VFS india centres closed Dec 7th -11-Visa Procesing Chaning!

[lion686]

Guys,

I came to know that the VFS india centeres will be closed from Dec 7 -11 and it will function only for passport colection.Note the following changes are going to come after this break & please try to push your applications by 6th to avoid getting stuck later on.

This below information has come from immigration team of my company.

As per the latest communication received from the UK High Commission, the following changes have been made --

1) It is MANDATORY for every applicant aspiring for a UK visa in India to provide his / her biometric data, Comprising of Fingerprint scans and a Digital photograph, at the time their UK visa application is made. Applicants will need to go to one of the 12 Visa Application Centers in India for this purpose.

2) Please note with the Introduction of this system, the Visa issuance will take longer than the usual processing timelines initially and therefore we request all applicants, Project teams to factor this change in to their business planning.

3) The key take away on introducing this system would be to re-introduce issuance of longer UK validity visas i.e 5 and 10 year premium visas - for all applicants who meet the eligibility criteria.

4) Since these changes have been made with immediate effect the Visa Application Centres across India will be closed from Friday 07 December 2007 to Tuesday 11 December 2007 inclusive to prepare for biometrics, which would mean that there would be no visa application processing during this time and from 12 December 2007 the visa processing lead times would be longer and we do not have any communication from the high commission regarding to this extent.

[lunaticzombie]

Hi,

I clarified with VFS about the changes.
Its just that now the applicant has to go to center personally.
rest of the process is going to remain same, only a biometric finger print
would be done additionally with your normal application at that same time.
as per VFS, time it takes for processing (16-18 working days) is going to be same.

cu

Guys,

I came to know that the VFS india centeres will be closed from Dec 7 -11 and it will function only for passport colection.Note the following changes are going to come after this break & please try to push your applications by 6th to avoid getting stuck later on.

This below information has come from immigration team of my company.

As per the latest communication received from the UK High Commission, the following changes have been made --

1) It is MANDATORY for every applicant aspiring for a UK visa in India to provide his / her biometric data, Comprising of Fingerprint scans and a Digital photograph, at the time their UK visa application is made. Applicants will need to go to one of the 12 Visa Application Centers in India for this purpose.

2) Please note with the Introduction of this system, the Visa issuance will take longer than the usual processing timelines initially and therefore we request all applicants, Project teams to factor this change in to their business planning.

3) The key take away on introducing this system would be to re-introduce issuance of longer UK validity visas i.e 5 and 10 year premium visas - for all applicants who meet the eligibility criteria.

4) Since these changes have been made with immediate effect the Visa Application Centres across India will be closed from Friday 07 December 2007 to Tuesday 11 December 2007 inclusive to prepare for biometrics, which would mean that there would be no visa application processing during this time and from 12 December 2007 the visa processing lead times would be longer and we do not have any communication from the high commission regarding to this extent.