No More Queues for Indian Visa Applications

15/05/2008 by Thabang Motsei

As Indian nationals quench their thirst for travel, so too are visitors from around the world flocking to India as a destination as choice. The increase of UK citizens needing a visa has even forced the Indian high commission to outsource visa services.

The beautiful beaches, temperate climate and historical locations make young and old rush to India for relaxing holidays. While at the same time developments in prominent sectors, such as IT, have made more people come to India for business reasons.

Each year the Indian high commission in the UK issue as many as 500 000 visa applications. As this number grows by the day, the high commission have realised they cannot cope with the numbers and demand.

If you visit the Indian high commission today you will see a queue snaking around the block. This has resulted in VF services (VFS) taking over the handling of all visa-related work in order for the Indian high commission to cope with the flood of British people waiting to apply for a tourist or business visa.

"The wait to apply should now be cut in half," says Bryan Palmer of www.globalvisas.co.in. He continues that, "the amount of visas issued to India has doubled in past couple of years." This, it seems, is mainly due to an increase in flights between the UK and India, as well as India's growing popularity.

This will start as from May 29, when two Indian Visa Application Centres will be opened in London, followed by one in Birmingham and Edinburgh in the weeks following. These centres will deal with collection and delivery while the high commission will still be responsible for processing and decision making.

All foreigners need to obtain a visa in order to visit India, the tourist visa, is a temporary visa allowing people the opportunity to indulge in India's beauty, while the business visa allows foreign nationals to temporarily immigrate to India for a short period in order to partake in business related activities.

VFS is a common service used by 21 countries, from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, to handle visa applications.

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