Diplomatic Bag

[awesomeadil]

Hi,

I got my determination for AIT on Jul 9th and the judge gave all clear to us, now its just a waiting game. My wife emailed the Consulate who said it take them THREE months to get the determination from the UK.. Im like whaa!! Apparantly they are sent in a Diplomatic Bag and thats the turn around time!!

Is that true

[vinny]

They may email the determinations. For example:

31 Jan 2007 : Column 387W

Margaret Beckett: We acknowledge that there have been delays in the visa section in Islamabad between the allowing of an appeal and the subsequent issue of a visa.

These were largely due to volumes of appeals and a staff shortage during the summer period last year. A new Head of the Appeals Section was appointed to the Visa Section in Islamabad at the end of last summer to address these issues.

In addition, there were previously delays with the unaccompanied diplomatic bag, through which until recently all appeals have been forwarded to Islamabad. However, since early January all appeal determinations are now emailed directly to the Visa Section in Islamabad from the Home Office. This will result in a much quicker turn around and the ability to track appeal determinations sent.

With the appointment of the Head of the Appeals Section, an increase in the entry clearance officer contingent at post and the electronic despatch of appeal determinations, the Visa Section in Islamabad hopes to significantly reduce the delay in the issue of allowed appeal visas.

[awesomeadil]

Thanks Vinny,

I hope the email policy aplies to Embassy and Consulates in India too...

[Frontier Mole]

It is not a blanket coverage, only certain posts get the allowed determinations emailed to them. I think it is the top ten by application number. Likely that some of the Indian posts qualify under the top ten criteria.