UK Visa & Immigration to Relocate Visa Application Centres from Bangkok to New Delhi

[webfact]

 

UK Visa & Immigration to Relocate Visa Application Centres from Bangkok to New Delhi 

 

19 January 2018

 

In June this year, United Kingdom Visa & Immigration (UKVI) will relocate its visa decision making centre from Bangkok to New Delhi. This is part of UKVI's long-standing global strategy to modernise its visa operation and consolidate visa decision making into large regional hubs. There will be no change to the visa application process in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, or to overall service standards. 

 

The move to New Delhi will maximise the benefits of new technology that allows for visa-decision making to be independent of the country of application. It will drive efficiency savings and achieve greater standardisation of visa decisions around the world. 

 

British Ambassador to Thailand, Mr Brian Davidson, said:

 

"The UK is fully committed to a strong and broad-based relationship with Thailand. The number of Thai nationals applying for UK visas and travelling to the UK rises every year. We are delighted at this growth as it shows the strength of the links between the two countries and that Thai people still love to visit the UK, whether for work, study, family or leisure. 

 

UKVI is committed to supporting these links and ensuring that we continue to provide safe and secure visa decisions, excellent customer service and value for money to the UK taxpayer."

 

Customers in Thailand will see no change to visa service standards. Customers will still apply for their visas online and submit their biometrics and documents at two Visa Application Centres (VACs) in Bangkok and Chiang Mai managed by VFS-Global. 

 

UKVI, in conjunction with VFS-Global, are committed to delivering excellent customer service in Thailand and new customer services at the VACs will continue to be rolled out during 2018.
 

[CelticBhoy]

Oh Goodness Gracious Me  . . . . . . 

[Stoker58]

"Customers in Thailand will see no change to visa service standards."

Yeah, that's what I would expect.

[PremiumLane]

Instead of the meaningless corporate waffle, would be nice to know exactly how this will be of benefit.  

[webfact]

UK to shift visa approvals from Bangkok to New Delhi

By The Nation

 

 

United Kingdom Visa and Immigration (UKVI) will relocate its visa approval centre from Bangkok to New Delhi, starting in June this year.

 

The move is part of UKVI’s longstanding global strategy to modernise its visa operations and consolidate visa decision-making in large regional hubs, said a press release issued by the British Embassy to Thailand on Friday.

 

There will be no change to the current visa application process in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, or to overall service standards, the release said.

 

The move to New Delhi will maximise the benefits of new technology that allows visa decision-making to be independent of the country of application.

 

It will drive efficiency savings and achieve greater standardisation of visa decisions around the world, according to the release.

 

British Ambassador to Thailand, Brian Davidson, said the number of Thai nationals applying for UK visas and travelling to the UK rises every year.

 

“We are delighted at this growth as it shows the strength of the links between the two countries and that Thai people still love to visit the UK, whether for work, study, family or leisure,” he said in the release.

 

UKVI is committed to supporting these links and ensuring that the body continued to provide safe and secure visa decisions, excellent customer service and value for money to the UK taxpayer, he added.

 

Customers in Thailand are not expected to experience changes in visa service standards.

 

Visa applications would continue online, with people also submitting their biometrics and documents at two Visa Application Centres (VACs) in Bangkok and Chiang Mai managed by VFS-Global.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30336646

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-01-19

[faraday]

Outsourcing to India, just like when they did the same with the Bank Call Centres.

Nobody could understand them.

[Sir Dude]

The UK is downgrading, outsourcing and downsizing everything until one day it will just meekly wink out of existence. 

Edited January 19, 2018 by Sir Dude

[Stocky]

1 hour ago, PremiumLane said:

Instead of the meaningless corporate waffle, would be nice to know exactly how this will be of benefit.  

I would think the benefits were outlined in the press release, I've just highlighted them in bold.

41 minutes ago, webfact said:

The move to New Delhi will maximise the benefits of new technology that allows visa decision-making to be independent of the country of application.

 

It will drive efficiency savings and achieve greater standardisation of visa decisions around the world, according to the release.

Though undoubtedly the main driver is cost savings for a cash strapped government, obliquely touched on with the ambassador's comment about "value for money to the UK taxpayer", note that's the taxpayer, not the applicant.

