VFS Global document upload - Scam or not?

[Medicine Man]

I have recently applied for a UK visit visa for my wife where part of the process is to upload your supporting documents via the VFS Global website. My question is has anybody successfully uploaded their supporting documentation without having to use the paid upload service? 

I have had the same issue for the last 2 applications whereby the system appears to upload (a progress bar counts 0-100%) then immediately logs you off due to 'user timeout due to inactivity'. There doesn't appear to be any way to check if the documents have uploaded as far as I can see but when attending the interview for biometrics etc the clerk says that so supporting docs are present. Luckily I have hard copies which they then upload for a fee.

My uploads are all PDF format and meet the requirements of <10Mb total size (If >10Mb the upload is refused anyway).

My impression of the VFS software is that it is very poor and maybe deliberate to get you to pay for their premium services or use their upload service. The online support is equally frustrating, all deliberate in my view to get you to pay more. Have other users of the VFS Global website had a similar experience and if so I am thinking of lodging a complaint with UK immigration (however I gather that they are actually making a killing from the subcontracting out of the service to VFS Global)...

[theoldgit]

I'm not sure that it's a scam, but customers could be forgiven for thinking that the self upload option is puposefully promlematical to encourage applicants to use the in house service, there doesn't seem to be any meaningful monitoring of the contract by the UKVI though.

 

You say you "gather that they [UKVI] are actually making a killing from the subcontracting out of the service to VFS Global", where did you gather that from and how are they making a killing, they pay VFS for the service, so how are they making a killing?

 

 

[ThaiBunny]

1 hour ago, Medicine Man said:

My question is has anybody successfully uploaded their supporting documentation without having to use the paid upload service? 

Yes, several times

[karibu]

VFS Global is a disgrace many countries now outsouce to this incompetent  company.

And yes it is a scam the website never works. And they ask for extra money for for everything I'm 71  and Had to stand because I had not paid to go in the sitting area.

All governments using this organization should be investigated on how they procured the contracts

This company is registered in the Cayman Islands which is a tax haven.  That alone tells you alot about this company.

When I return to the UK I will go to see my member of parliament and and under the freedom of information act find out who the intervidual was who gave this contract to such  a company. Look online you will see complaints  from all over the world.

[docspinoff]

Yes have used and yes had problems with other stuff. But as for upload docs why bother when you can take them to the interview. And they will do that then for you. Cost a few bhat 

[GarryP]

17 minutes ago, docspinoff said:

Yes have used and yes had problems with other stuff. But as for upload docs why bother when you can take them to the interview. And they will do that then for you. Cost a few bhat 

How much is a few Baht? Will be submitting an application for my wife next month. 

[backtofront]

Think it is 3000 baht. Their web site is a dog.

 

From time to time it will start giving you error messages like "TRY AGAIN LATER". But later never comes. What you need to do is to log out, close your browser, open it again clear all history and cookies and log in again.

 

It is a painful process.

 

Particularly if you need to delete a file. The only option you have is to delete the category and upload all the files again. You must also check whatever you have uploaded to the other categories because files disappear for no reason. The other mistake I made was trying to order everything and keep like with like. I went to a lot of trouble merging pdf files only to have the VFS site slip the odd document into another file. Only merge where it makes sense and dont stress if VFS has other ideas.

Edited January 29, 2020 by backtofront
Update

[GarryP]

24 minutes ago, backtofront said:

Think it is 3000 baht. Their web site is a dog.

 

From time to time it will start giving you error messages like "TRY AGAIN LATER". But later never comes. What you need to do is to log out, close your browser, open it again clear all history and cookies and log in again.

 

It is a painful process.

 

Particularly if you need to delete a file. The only option you have is to delete the category and upload all the files again. You must also check whatever you have uploaded to the other categories because files disappear for no reason. The other mistake I made was trying to order everything and keep like with like. I went to a lot of trouble merging pdf files only to have the VFS site slip the odd document into another file. Only merge where it makes sense and dont stress if VFS has other ideas.

Sounds like hell. I'll pay them to do it instead. 

