Vfs courier service to laos for uk tourist visa

[w94005m]

Does anyone have any experience with the vfs courier service delivery times?

We made application at uk embassy in laos and had to pay for courier service back to our laos address.

One week after email notification of decision, we are still awaiting passsport and letter.

We are getting very close to flight dates, but it seems like it is impossible to call anyone for even basic information.

Any information on experiences here would be enormously appreciated.

Many Thanks.

 

[brewsterbudgen]

I would call or visit the Embassy in Laos and see if they can chase it up or check.  Unfortunately the telephone numbers/email for UKVI are as good as useless.

[w94005m]

Thanks. Unfortunately, I already sent the Embassy a message and the immediate response was "we cannot answer questions relating to Passport or Visa matters" :-(

 

And all the stuff I've read online about vfs said it was worthless contacting them and anything visa related on embassy site was referred  to a UK phone number or a 2 day email response, all charged for, which nobody had a good word to say about..

 

I will try calling the embassy as a last resort, but the last thing I want to do is piss them off, in case I have to re-apply for my partner. With the decision making process, arbitrary at best, the last thing I wanted was a potential negative mark on any records ?

[rasg]

You really shouldn't buy flight tickets unless the visa has been granted. It could end up costing a lot of money if the visa is refused.

 

Do you know which courier they use? I would check from that angle. It sounds more of a courier problem, rather than the Embassy to me if you have an email from them.

 

Why would you piss them off by checking if it's been sent? It's a valid thing to do.

Did the email they sent you have a return email address? Worth sending one back to them.

[w94005m]

Yup,  I know the deal with air tickets, but I have to go and last year when I had an emergency situation the prices were ridiculous, so to get a last minute ticket for her just wasn't a great option as I really desperately need her to come on this trip and the same flights as me, so I took a gamble on that. The change fees aren't horrible.

 

Sadly the VFS emails specifically states that it's a no-reply email and I've had no luck researching couriers using assorted sites with various forms of the application number as tracking numbers. I was assuming at some stage it was the same courier that they use in Thailand for sending out UK visas, so was hoping someone could tell me who that was so I could try calling them.

 

The Embassy site said specifically not to call with any visa or passport questions and I got the same sharp response with a facebook message about couriers from them.

 

I wasn't allowed in at the embassy unlike in Thailand and I didn't get a warm and friendly feeling from them nor did my gf when she asked if we could pick it up from the embassy rather than having it sent out by Post, courier or whatever. I may be unduly pessimistic with a black mark from a call, but I will certainly call as a last resort on Wednesday.

 

[brewsterbudgen]

My wife is Laotian and when I was looking into the possibility of her applying for a UK visa in Laos I messaged them via their British Embassy in Laos Facebook page. I got a very quick personal reply. This was 2 years ago. Might be worth a try; someone must be able to track the courier delivery.

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

[w94005m]

Thanks, but I did that first and they just sent me back "Thank you for contacting the British Embassy Vientiane. Please note: we cannot answer questions relating to Passport or Visa matters. For Emergency Consular Assistance (24 hours) please contact. Laos: +856 (030 770 0000) or UK: +44 (0) 700 81 500"

 

And when I call, all they say is exactly the same and to call the UK, which is useless for getting any information on couriers and courier time from what I've read everywhere. VFS is a complete waste of time too. All I've seen elsewhere is that it should be back within 5 days at the most and it's already 8 days. Frustrating as we're in one of the 4 main towns too and only a short distance from Vientiane.

Edited May 22, 2018 by w94005m

[w94005m]

And same, same non response from phone call and email to UK Embassy. "We not deal with that ... and no we cannot give you any information, go to UK VFS Website..."

[rasg]

Have you checked if you can change your flight dates or what it will cost to change them?

 

Cancel that. I just reread your earlier post.

 

If the visa doesn’t arrive in time at least you can change the flights. What happens if the visa is refused?

Edited May 22, 2018 by rasg

[theoldgit]

VFS also handle visa applications for other countries such as Australia, Denmark and Italy, and probably many more, all of those I've checked provide a contact number and email address for customers to call if they have concerns such as the OP's.

 

It seems to me that when setting up the their contract with VFS the the UKVI showed utter contempt to applicants, who are paying a great deal of money for their applications to be considered and, in the case of the OP for the passport to be returned, they seem to have written the terms of reference to ensure that there was no way that VFS and certainly not the UKVI could be contacted in cases where the service is falling short, instead, bizarrely, expecting customers to call an expensive call centre halfway around the globe.  

