Home Office facing investigation for outsourcing visa applications

[Denim]

Mods can close this and reopen it in the relevant forum :

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/home-office-investigation-complaints-vfs-global-outsourcing-visas-immigration-a9214306.html

 

Home Office facing investigation for breach of law over outsourced visa service deluged with complaints

The Home Office is facing an investigation by the complaints watchdog after it breached the law by failing to respond to complaints about its “incompetent” outsourced visa service, The Independent has learnt.

The parliamentary ombudsman has escalated a complaint regarding misconduct by VFS Global, which is contracted by the government to process overseas visas, after the private firm gave an Australian man incorrect instructions on how to submit his visa.

 

Officials said they would launch a formal investigation next week unless the department responded to requests for information, which it has so far repeatedly refused to do.

 

 

Lawyers said the case highlighted a lack of accountability over poor service provided under the subcontracting deal. Since the arrangement was set up in 2014, it has been deluged with complaints and accused of exploiting vulnerable applicants for profit.

 

The Independent revealed that the Home Office has made £1.6bn from visa applicants under the arrangement – a nine-fold increase on the five years prior to the start of the contract – despite widespread claims of “gross maladministration” and “aggressive” selling by the Dubai-based firm.

 

 

Edited November 23, 2019 by theoldgit
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[theoldgit]

This seems to be a complaint regarding the UKVI alledgedly failing to comply with requests for information rather than the way the application itself was processed by them. 

 

The complaint was escalated by the Ombudsman to include the VFS input into events.

 

Whilst this story is in respect of dealings in Australia so no Thai related, i'll leave in running for now. 

[Denim]

2 hours ago, theoldgit said:

Whilst this story is in respect of dealings in Australia so no Thai related, i'll leave in running for now.

 

I am willing to bet that the deluge of complaints referred to come from everywhere VFS Global operate. Anyone who has had to apply for a UK visa will know that at times things have not run at all smoothly.

 

This is not the first time their operations have been investigated.

From wiki :

 

For example, VFS staff at its collection offices in Southeast Asia were accused of abusing its dominant market status by creating their own extemporaneous rules for visa applicants.^[27] This included entry criteria to the VFS centres and also level of assistance offered to applicants.^[27]

 

The home office really needs to get a better grip on the performance of VFS for the sake of all visa applicants wherever they may be applying from.

 

[OJAS]

Potentially worrying to us Brit expats (as well as to our Thai family members needing UK visas) since we're required to deal with this mob when renewing our passports from Thailand these days!

[NanLaew]

There's no evidence and never has been any evidence that VFS have screwed around with the passport renewals of any of the countries that outsource this to VFS.

 

On the other hand, potentially, it may get cooler tomorrow.

[Denim]

6 minutes ago, OJAS said:

Potentially worrying to us Brit expats (as well as to our Thai family members needing UK visas) since we're required to deal with this mob when renewing our passports from Thailand these days!

 

I found that renewing my passport from them was fairly straightforward compared to getting my wife her third UK visit visa. The paperwork involved ran to 60 pages, most of it theirs. 

 

I find it hard to fathom why things can't be more streamlined.

[OJAS]

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

There's no evidence and never has been any evidence that VFS have screwed around with the passport renewals of any of the countries that outsource this to VFS.

 

On the other hand, potentially, it may get cooler tomorrow.

 

3 hours ago, Denim said:

 

I found that renewing my passport from them was fairly straightforward compared to getting my wife her third UK visit visa. The paperwork involved ran to 60 pages, most of it theirs. 

 

I find it hard to fathom why things can't be more streamlined.

Just wonder, though, whether the Aussie chap who was given duff info about his visa application was the victim of staff incompetence which could reflect badly on the adequacy of VFS's training procedures across the whole spectrum of their activities.

 

And the UK passport renewal procedures are, of course, only fool-proof until or unless some idiot finds a chink in the armour!

 

[NanLaew]

3 hours ago, OJAS said:

 

Just wonder, though, whether the Aussie chap who was given duff info about his visa application was the victim of staff incompetence which could reflect badly on the adequacy of VFS's training procedures across the whole spectrum of their activities.

 

And the UK passport renewal procedures are, of course, only fool-proof until or unless some idiot finds a chink in the armour!

 

I see where one could suspect that if one aspect of training and supervision is weak, this root cause could manifest itself in another area. However, compared with the Australian (or UK) visa application, the UK passport renewal and even getting one first-time for a sibling is a process where VFS box check far fewer items for submission with far fewer variables than a visa application and the support requirements thereof. The way I see it with regard to passports, the VFS office is more about being a secure, central place for passports to be handed in and/or delivered. When VFS first appeared at the old location down Ratchadamri, there were many complaints about totally inconsistent procedures and horror stories about VFS clerks refusing to include documents that the applicant understood as necessary. There's no doubt some local staff did cross their 'advisory only' line and some Thai applicants were unnecessarily hassled. I think there was a lot of earnest and good work done by some members and Mods on this forum that went a long way to clarify what VFS staff could and could not do in that regard. The best we can do is check the latest threads about visas and/or passports if you or a friend or relative is planning using either of the services.