[Medicine Man]

Thanks folks for your replies, just to clarify the current cost for VFS to upload is just below 500 baht but my concern is that you are trusting a clerk to perform this simple task adequately and my experience in Thailand is that this is a risk. The VFS website is a dog, a total shambles that makes applying for a visa much more stressful than it should be. I renewed my UK passport recently when back in the UK and it is done online with the documents being uploaded with no issues a very simple process (no VFS involvement thank God!). The fact that some can upload to VFS might be due to my browser (Chrome) having tracking inhibited but why should I switch off security to use their shoddy website (based in Dubai). 

 

To answer the old git I found an article about the VFS outsourcing in the Guardian:

Nicole Francis, chief executive of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association has stated:

“The lack of transparency in the contractual arrangements between UKVI and the subcontractors were of particular concern. We have been worried the contract between UKVI and the subcontractors may have resulted in UKVI benefiting financially from the subcontractors selling additional services to customers.”

 

Good luck to those who need to use VFS, and beware of the multiple attempts to up-sell services that you don't need.

[GarryP]

10 hours ago, Medicine Man said:

Thanks folks for your replies, just to clarify the current cost for VFS to upload is just below 500 baht but my concern is that you are trusting a clerk to perform this simple task adequately and my experience in Thailand is that this is a risk. The VFS website is a dog, a total shambles that makes applying for a visa much more stressful than it should be. I renewed my UK passport recently when back in the UK and it is done online with the documents being uploaded with no issues a very simple process (no VFS involvement thank God!). The fact that some can upload to VFS might be due to my browser (Chrome) having tracking inhibited but why should I switch off security to use their shoddy website (based in Dubai). 

 

To answer the old git I found an article about the VFS outsourcing in the Guardian:

Nicole Francis, chief executive of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association has stated:

“The lack of transparency in the contractual arrangements between UKVI and the subcontractors were of particular concern. We have been worried the contract between UKVI and the subcontractors may have resulted in UKVI benefiting financially from the subcontractors selling additional services to customers.”

 

Good luck to those who need to use VFS, and beware of the multiple attempts to up-sell services that you don't need.

I have been preparing my wife's visa online but so far have not been on VFS website. I assume I will move to VFS website once I have to make an appointment and upload docs.

[theoldgit]

10 hours ago, Medicine Man said:

To answer the old git I found an article about the VFS outsourcing in the Guardian:

Nicole Francis, chief executive of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association has stated:

“The lack of transparency in the contractual arrangements between UKVI and the subcontractors were of particular concern. We have been worried the contract between UKVI and the subcontractors may have resulted in UKVI benefiting financially from the subcontractors selling additional services to customers.”

Yes, I read that but it's the view from an interested party, hardly a factual credible source.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think the lack of a decent service and accountability is a disgrace, but I believe it to to incompetence rather that corruption.

[GuyFawkes]

I have recent experience of VFS (Wednesday 29th January) so feel able to comment.My wife completed and paid the $128 and was then r-directed to VFS Global.   She attempted to log in 38 times.   She was informed that either the password was wrong or invited to reset it.   Having reset and tried to log in she was told it was wrong.

Eventually I decided to clear all browsing history and this in part did the trick.   All was well until the upload page which froze.   After a few more attempts I called it a day and decided to travel to Bangkok.    It was a long day and at 82 years old it was tiring having to leave home at 5.30 a.m travel one hour to the local airport for a 7 a.m flight to Bangkok.   Arriving at VFS on 28th floor at 9.15 a.m. 

We were met by the Security who was helpful and directed us to Reception who again were helpful and told us to go over to the far end of the room, which we did.    There were 4 or 5 members of staff sitting near to the computers who could have not been more helpful and acknowledge that they understood the problem.   At 9.30 a.m we left VFS with an appointment for a future date of our choosing all at no cost.   They did say when we came for the interview we would have the option to choose what service we required.   I arrived home at 6 p.m. very tired.

 

My opinion for what it is worth is that the IT system is not fit for purpose but the local staff in Bangkok are not responsible for a system which has defects but being in the front line get the flack which in my experience is very much undeserved,

 

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by GuyFawkes

[Medicine Man]

10 hours ago, GuyFawkes said:

I have recent experience of VFS (Wednesday 29th January) so feel able to comment.

