Several UK citizens looking to visit India have been forced to postpone or cancel their trips after visa agents in the country received notices that they could no longer apply for tourist visas on behalf of the applicant. This means that the applicant now needs to appear in person at the UK visa centres. The hitch though? There are no appointments available before their flights depart.
There has been a mounting backlog for Indian visas in recent months, as applicants complain of a shortage of appointments available and lengthy processing times.
The High Commissioner of India to the UK has outlined the steps being taken to address the issue.
"First and foremost, we understand that there has been difficulty in getting these appointments, we are doing our best to ameliorate the situation," Vikram Doraiswami said in his video message from India House in London.
He emphasised that more visa slots would soon be released online and are also ramping up their capacity in partnership with their service provider VFS.
By the end of the month, two new visa centres would be set up - one in Scotland's Glasgow and the other in central London.
"The essence of this effort is to ensure that we go up to about 40,000 visa applications per month, which is a doubling of our capacity," he said.
AdvertisementEarlier, Britishers could also apply for a paper visa to India through the post. But the UK has now been banned from this, a fate similar to Lebanon and Pakistan.
Applying for visas in person for British citizens at his stage is rather difficult if not impossible, given that appointments at India's 9 visa processing centres from Birmingham to Manchester and from central London to Edinburgh are fully booked for more than a month.
AdvertisementThe long wait time for Indian visas threatens to derail holiday plans for hundreds of Britons, long used to quick visa approvals, booked to fly to India in the coming weeks.
For example, tourism is the second biggest revenue earner for Rajasthan and the biggest market for the state is the United Kingdom. The MD of Sita Travels, Dipak Deva, claims that the removal of e-visas has also meant that booked holidays are being cancelled, causing a significant drop in the number of visitors. He further adds, “the tourism industry will lose close to fifty million dollars with the cut in e-visas”.
AdvertisementMeanwhile, the UK High Commissioner to India warned Indians who are planning to visit the UK. Alex Ellis said, "My advice is don't commit to your air tickets until you've got your visa to be on the safe side. We want to see an unprecedented number of Indian students in UK this year," adding that the UK is training more people and keeping priority visa open.
