I have been advised that as our 856ens application was lodged before October there is a good chance that our friends application who be lodging shortly (in other words over a month later than ours) could be granted before our visa as his will be lodged with the new "decision ready" option.
Now i'm not huffed that his might be granted before ours but i am somewhat worried about how many applications will be put in front of ours and if that means that our application could end up taking longer than the original estimated 5-7 months.
Does anyone have any further information regarding this?:arghh: