The UK Home Office has launched the same-day visa service in South India to facilitate urgent travel to the UK.
The ‘super priority’ service has already been launched in Delhi and Mumbai.
The same-day service for Indian customers was promised by the British Prime Minister David Cameron, during his recent visit to India. It will be available in Chennai from June 18.
The super priority visa service is a first-class service, which complements the UK’s fast-track service and online payment options, said a press release.
The new service is available to customers applying for a six-months to a two-year multiple entry visit visa (excluding student visitors) who have previously travelled to the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada or a Schengen country within the last five years. It is also available to visa applicants sponsored by companies which are members of the Business Express Programme, said the release.
Optional service
The super priority visa is an optional service and incurs an additional fee. The fee for the service is £600 (Rs 57,000 at current rate), plus the standard fee for the type of visa being applied for. Applicants must complete an online form and submit applications by appointment before 9.30 a.m. at the visa application centre in Chennai. This applies to customers outside Chennai as well. Customers using this service will have their passport and decision returned by 5.30 p.m. the same day, said the release.
More information is available at http://vfs-uk-in.com/
additionalservice.html.
The service has already seen over 100 applications in the first month of its introduction, said the release. “This is part of the Home Office’s initiative to launch additional services to ease the customers’ UK Visa Application journey.” The release said the Home Office processes 90 per cent of the visas within 15 days (excluding settlement).