 

I know that UKVI teams regularly trawl through forums such as these, or at least used to, I'm sorry but I believe they should be ashamed of themselves.

 

I really wonder what the "service" will be like when decision making is moved to New Delhi?

 

[w94005m]

Yup, I did full checking of VFS and as you say a lot of other countries have a much better situation with contacts. With India as one example, no problem to track the couriered return, but with the UK it costs you big money to make call or even to send them an email and still get nothing useful on any subject. Their trustpilot ratings are pathetic.

 

The really frustrating thing is that I was worried anyway, with addresses in Laos being pretty much useless or non-existent, so I really wanted to pick up from the UK Embassy even though it's a full days round trip for us, but they wanted nothing to do with that. I did not understand that. Such an easy thing to have and exactly what I had for US embassy when I renewed my passport. They had them all at front desk and just handed it over a week later once they'd been processed. And yet the UK embassy with maybe a tiny number of people once a month doing visas or passports, could not offer that. I waited for over 2 hours outside the embassy on the appointment day and only saw 2 other people go in, so how difficult can that be with the lady at reception coming off her phone for a couple of minutes occasionally?  And why can you not even give name of the courier service, which is probably only Laos Post anyway. I have bought many cheap things on line from China, and never any problem with tracking their movement.

 

It's been a desperately disappointing experience.

 

Will be re-booking her flight shortly to line up with my own next trip back home regardless of whether the visa is a yes or no, which'll be about 150 quid. Biggest downside is I have to redo with BA, rather than Emirates!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[w94005m]

Enormous thank you to 'Jip99', who gave me enough information to query my Laos gf and now despite going on at her all this week, re research for tracking and couriers, she only now produces a 'Courier Receipt' that she got at the UK Laos Embassy. To say I am shocked and stunned by her stupidity/ignorance would be a gross understatement ? And her English is good too. Just GOBSMACKED ?

 

Anyway,  still don't have the letter, but it was supposedly dispatched from Vientiane on May 18th. We were told at Vang Vieng Post Office, they get mail 1 day later from Vientiane, so we will be chasing further tomorrow, but we had already 'ransacked' their office for all mail that they'd received. Still at least have some tracking info to reference.

 

Many Thanks to all who contributed. I will post the final outcome once we reach a conclusion.

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by w94005m
Poor grammar

[brewsterbudgen]

Enormous thank you to 'Jip99', who gave me enough information to query my Laos gf and now despite going on at her all this week, re research for tracking and couriers, she only now produces a 'Courier Receipt' that she got at the UK Laos Embassy. To say I am shocked and stunned by her stupidity/ignorance would be a gross understatement [emoji20] And her English is good too. Just GOBSMACKED [emoji20]
 
Anyway,  still don't have the letter, but it was supposedly dispatched from Vientiane on May 18th. We were told at Vang Vieng Post Office, they get mail 1 day later from Vientiane, so we will be chasing further tomorrow, but we had already 'ransacked' their office for all mail that they'd received. Still at least have some tracking info to reference.
 
Many Thanks to all who contributed. I will post the final outcome once we reach a conclusion.
 

Thanks for the update. Do let us know when you get the letter...and the visa!

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

[w94005m]

We eventually got the letter at 4pm today. The last stage took 5 days to get from Vientiene Watay to Vang Vieng Post Office - Laos Post is unbelievable ? 8 days total from the original email that it had been processed and would be couriered out.

 

Of course even more disappointing was the refusal. I of course gave them my B2 stay permit for staying in Vientiane, full itemized documented mutual passport stamps to show we always go together everywhere internationally, sent screenshots of all our postings/photos together over the last 18 months (basically message & photos together, with these done like every few days), sample Line message screenshots for a typical couple of days when I had to return to the UK for my Mum's hospitalization, Line messages during some of her working days, a true sworn oath from me that we have been together every day and just about every minute of each day, except when I went to visit my Mum in the UK (only a few weeks) with her cooking me 3 meals a day, and the response included, amongst a bunch of other insults, the following line "Your previous refusal notice outlined concerns over the nature of this relationship,and the documentation provided with this application does little to address the concerns."

 

Short of me taking 10 pictures a day and sending them EVERY one via photos.google.com to prove their date authenticity, I don't know what else I could do?

 

The whole process is just utterly heartbreaking. I must have put in well over 300 hours getting mutual photos, documentation, combined business plans, passport stamp break out fully documented, so any idiot could see we always go together anywhere - all for nowt ?

 

Anyway many thanks to everyone for their contributions. Your thoughts and suggestions were very much appreciated.