[brewsterbudgen]

"Allow visa decision-making to be independent of the country of application" - maybe UKVI think the Bangkok based ECOs are too easily convinced by the charms of Thai applicants!

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[gunderhill]

What this means is "someone" in India  for sure  will end  up copying your passport + all details and selling them to the highest bidder.I guarantee it!

Once made a phone call to Dell in India and within an hour I had someone  call me from India  offering to "fix my computer" by  connecting to it and getting rid  of all the nasties  that I knew I didnt have.

[brewsterbudgen]

Presumably the applicants' passports will be couriered from BKK to New Delhi and back?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Sir Dude]

Don't know why they stopped the one in Hong Kong...worked a treat for me last time, bankers draft and through DHL plus some UK friend signed off on it. Delhi sounds way more suspect to me. I'll be renewing my next one in Liverpool when I do a visit.

[brewsterbudgen]

Don't know why they stopped the one in Hong Kong...worked a treat for me last time, bankers draft and through DHL plus some UK friend signed off on it. Delhi sounds way more suspect to me. I'll be renewing my next one in Liverpool when I do a visit.

It's only visas being done in India. Passport renewals are sent to Liverpool.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Sir Dude]

Ahh...yes, thanks, haha

[midas]

1 hour ago, Sir Dude said:

The UK is downgrading, outsourcing and downsizing everything until one day it will just meekly wink out of existence. 

Everybody is even in the corporate world! Even the major international airlines.

One well-known worldwide airline based in the Middle East doesn't even have physical offices anymore and if you call their Bangkok number you get speak to a call centre in northern England.

 

[Donutz]

8 hours ago, Stocky said:

I would think the benefits were outlined in the press release, I've just highlighted them in bold.

Though undoubtedly the main driver is cost savings for a cash strapped government, obliquely touched on with the ambassador's comment about "value for money to the UK taxpayer", note that's the taxpayer, not the applicant.

The 'standardisation' sounds rather silly. The process of which documents to supply and which bar you need to pass to get a visa or not should already have been equal across the globe. Refusal rates are different for each country of application but that mostly depends on common profiles of people in the country of origin (north African countries have more refusals than south east Asia but this because north Africans have more of a family network and track record of  settling and working illegally to name one reason). 

 

The move simply reduces costs further for UKVI: less locations means less costs. It may raise costs for applicants if Thai language is no longer accepted and this requiring more (official) translations. A call to the applicant or other people mentioned in the application (employer etc) may become even less likely.  So for the applicant it won't get any better.

 

7 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Presumably the applicants' passports will be couriered from BKK to New Delhi and back?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Probably. VFS just pushes papers, a glorified postal service. They don't put the visa sticker in the passport. 

 

That's what happend to Dutch visa applications when all south east asian applications got centralised in Kuala Lumpur. Avarage/commom processing time went from 24-48 hours to a full week. And not to mention the increased risk of passports and such getting lost. 

Edited January 19, 2018 by Donutz

[thaibeachlovers]

8 hours ago, Stocky said:

I would think the benefits were outlined in the press release, I've just highlighted them in bold.

Though undoubtedly the main driver is cost savings for a cash strapped government, obliquely touched on with the ambassador's comment about "value for money to the UK taxpayer", note that's the taxpayer, not the applicant.

If it's just as efficient to do visa applications for Thais in India as in LOS, using the internet ( what can possibly go wrong with that? ), why not just do it all from the UK and close all the embassies as well. Just have skyping or whatever is in at the moment. Could save billions of quid needed for far more important things like bailing out corrupt construction firms.

I must have missed it, but are people supposed to trust their passports to the post office to get the stamp put in the passport? If so, what could possibly go wrong with that- Thai mail to Indian mail to Thai mail!

Excuse me for being suspicious, but I don't believe a word of their given reasons.

[Thongkorn]

I remember when they relocated the bank Cards to India,  Some where sold by corrupt people working at the place that made them , so expect some dodgy visas

[RichardColeman]

Must get my wife to change her name to Singh or something before applying for a settlement visa.

[8OA8]

Soundslike a smart move, no more of the who knows who that can smooth out the process for the applicant in Thailand. 

[Baerboxer]

20 hours ago, faraday said:

Outsourcing to India, just like when they did the same with the Bank Call Centres.

Nobody could understand them.

