Allaying fears over delay in visas, Alex Ellis said, “…on’t forget we’ve got good availability in our visa application centres as well.”…reports Asian Lite News
British high commissioner to India on Wednesday said that the UK is on track to process visa applications within standard 15-day period. Alex Ellis, in a video message said: “We are on track to get back to processing India to UK visa applications within our standard of 15 days.”
“As you know the combination of an unprecedented surge in demand for travel from India to the UK combined with the effects of Covid-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, meant that our visa processing got well outside of a 15-day working standard,” Alex Ellis said.
“We are back on track,” he asserted informing that Britain has witnessed an unprecedented surge in demand for student visas which was up by 89% from 2021.
“We’re turning right off skilled worker visas very fast. And now we are focusing on visitor visas to get them back inside 15 days,” he said.
Alex Ellis also urged prospective applicants to apply for visas three months in advance informing about applications under the priority and super priority services at various centres.
Allaying fears over delay in visas, Alex Ellis said, “…on’t forget we’ve got good availability in our visa application centres as well.”
Earlier in August, Ellis had issued an advisory for Indian students wishing to study in the UK, informing that the number of student visas granted would be increased soon to break the record of 486,868 visa approvals set in June — a 215% uptick.
Meanwhile, travellers from the United Kingdom are having a difficult time securing visas for India. Most missions across the world have had huge backlogs leading to massive delays after the Covid-19 pandemic shut the world down.
“We understand that there has been difficulty in getting these appointments. We are doing our best to ameliorate the situation,” Ellis said last week.
“Here is what we are doing: First, we are ensuring that more bookings are released on our online booking service and that these appointment modules are not being misused, which has been the case recently. Second, we are ramping up capacity in partnership with our service provider,” he said.