Biometrics done — how long until you actually heard anything?

Same stage as you, same inbox habit. My wife's went in a couple of weeks before Ada's, so I'll report back when anything moves.

Our family applications went completely silent for about five weeks after biometrics, then the decision arrived on a random Thursday with no warning at all. No updates in between, no "your file is being reviewed" email, nothing. I checked the online status page so often that my husband started hiding my phone after dinner.

A few things I'd tell myself at that stage:

• the published range is the range, not a promise, and the middle of it is where most people land
• chase once, politely, and only after the range has passed. I did, and got a standard reply saying it was still in progress. It didn't speed anything up, but it stopped me wondering whether the file had been lost
• don't book anything non-refundable for the first weeks after the expected date. Ours came a bit late and we'd have lost money on flights

And look after each other in that window. It's strangely exhausting to wait for a letter that decides where you'll live.

Five weeks of silence, then a random Thursday. I'll try to think of that as normal rather than ominous. Thank you, Fatima.

Tell Ada not to hand in her notice until the decision is actually in her hands. My husband did it the other way round and spent six very tense weeks unemployed and waiting.

What helped my wife and me in that window was treating it as a preparation period rather than a waiting room. She used those weeks to get her degree certificates attested and translated, sorted her driving licence records, and packed in stages. When the decision came we only had to book flights. The waiting still felt long, but at least it was productive waiting.

The silence after biometrics is completely normal, even though it never feels that way. Most systems don't send interim updates, so "no news" usually just means the file is in the queue.

Two practical things. Check the official processing-times page for the specific visa type rather than general figures, because it's updated and it's the number the office itself works from. And if the published range passes with no decision, most services have a formal enquiry route that works better than general contact forms. The Visa section for the UK links to where both of those live.

Aisha's point about notice is the one I'd underline. The visa part rarely goes wrong, but the timing around it often does.

Following. Same silence here, different country.

Week five now. Still nothing, but Ada has started packing in stages like Tariq said, and honestly it's made the waiting feel less like waiting.