 

 

 

 

GuyFawkes I really feel for you and your experience dealing with VFS, I quite agree about the local representatives, here in Chiang Mai they were very helpful and courteous too. It is shocking that the only way forward for you was to get on a plane to Bangkok and also that you will have to do the same again in the near future.

The VFS website is definitely the issue and is not fit for purpose. I had the same issue regarding the password last year where you get stuck in a loop of continually resetting it and then the system telling you it is wrong. This I found out to be a major bug in that the password needs to be 9 characters or more in length BUT it allows you set set the initial password of 8 characters or less and doesn't tell you when the attempted login subsequently fails! I wasted a lot of time over this and also stressed out because the help is non-existent. I emailed VFS last year about the bug and it looks like this has been totally ignored. 

There appears to be a lot of other frustrated users of this awful service, I'm contemplating the best way forward to get UKVI to take action as they are presently ignoring all the negative feedback..

[digbeth]

At least for Australia, you can lodge an application for online visa and upload directly with Australian Immigration, VFS is only involved in collecting biometrics.

 

To be fair, the US visa service that is not run by VFS is no better in online web  design, not supporting such thngs like / character in address that many in the rest of the world use

[GarryP]

On 1/29/2020 at 4:19 PM, GarryP said:

Sounds like hell. I'll pay them to do it instead. 

Well actually I didn't. I uploaded all my wife's docs and went in for the interview on Monday, 24 Feb. Only 85 Baht for SMS, which my wife agreed to before asking me. 

[Jip99]

On 2/1/2020 at 6:29 AM, digbeth said:

At least for Australia, you can lodge an application for online visa and upload directly with Australian Immigration, VFS is only involved in collecting biometrics.

 

To be fair, the US visa service that is not run by VFS is no better in online web  design, not supporting such thngs like / character in address that many in the rest of the world use

 

 

The same is effectively true for UK Visas if you upload yourself. The applicant just takes in passport, copy passport ID and Checklist - then provides biometrics.

 

 

Little different to Australia except that the Oz system is superior.

[theoldgit]

40 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

The same is effectively true for UK Visas if you upload yourself. The applicant just takes in passport, copy passport ID and Checklist - then provides biometrics.

 

 

Little different to Australia except that the Oz system is superior.

Given that both the Australian and UK Visa Application Centres VFS are contracted to operate them by the respective Governments, and one Centre appears to be well run and the other one not so, we could be forgiven for thinking that one contract is monitored more robustly than the other.

[Jip99]

1 hour ago, theoldgit said:

Given that both the Australian and UK Visa Application Centres VFS are contracted to operate them by the respective Governments, and one Centre appears to be well run and the other one not so, we could be forgiven for thinking that one contract is monitored more robustly than the other.

 

Fair point, although VfS are only used by Australian Immigration to collect biometrics; there is no other involvement with the application. Everything is uploaded on Immiaccount - the Immigration department's own system.

 

Stating the obvious, the UK process would be equally efficient if they adopted the Aussie uploading system.

[naboo]

I've used VFS for my wife's UK visits three times now. Each time they have made it more difficult to complete the admin of the application. The last time was 4 months ago.

 

My job involves a lot of database work, through a web interface and directly though the client application. I'm not an IT expert, but I'm pretty proficient. The uploading of documents to their website took hours.

 

The categories they have do not match what you'd expect. They don't let you upload more than something ridiculously small like 2MB at a time and each document you upload leads to you being kicked out and have to navigate through their painful website back to the upload page. They then chop your PDFs up and the process of checking to see what is still there (some stuff gets deleted) regularly crashes the browser.

 

The web facility has, no doubt, been developed to encourage people to hand over 500B for the upload service. And the 85B fee for SMS service, which my wife was told was essential to collect her visa, is a scam that breaks VFS's contract.

 

How Home Office makes millions a week from outsourcing visas to Dubai-based firm accused of exploitation

[sampson]

This past week I have helped out two elderly gentlemen doing the application process (I mean the VFS part of the process) on behalf of their partners.  

 

The website is a shambles, in both cases on their own devices the website simply froze at various points of the process and they couldn't even get to the point of booking an appointment.  By froze, I mean the options to continue were in Orange but you couldn't click them.   One time we did actually get to the appointment part but it froze again, nothing works, going back, refreshing the page, all options simply lead to nowhere.