Edited May 23, 2018 by w94005m

[rasg]

If it is similar to a Thai visit visa you need to address the reasons for refusal from the last visa.

 

Can you post the refusal notice with names etc removed so we can have a look please?

[theoldgit]

8 hours ago, w94005m said:

"Your previous refusal notice outlined concerns over the nature of this relationship,and the documentation provided with this application does little to address the concerns."

 

Short of me taking 10 pictures a day and sending them EVERY one via photos.google.com to prove their date authenticity, I don't know what else I could do?

 

The whole process is just utterly heartbreaking. I must have put in well over 300 hours getting mutual photos, documentation, combined business plans, passport stamp break out fully documented, so any idiot could see we always go together anywhere - all for nowt 

The quoted remark is the most telling, what were the reasons for the previous refusal?

 

As rasg says, if you can post the refusal notice with the personal details redacted, the guys maybe able to offer some advice, it might be better if you were able to post the earlier notice as well.

 

You're probably aware that the UKVI specifically advise against sending photos with the supporting evidence, the ones that were sent probably were not considered, there would have been no point in producing even more. 

[Mattd]

35 minutes ago, theoldgit said:

it might be better if you were able to post the earlier notice as well.

I think it is critical that the OP post the original refusal notice if at all possible, as the reason for refusal remains the same and may not necessarily be outlined in the second refusal notice.

[w94005m]

I do not have the exact text from the prior rejection, but it simply doubted the validity of our relationship. It stated that the facebook snapshops/photos I supplied showed only a tiny time-frame making them insufficient. They also claimed that they could not read my passport  stamps on the supplied document, although no-one else I showed them to had any problem. Therefore they doubted the genuineness of the application and whether she would return to the UK. I had tried not to post an excess of information, as I had heard that too much was even worse than too little.

 

I believe I have the documents in the UK  and I will post the exact text as soon as I have that to hand. I will be there in a week's time.

 

This time I provided a complete timeline of pictures and posts, every few days mainly from an easily date verifiable source (Facebook), which made the document very long, but I felt fully endorsed our relationship. I provided a bunch of other documentation, and it seems like they barely read the first page and were just pissed off. In all my years in business, I have never been exposed to such brutal personal rejection as you feel that you get from the UK Immigration.

 

I am a UK citizen born and bred, but lived in the US for 20 years where I also got citizenship. Now living in Laos since early January 2017 and my gf is a ladyboy. The impression that I have gotten is those 2 facts are basically going to give a rejection every time.

 

The sole reason for going to the UK as I made very clear in my letter is for us to spend time with my Mum for a few weeks, whom I care about enormously and speak to every day. For her to know that I am in good hands here at her age of 93 and in poor health after 2 strokes would be beyond measure. Her sole worry these days is that I am happy and for her to meet my girlfriend and see that she takes great care of me would be so incredibly valuable to my happiness. She cannot see well because of her last stroke and has very limited hearing, so trying to talk with my gf over video phone, just doesn't work well for her. She can barely  see me well enough to see how I am doing. And as I know well from business, talking electronically to someone you don't know is so hard to establish anything like the same dynamic as being personally together.

 

To wait another year or whatever for them to see we have been living together longer than our current 18+ months will probably be past my mum's lifetime and would remove the sole need to go to the UK. It seems like I am dammed either way to prove the seriousness of the relationship. Too little or too much documentation seems to make no difference. I was very surprised by your photos comments as I read extensively on the internet and the consensus seemed to be the more the better and over as long a period as possible.

 

My gf herself has no interest to go to the UK. She only wants to go as she knows my Mum is very important, just as her family is critical to her. It's heartbreaking on a daily basis for my Mum to not know personally who I am with and of course when I go to visit my Mum, typically 3 times a year for a few weeks as I have done for 20+ years with US girlfriends in tow, means I am away from my gf for a long chunk of time, so at no point in the year is there a mutually good personal time for me. The two most important people in the world to me, cannot be together.

 

I am just lost with what to do. And that is despite spending an enormous amount of time researching this. Everything we have done has been 100% genuine, but basically to be called a liar, despite trying to be as accommodating to requirements as possible is just soul destroying. This is the first time anyone has ever made me feel like this.

 

I am sure that if she had a salaried job from a bank or government, all their objections would disappear, but that is the minority of Laos people who are in that fortunate situation. Almost everyone I know here, makes their own money and makes so little, that they do not even file taxes.

 

I will get the prior letter as quickly as possible.

 

Thanks again for your thoughts and comments.

 

Edited May 24, 2018 by w94005m