UK Visa applications submitted today

The UK Visa process is not as easy as I had hoped. This is especially true for those who wish to submit applications for multiple people traveling together. In our case, that’s a total of 5 applications… each of which has to be done separately and with full sets of supporting documentation. In a future post, I will outline the entire process, what we had to do, advice for others based on our experience, and my ideas for how the process could be improved. I’ll let that wait until we get the decisions on our applications, though.

Today, however, I formally submitted our completed applications. Apparently there are 3 primary ways to do this: by registered courier or agent (very expensive, but with fast results), by mail (pretty fast decision, all materials mailed back to you, but about $20 more per application), or by drop-off (requires physical travel to the British Consulate-General office where applications are dropped off with a guard, a longer wait, and also requiring physical travel to pick up the materials when the process is completed). For economic reasons, I chose the drop-off method, though now I wish I had decided to go the mailing route.

In order to submit our applications, I had to travel to Chicago, where the applications were submitted to a guard in the Wrigley Building. The guard was very friendly and even offered a large rubber band to make sure our applications were together (I had brought them all in separate envelopes). The rubber band she offered was being used to tie multiple pens and pencils, etc. together in her desk. I was surprised to find out that we’d have to wait as long as 15 working days for processing AND would have to travel all the way back to Chicago to pick everything up. I wish this information had been clearly stated in the instructions, but it’s something I can deal with.

Here are some screenshots of maps showing my train journey today, as well as the walk from Millennium Station to the British Consulate building.

Travel Route on South Bend South Shore

Walking route from Millennium Station to the British Consulate-General, Wrigley Building

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