 

15 years ago I lived in India and worked in several Asian countries. At that time, one well known big bank moved call centers out of Malaysia to India. Big saving on cost. I met several of their senior executives and learned they were slowly moving them back. Exactly the reason you said. Too many customer complaints mainly about comprehension.

 

That same bank has many companies withing its group. One has its call centers based in Wales and Scotland - low cost employment areas in the UK. If I call them, whichever I get, the service is excellent. Not just communication but they actually understand the procedures and processes and can solve problems. Another has its call centers somewhere on the Indian sub-continent. North judging by the accents. Very difficult communicating with some, they can't solve issues and always have to refer them, never come back as promised and several phone calls are required instead of one or often have to escalate. Even for very basic issues. 

 

However, I visited many call centers and business processes companies whilst in India. The World Bank had its employee administration center their including salaries, benefits etc. About 1500 people at that time. A number of the big Automotive Brands had their insurance, warranty and documentation processing centers there too. Many organizations had their accounts processing there,

 

The conclusions, at that time, and from that research were:

• India is a good place for IT skills.
• India is a good place for work that is standard, repetitive, with high degrees of automation in the process.
• India is not good for work that requires lots of communications, especially verbal, with people outside India.
• India is not good for work that requires individual decision making where many variables cause complications which can not easily be defined with set rules. I.E. work which requires judgement and common sense. Work which follows strict rules is good but those rules can only be applied rigidly. 
• The organizations that set up and managed the operations themselves had higher performance figures than those that outsourced to a third party provider. However, those where cost and reductions in overall employee numbers were the main drivers accepted the lower performance.

It will be more important to resolve any issues and ensure all forms and documents with VFS in Bangkok before send to India for the decision. IME the decision process in India will be rigid - yes/no with no one wanting to move out that box.

[lemonjelly]

UK, that’s a small island off the French coast I believe...... thanks to Farage and his hyperbolic lies.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Baerboxer]

11 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

If it's just as efficient to do visa applications for Thais in India as in LOS, using the internet ( what can possibly go wrong with that? ), why not just do it all from the UK and close all the embassies as well. Just have skyping or whatever is in at the moment. Could save billions of quid needed for far more important things like bailing out corrupt construction firms.

I must have missed it, but are people supposed to trust their passports to the post office to get the stamp put in the passport? If so, what could possibly go wrong with that- Thai mail to Indian mail to Thai mail!

Excuse me for being suspicious, but I don't believe a word of their given reasons.

 

They should indeed look to the UK. Especially the areas of high unemployment. IT should mean it can be done anywhere. 

The visa and consular services are part of the Home Office. But someone will have KPI's to meet and the very low wages paid in India, coupled with their ability to compile some wonderful, but often not reality based, KPI's will look attractive. 

 

Sadly, when it comes to the service to be provided, they don't give a flying one!

[Just Weird]

21 hours ago, faraday said:

Outsourcing to India, just like when they did the same with the Bank Call Centres.

Nobody could understand them.

Don't worry, neither you nor any visa applicants will have to talk to them in India, that's what VFS is for.

[Just Weird]

19 hours ago, gunderhill said:

What this means is "someone" in India  for sure  will end  up copying your passport + all details and selling them to the highest bidder.I guarantee it!

Once made a phone call to Dell in India and within an hour I had someone  call me from India  offering to "fix my computer" by  connecting to it and getting rid  of all the nasties  that I knew I didnt have.

If you're from the UK you won't have an issue, even if your claim has some basis in fact, this is for applications for visas to the UK.

[Just Weird]

19 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Presumably the applicants' passports will be couriered from BKK to New Delhi and back?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

When an application for a visa is made do the applicants have to surrender their passports while their application is under consideration?

[TKDfella]

Maybe they will shut the embassy down altogether and everything will be handled by the Indian Ambassador Ha!

Edited January 20, 2018 by TKDfella

[Just Weird]

56 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

 

IME the decision process in India will be rigid - yes/no with no one wanting to move out that box.

Just as it is now, then, so no disadvantage.

[Just Weird]

.

Edited January 20, 2018 by Just Weird

[Borzandy]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

The move to New Delhi will maximise the benefits of new technology that allows for visa-decision making to be independent of the country of application.

Hypocrisy..