apr 29th, now we are not sure what our options are.

1. Does anyone have any idea what these unanticipated events are?


2. Do we have any other option to fast track UK visa?

And I am curious why this is updated only through some third party vendor (vfs global) and not through official UK communication channel.

IF you visit the link given in the letter you posted, you will see a link to a message about the disruption, which says in part:

Normal service is in place across all 10 US VFS Premium Application Centres and available to all UK visa customers. Please note that services at these locations attract additional charges. Click ‘Premium Application Centres’ from the choices above for more information.

This answers your second question.

If you are an affected customer and have missed your appointment due to this service interruption, you may present at your chosen ASC location on a ‘walk-in’ basis, as soon as you see the message on this page that service has been restored.

We are in the same boat. Also, I was planning to use Visa HQ for our visa application. i called them yesterday to see what my options were. they suggested we contact VFS or the consulate directly. What time frame are you looking to fly. Ours is June

I am also in the same boat. Had my appointment today but was shocked to find out about the disruption. I am planning to wait 3-4 days before going to VFS bronze service. The messga eon VFS looks like there's some network error, but this also well could be related to US and Brexit.
I suggest you can get the schengen visa processed first, and then try the UK. This must be resolved by then.

you can also try to contact UK embassy - They might give clearer answers.
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