British Consulate General

The process is not bad at all! If you’re trying to get a general tourist visa approved under a month, my best advice to you is to pony up the $ 170 for priority processing. I have shared my timeline below but overall, the process is very straight forward — its impossible to screw up unless you don’t read the instructions.
¹¹⁄₂₆ — Biometrics (purchased priority before going to my appt)
¹¹⁄₂₆ — Overnight delivery to NYC consulate
¹¹⁄₂₇ — Thanksgiving
¹²⁄₀₂ — Email stating that they had received and opened my application and that it would take 5 days to process
¹²⁄₀₅ — Email from embassy saying my visa has been issued
¹²⁄₀₈ — Expect passport to be delivered according to UPS tracking
In total — 5 business days to process
Also, if you’re applying for a migrant or student visa, its common sense to apply a few months in advance. These visas are trickier and require more due diligence on their part, so to me it’s quite obvious that they would take longer to get approved.
And provide all of the supporting documents that the website says is optional.
4 stars because the website should read that its take 5 days to process only if you purchase priority service.

…and a few visas later, same old stuff different day.

To all you idiots complaining about the British Consulate.
It is NOT the roll of the British Consulate to provide you with visa, inquires, tourism information.
The Chicago Consular Section handles notarial work, citizenship ceremonies, notices of marriage and matters relating to the welfare of British citizens within their consular district, and that is it people.
They are here to help British Nationals living in the USA ONLY!
If you thick stupid yanks bothered to do a little research first, you would have found this information on the Consualte website!

No assistance at all. No phone number that gets you to person you can talk to. They didnt get a delivery of my visa application because they JUST WERENT THERE!
AWFUL!

Unlike a couple other consulates in Chicago I visited, the British Consulate in Chicago does not provide any tourist information whatsoever – maps, pamphlets, books… maybe just someone with a British accent pretending to care? Nope. Nothing. You’re directed to an online website for tourism information and another website for visas and such. In fact, the guards won’t even let you up to talk to anyone unless you have an appointment with a specific person or department.