Cant connect to world server "please visit ffxiv official site"

Hello everyone, posting this in hope that someone can provide me with positive news.

For just over a week since the new 1.21 patch, I log into the game fine up until the character select screen - My character name shows but no character. When I highlight the spot where my character is supposed to be, it says Unable to connect to world server please visit ffxiv official site for more details ...

Is someone able to shed any light on the situation? thankyou in advnace !

*Also another note, When i check server status, it tells me ALL the servers are down, even when they are not ! (i know this from linkshell members playing for the past week....)

ReD_LiiNe,

We’re sorry for the problems you are experiencing trying to play FINAL FANTASY XIV, and we’d like to try to help you resolve it. However we will need more information from you before we can try to resolve your issues. When posting on the Technical Support forum, please be sure to follow the general forum rules on posting, to ensure that you’re providing us with enough information for us to provide assistance.

The general forum rules can be found at this link:
Welcome to Forum: Technical Support!