 

Eventually I got them both over the line but we could not even contemplate scanning documents as the website was not able to even book an appointment for several days. they'd followed the VFS advice of using Google Chrome and deleting cookies/cache but it didn't work (sometimes 3/4/5 days of waiting in between replies).  It's pretty embarrassing this is the official process to get a visa to visit the UK.  The process should work on any remotely up to date browser every time.  This is 2020, for 2 people across 4 devices and multiple browsers to experience the same issues is not a user error.   The service is not fit for purpose

 

 

[theoldgit]

13 hours ago, naboo said:

How Home Office makes millions a week from outsourcing visas to Dubai-based firm accused of exploitation

Could you possible expand on that claim?

[naboo]

4 hours ago, theoldgit said:

Could you possible expand on that claim?

You quoted a link. Click on it and see it expand.

[stouricks]

On 1/29/2020 at 2:47 PM, theoldgit said:

they pay VFS for the service, so how are they making a killing?

No, the CUSTOMER pays for VFS service via their payment, IN DOLLARS, for the Visa. Nothing is free.

[Just Weird]

On 1/29/2020 at 2:47 PM, theoldgit said:

You say you "gather that they [UKVI] are actually making a killing from the subcontracting out of the service to VFS Global", where did you gather that from and how are they making a killing, they pay VFS for the service, so how are they making a killing?

Maybe from the money they are saving by not having to pay 'UK' staff to do that work?  If it was costing them money there'd be no reason to contract out the work to VFS.

[theoldgit]

50 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

Maybe from the money they are saving by not having to pay 'UK' staff to do that work?  If it was costing them money there'd be no reason to contract out the work to VFS.

 

If you mean UK based staff, they've never been employed to receive visa applications.

When visa applications were deposited at the Embassy, locally employed staff received the applcations and they were processed by locally employed ECO's or ECO's on secondment from the UK, that continued until decision making was moved to India, where ECO's were still locally employed or on secondment.
A Visa Applicantion Centre was initially set up in Regent House near Ratchadamri BTS to save applicants having to queue up out the Embassy every morning.
The Visa Application Centre was moved to its current location some years ago with VFS being contracted to receive applications on behalf of the UKVI, in it's various guises.
The cost of running the Centre is included in the application fee, it's never been a case of making money, the theory was to make the service more efficient and cost effective. 
So, no, the UKVI are not making a killing as you imply, they are, in theory at least, keeping costs down and making the process more efficient. 

[theoldgit]

1 hour ago, naboo said:

You quoted a link. Click on it and see it expand.

No, it's your link, it's simply a claim from the press which has been posted before, maybe you would like to justify the newspapers conclusions.

[naboo]

56 minutes ago, theoldgit said:

No, it's your link, it's simply a claim from the press which has been posted before, maybe you would like to justify the newspapers conclusions.

Open the link, the article justifies its conclusions. Feel free to object to the arguments made.

[Just Weird]

17 hours ago, theoldgit said:

it's never been a case of making money, the theory was to make the service more efficient and cost effective. 
So, no, the UKVI are not making a killing as you imply, they are, in theory at least, keeping costs down and making the process more efficient. 

I know that, and I didn't say that they were trying to make money, never mind imply that they were "making a killing"!   Someone else stated that, I just responded.

[Medicine Man]

https://www.ukvi-complaints.homeoffice.gov.uk

 

Folks,  the link to lodge complaints with UKVI. I suggest we use it to try and get this shoddy service changed. 

[Medicine Man]

An update,

UKVI bounce you back to VFS to lodge a complaint with them!

 

"Thank you for your email correspondence where you have raised a complaint about the handling of an Entry Clearance application by our commercial partner, VFS or TLS

 

In order for VFS to review its handling of your complaint matter, please refer your complaint to VFS at: https://www.vfsglobalcustomerexperience.com/CMS/Complaint/Create?Mission=UKVI.

 

The web link explains how you can track the progress of your complaint and also escalate the matter if you remain dissatisfied with the reply you receive.  If, once VFS or TLS has completed its internal complaints process, you still remain dissatisfied you can submit your complaint to us at: [email protected].  Please ensure that you provide a copy of the replies provided by VFS or TLS in relation to your concerns."

 

I just need to keep at it...