Some Thai friends are telling me that changes are on the cards for Trendy reference visa for UK on or around 1st July.

Seen nothing on TV.

Any news out there?

There is a joke going around saying that after the British Embassy sold its valuable property on Wireless Road they now have not enough space to process visa applications and these will soon have to be sent to India. This joke appears to be an allusion to the fact that the VSF office in Bangkok, to which visa applicants are being directed, is part of a multinational company that started in India.

4 hours ago, Maestro said:

There is a joke going around saying that after the British Embassy sold its valuable property on Wireless Road they now have not enough space to process visa applications and these will soon have to be sent to India. This joke appears to be an allusion to the fact that the VSF office in Bangkok, to which visa applicants are being directed, is part of a multinational company that started in India.

Good one!   I have a friend who works at the Embassy in Bangkok and she confirmed there will be no UKVI local staff at all left in Bangkok when the visa section moves to India.  I wonder if phone calls to applicants (in Thai) to check information will still be made?  

Cheers,

Whatever the story is it's doing the rounds on Thai social media.

No mention of a free suit or shirt with each application though. ?

6 hours ago, Maestro said:

There is a joke going around saying that after the British Embassy sold its valuable property on Wireless Road they now have not enough space to process visa applications and these will soon have to be sent to India. This joke appears to be an allusion to the fact that the VSF office in Bangkok, to which visa applicants are being directed, is part of a multinational company that started in India.

Certainly the Embassy site has been sold and the main work of the Embassy, FCO, Consular and Trade, is being transferred to a much slimmed down Embassy in a generic office building in Sathorn, the fitting out of the new premises in the AIA buiding is currently going through the tendering process.

The the decision making process for visa applications is being moved to a new hub in Delhi, as there is no longer any face to face contact with general visit visas, one could argue that the decisions can actually be made anywhere in the world though of course local knowledge will be lost, Settlement Visas are already processed in the UK.

This move was due to start next month with applications still being submitted online and supporting documents still being lodged in the VFS office in Trendy, I wonder if there may have been some slippage in the starting date and it's this the OP maybe referring to.

I note BB's comments re locally employed staff, but I understood that the UKVI were retaining a small staff to deal with some issues, and maybe actually inserting the actual visa into the pssport, the UKVI certainly advertised internally for staff to carry out this role.

 

This was discussed at length when it was first announced earlier in the year

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30336646

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-visa-immigration-to-relocate-visa-application-centres-from-bangkok-to-new-delhi