UK Visit Visa processing moves to the UK

[theoldgit]

Whilst it hasn't been officially announced yet, I understand that the decision making process for UK Visit Visas transferred from New Delhi to Sheffield last week.

I'm led to believe that in due course the application processing will move to Croydon, where there is already a large UKVI presence.
As applications are already automatically forwarded to the appropriate decision making centre, as are the supporting documents, and will still be considered by directly employed UKVI staff, there shouldn't, in theory, be any changes to the turn around times.
Visa vingettes will be attached to successful applicants passports in Bangkok, as they are now.   

[theoldgit]

Forum members may be interested in reading the report of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, published today, into the Home Office's Network Consolidation Programme and "onshoring" of processing and decision making to the UK, the transfer of applications from Thailand back to the UK is part of that process. 

 

ICIBI An inspection of the Home Office's Network Consolidation Programme

[Jip99]

That should reduce some of the unfounded and unnecessary racist remarks on here!!

[Gweiloman]

1 minute ago, Jip99 said:

That should reduce some of the unfounded and unnecessary racist remarks on here!!

No no no no. Do you realise how many non-whites work there? Lol

[rasg]

At least the upload of documents should run better if they are using UK servers.

[brewsterbudgen]

I think this should be considered as good news, although objectively it shouldn't make any difference.  

[SantiSuk]

I thought Boris was into promoting business opportunities 'oop north'. More jobs in Croydon doth not compute! If the government can't get this right for their own employees ......

[transam]

8 minutes ago, SantiSuk said:

I thought Boris was into promoting business opportunities 'oop north'. More jobs in Croydon doth not compute! If the government can't get this right for their own employees ......

Maybe understandable accents came into the equation...????

[sandyf]

On 2/6/2020 at 9:22 PM, Jip99 said:

That should reduce some of the unfounded and unnecessary racist remarks on here!!

I doubt that very much. I am in the middle of my 9th application and by far the worst to date. This new process just screams hostility at you and appears to be designed to deter applications, what is more racist than that.

I started on Saturday and after ploughing through the application was directed to the VFS system but nothing worked, gave up. Tried again on Sunday but still the same so sent an email to the helpline and about mid day Monday got an automated response from the helpline suggesting I clear the cache, cookies and history. I did all that and it was still the same so sent another email to the helpline, all i got back this time was a longer automated response saying effectively the same thing plus what should happen once you get onto the VFS system, about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. It was fairly obvious that it had been written by someone not in full command of the English language.

I messed about with another browser to no avail and then thought about trying it on my phone, and that brought up the application. I went back to the computer and could now see the application, went on to the documents and surprise surprise that didn't work, packed up in disgust.

Tried the documents again today and still the same, when you click to upload documents the page just refreshes itself. Not sure where to go from here, any suggestions.

 

It is fairly obvious the software is not as robust as it should be and not in the right order, four days now and not able to book appointment as that comes after the documents. Should be before and you could deal with the documents while waiting for appointment, the way it used to be.

Strikes me they should be looking at the sharp end rather than who makes the decisions.

[sandyf]

On 2/7/2020 at 1:59 AM, rasg said:

At least the upload of documents should run better if they are using UK servers.

It doesn't work that way. The document upload is on the VFS site, not gov.uk.

 

They say that you do not have to pay if you can prove the site is not working. How do you prove a button is unresponsive, there is no error message.

[theoldgit]

1 hour ago, SantiSuk said:

I thought Boris was into promoting business opportunities 'oop north'. More jobs in Croydon doth not compute! If the government can't get this right for their own employees ......

The various immigration departments already have a large presence in Croydon. 

[Jip99]

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

I doubt that very much. I am in the middle of my 9th application and by far the worst to date. This new process just screams hostility at you and appears to be designed to deter applications, what is more racist than that.

I started on Saturday and after ploughing through the application was directed to the VFS system but nothing worked, gave up. Tried again on Sunday but still the same so sent an email to the helpline and about mid day Monday got an automated response from the helpline suggesting I clear the cache, cookies and history. I did all that and it was still the same so sent another email to the helpline, all i got back this time was a longer automated response saying effectively the same thing plus what should happen once you get onto the VFS system, about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. It was fairly obvious that it had been written by someone not in full command of the English language.

I messed about with another browser to no avail and then thought about trying it on my phone, and that brought up the application. I went back to the computer and could now see the application, went on to the documents and surprise surprise that didn't work, packed up in disgust.

Tried the documents again today and still the same, when you click to upload documents the page just refreshes itself. Not sure where to go from here, any suggestions.

