Highlights
- The message was all about the Indian embassy advising all the visa applicants to be in the processing centres and work on the applications in person.
- The message was all about the Indian embassy advising all the visa applicants to be in the processing centres and work on the applications in person.
The holiday plans of thousands of travellers are in tatters after the Indian government changed the visa rules last minute. The new rule requires applicants to present themselves in person at processing centres.
New Visa Rule
This requirement of visiting the centres and presenting themselves is turning out to be quite a struggle for many people. For many British passport holders, the first sign of trouble came in an automated message.
According to a report in The Times, a traveller named Jeannette Findlay booked flights to Delhi from London on the British Airways airline. Following these, she also booked flights to reach Goa which take off on 16 November.
All of a sudden, Jeannette received a message on the visa rules from a third-party visa agency named Visa Genie. The message was all about the Indian embassy advising all the visa applicants to be in the processing centres and work on the applications in person. The text also read ‘effective immediately.
Visa processing centres fully booked
And, then came a barrage of problems. At the time of receiving the text message, India’s nine visa processing centres (VFS) in Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, central London, Hounslow, Leicester and Manchester were fully booked up to November 18, with no further dates showing availability. One tour operator said the earliest dates it had found were mid-December.
Applying in person a grim process
For those who have secured appointments, applying in person is a grim process. Charlotte Lawton from Steppes Travel was at the Hounslow VFS this week. “I waited two and a half hours, and because my form was in order, the approval and payment process was relatively quick, but one couple were sent away three times to resubmit their forms online. On one occasion it was because they’d written ‘Britain’ instead of ‘United Kingdom.’
India allows citizens of 156 countries to use its e-visa system to apply and pay for a US-style electronic visa. The UK, along with nations including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Lebanon and Pakistan, is excluded, and it’s unclear why.
Until this week British visitors could still apply for a paper visa by post. In the meantime, visa agencies say they are seeking clarification from the Indian high commission that appointments booked for their representatives at the VFS centres could be reallocated to the applicants themselves.