 

It is fairly obvious the software is not as robust as it should be and not in the right order, four days now and not able to book appointment as that comes after the documents. Should be before and you could deal with the documents while waiting for appointment, the way it used to be.

Strikes me they should be looking at the sharp end rather than who makes the decisions.

 

 

I doubt that your inherent negativity helped.

 

 

The 10th visa application for my missus took me less than 2.5 hours to complete - including time lost with being 'timed out' at the document upload stage.

 

The Visa was approved in less than a week.

 

 

[sandyf]

14 hours ago, Jip99 said:

 

 

I doubt that your inherent negativity helped.

 

 

The 10th visa application for my missus took me less than 2.5 hours to complete - including time lost with being 'timed out' at the document upload stage.

 

The Visa was approved in less than a week.

 

 

Thanks for that constructive comment.

I revisited the logic used in the redirect problem and saw a glimmer of light. I had a problem starting every function on the VFS website which got resolved by using another device and then going back on the computer. It would appear that my computer would not accept a page where any information had been pre populated, which makes me think it is something to do with the antivirus, I use Webroot.

Once the problem can be identified the solution becomes easy and you have demonstrated how intolerant those that have an easy passage can be.

 

The fact that the calendar is effectively free for all kind of appointments from tomorrow onwards, something I have never seen before, is a good indication that the visa will be processed quite quickly.

[Jip99]

On 2/18/2020 at 3:54 PM, theoldgit said:

The various immigration departments already have a large presence in Croydon. 

 

A friend sent me a copy of an automated email received today (his GF submitted an application yesterday) from VISAINFO.SHEFO that confirmed that her application had been received at the UK Decision Making Centre

[theoldgit]

25 minutes ago, Jip99 said:

 

A friend sent me a copy of an automated email received today (his GF submitted an application yesterday) from VISAINFO.SHEFO that confirmed that her application had been received at the UK Decision Making Centre

Yes, as I indicated earlier the decision making for visit visas has already moved to Sheffield, it will move to Croydon later in the year.

[sandyf]

On 2/20/2020 at 10:04 PM, theoldgit said:

Yes, as I indicated earlier the decision making for visit visas has already moved to Sheffield, it will move to Croydon later in the year.

"in theory, be any changes to the turn around times.
Visa vingettes will be attached to successful applicants passports in Bangkok, as they are now.   

 

The turn around times do seem to be the same, my wife's application was submitted just a couple of days earlier than last year and came back in exactly the same number of days.

The vingettes, although still done in Bangkok have changed appearance, no longer titled visa but UK Entry Clearance. Overall a significant move away from the EU format. 

[theoldgit]

28 minutes ago, sandyf said:

"in theory, be any changes to the turn around times.
Visa vingettes will be attached to successful applicants passports in Bangkok, as they are now.   

 

The turn around times do seem to be the same, my wife's application was submitted just a couple of days earlier than last year and came back in exactly the same number of days.

The vingettes, although still done in Bangkok have changed appearance, no longer titled visa but UK Entry Clearance. Overall a significant move away from the EU format. 

The other change is whilst vignettes are printed by UKVI locally employed staff in Bangkok, they’re actually affixed to passports by VFS staff and the passports never leave Trendy.

This of course now means that VFS staff are aware of the result of the application.

[sandyf]

On 3/10/2020 at 4:45 PM, theoldgit said:

The other change is whilst vignettes are printed by UKVI locally employed staff in Bangkok, they’re actually affixed to passports by VFS staff and the passports never leave Trendy.

This of course now means that VFS staff are aware of the result of the application.

VFS have always had a lot more say than many are aware.

In 2015 we needed 3 visas prior to leaving Thailand and decided to do Canada first being a bit of unknown. That was very straightforward dealt directly online with Canadian immigration,decision in 10 days. Unfortunately you had to send passport to VFS to get visa fixed, they screwed up the payment and took nearly a month to get it resolved, had to postpone the UK appointment a few times.

We collected the passport from the Canada office, not sealed or anything and went next door to the UK office. On submission my wife said to the staff that she hoped that there wouldn't be any problem like next door. They asked what she meant and she explained. The staff disappeared for a bit and then came back and wrote across the top of my wife's application "Urgent, Canada approved, Schengen still required" in big red letters. Passport came back by EMS free of charge within 7 days of submission.

We went to the Moroccan Embassy yesterday, different ball game altogether, very civilised and efficient, submitted about 11am and picked up passport at 3pm. Documents similar to Schengen but only 707 baht for single entry.

[roo860]

Received my wife's 3rd tourist visa last week, took 8 working days.